Twenty-five years ago this month, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Twenty-five years before that, the U. of I. was at the forefront of the movement to improve conditions and access for students with disabilities – and had been doing it for nearly two decades.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the ADA and the U. of I.’s national role in the fight for disabled rights, the U. of I.’s Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services, the College of Applied Health Sciences and other associated units are planning several campus events during the next year.
“The intent of these events is to commemorate how far we have come and to challenge the university community to think about the current and future needs of students with disabilities,” said Patricia Malik, DRES interim director.
Brad Hedrick, a former DRES director, said the U. of I. was working to improve access for students with disabilities as far back as 1948, when its Galesburg, Illinois, campus became a satellite serving veterans disabled in World War II.
“Most of the practices and accommodations that are widely used today were developed, piloted and implemented at Illinois,” he said. “The seminal work that led to national architectural standards, for example, was done at Illinois.”
Timothy Nugent, the first DRES director, is credited for leading Illinois to its status as a national leader for disabled access, but it was not an easy haul for the then-24-year-old graduate student.
Nugent’s uphill fight was against the era’s prevailing attitudes of the time, held by both the public and the medical profession, that those with spinal cord injuries were incapable of leading productive lives or even fending for themselves.
Nugent started out offering his students new activities like wheelchair basketball, swimming and other sports, and noted the positive psychological effects on the participants.
“The medical profession thought that a person with a spinal cord injury would live three months to three years. That was their prognosis at that time,” Nugent said. “That’s one of the reasons I was considered such a maverick, because I didn’t believe that. I knew after a month that these guys needed something else, something to give vent to their emotions, something to give them personal satisfaction, (a sense) of mastering a skill.”
The university allowed Nugent to move his program to the Urbana campus after Galesburg was closed, but its new home included five uninsulated tar-paper shacks that were part of the Parade Ground Units, a collection of temporary housing units just north of Memorial Stadium.
It took eight years for the university to offer funding. Until then, the program had been funded by the Veterans Administration, the Illinois Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, various grants, and through ticket sales from games and exhibitions by wheelchair sports teams.
Even while Nugent and his staff members were working to develop the program on campus, they were initiating and supervising research that would have an effect well beyond its borders.
One example was the “ramp that led to nowhere,” on which researchers sought to find the ideal length and incline for persons with varying degrees of disability. Other research dealt with numerous other aspects of building design and accessibility, and Nugent would then play a leading role on the committee that would issue national standards in 1961 for making buildings accessible and usable by people with physical disabilities.
Research from the program also laid the groundwork for later legislation, from the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Some credit the program as being the birthplace of the disability rights movement.
DRES continues to develop other facilities and services that cover a range of disabilities and accessibility issues.
In 1981, it opened Beckwith Hall, improving on an earlier housing program for students with severe physical disabilities who required daily personal care assistance. In 2010, the Beckwith program and its students moved into Timothy J. Nugent Hall, a new residence hall constructed not far from where the program’s early tar-paper shacks once stood.
The latest chapter in the Illinois legacy is the Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education, now under construction.
Perhaps the most recent honor to Nugent’s legacy comes in the story of Tatyana McFadden, born with spina bifida and paralyzed from the waist down, who graduated from the U. of I. in 2013. That same year, she also became the first athlete to win four major marathons in a single year, taking the women’s wheelchair division at London, Boston, Chicago and New York City.
Times and dates for ADA anniversary-related activities will be announced soon.
WHAT IS THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT?
Passed almost unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act is the first comprehensive civil rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability, including all aspects of employment, in access to public services such as transportation and state and local government programs and services, and access to goods and services provided by businesses such as restaurants, stores, hotels and other types of businesses such as law offices and medical facilities.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Americans with Disabilities Act and the ADA National Network