According to Associate Professor and Special Education Coordinator Scott Kupferman, “disability history is around us, wherever we are.”
Kupferman presented on the importance of examining disability history at the Disability Heritage Month Munch and Learn on Oct. 29. He focused on looking backwards on the progress made for disability rights in order to move forward into the future.
During the presentation, Kupferman passed around historical artifacts and articles related to disability history from his private collection. This included an advertisement for Cragmor Sanatorium, which was later bought as the beginning of the UCCS campus, pictures from different historical movements and design documents for early mobility aids.
According to Kupferman, disability history and access improvements often follow major wars, as veterans spearheaded early movements for disability rights and workplace accommodations.
The earliest documentation of disability and a workplace accommodation comes from an Indian proverb about a warrior who lost her leg in battle and returned to the battlefield with an iron prosthetic leg. “Disability dates back as far as people were around,” Kupferman said.
Kupferman spoke extensively on the advocacy of veterans post-World War I and World War II that culminated in the creation of early legislation that attempted to reintroduce people with disabilities into the workplace. These efforts later led to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 that established the rights of all Americans with disabilities.
Kupferman said that early efforts to “rehabilitate” people with disabilities not only focused on veterans, but also those that were blind. Perkins School for the Blind helped bring blind individuals into the workforce by training them to be piano teachers.
Simultaneously, efforts to school those who were blind and mute were often harmful. Kupferman mentioned the North Carolina School for the Deaf and Dumb from the Civil War Era (“Dumb” referring to those who were mute), noting that the terminology is outdated and offensive now.
Rather than attempting to help deaf individuals integrate into the workplace, there was a large focus on getting them to communicate “normally.” “The effort to teach the deaf how to speak … rather than teaching sign language, really trying to teach individuals who are deaf how to speak, was a really long push and a big focus of schools,” Kupferman said.
Kupferman also referenced the Ed Roberts Campus at UC Berkeley as an example of universal design, architecture focused on full accessibility. He demonstrated how the inclusion of disabled individuals in higher education and the workforce has evolved over time to create access.
He emphasized the importance of transitioning into adulthood for individuals with intellectual disabilities. “It’s not just school, it’s also work, it’s living independently,” Kupferman said.
Kupferman rejects the idea that a disability needs to be cured. “I’m not focused on, you know, fixing or curing. I’m really focused on fixing or curing the environment,” Kupferman said.
He reflected on how his experience growing up meant that he heard some of the same messages about something being wrong with him. “I had a pretty bad stutter in terms of like fluency. I actually came across some really early different material related to … fixing or curing your stutter or stammer,” Kupferman said.
As a research fellow at Apple, Kupferman has seen firsthand how technology can benefit those with disabilities. “Technology [can never] provide a complete solution, and technology can provide even more barriers, but there’s a lot of really neat work related to, you know, moving forward to use technology to remove barriers to access within society,” Kupferman said.
Looking towards the future, Kupferman wants to see access expanded from focusing on access for those with physical disabilities to those with intellectual disabilities as well. “We as a society still have a long [way] to go. There have been a lot of improvements, but … disability access overall still has a lot more to capture,” he said.
For more information on Disability Awareness Month or year-round engagement, the Division of Inclusive Culture and Belonging has more resources available.
Photo from The Scribe archives.