Amy said :
“ You can throw all kinds of money at something , and it ’ s not going to make it work if you ’ re just doing more of the same , which is sort of glorified babysitting . From that kind of money , you could buy the best behavioral consulting the world had to offer .”
Wanting to help people with IDD is not enough .
Bob Kafka is a disability activist . He works with ADAPT . He said :
“ Having philosophical values is fine , but where the rubber meets the road is how you ’ re going to implement it .”
Mobilizing against mistreatment
Society does not know what to do with someone like Zainab .
In the past , people with
Zainab Edwards goes to the Ice Den in Chandler , Arizona to practice her ice skating . ( Rick D ’ Elia ) disabilities were :
• Kept by themselves
• Made fun of
• Abused
Society learned more about disabilities through science and medicine .
Learning more does not mean people ’ s lives got better .
Dorothea Dix was an activist who lived in the 1800s . She wanted to make the lives of people with IDD and mental illness better .
She thought they should live in institutions run by the government .
Arizona ’ s State Asylum for the Insane opened in 1887 .
In the year 1912 , 375 people lived there . Some of the people who lived there had IDD .
Arizona wanted to build an institution just for people with IDD in the 1940s .
But many people spoke out about how bad institutions were . Some people who spoke out were :
• People who refused to fight during World War II . These people were sent to work in institutions instead .
• Families of people with IDD . These families formed the National Association for Retarded Citizens . This is now called the Arc .
The disability rights movement grew in the 1960s . President John F . Kennedy and his family supported the movement . President Kennedy had a sister named Rosemary . Rosemary had IDD .
“ Christmas in Purgatory ” was a book of photos published in 1966 . It showed how bad living in an institution was .
In 1972 , a TV reporter named Geraldo Rivera did a story about Willowbrook State School . Willowbrook was an institution in New York . This story showed many people how bad it was to live in an institution . Read the rest of this article here .
This article was originally published in The Center for Public Integrity .
Read the original version of the story .
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