Milestones in the History of Intellectual Disability, 1900-2013

The inmates of this

What's in a name

Accepted clinical terms for intellectual disability include "imbecility," "feeble-mindedness," and "mental deficiency." Segregation & isolation are the norm. The popular belief is that intellectual disability is synonymous with poverty, sloth, crime and sexual profligacy.

• Dr. Benjamin Whitten, Superintendent, South Carolina Training School 1920

1904 First textbook about intellectual disability:

Martin Barr publishes Mental Defectives, the first text to suggest that hereditary factors play an important part in intellectual disability.

1907 Involuntary sterilization law:

Indiana becomes the first state to pass a sterilization law for people with intellectual disability held in state institutions.

1933

What's in a name: American Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded changes its name to the American Association on Mental Deficiency.

• G.B. Arnold, Superintendent, Virginia's Lynchburg State Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble-Minded, 1997
  Esterilized kayokeyes Enteral during the Great Depression. By 1937, a reported 27,860 people with intellectual disability have been forcibly sterilized.

1946

"Slaves or Patients?" An article detailing the poor conditions inside Maryland's Rosewood State Training School is published in The Catholic Worker.

• Gordon C. Zahn, The Catholic Worker, October 1946
  Twelve hundred patients, many of whom should be capable of ultimate return to society, are trapped there. . . . It should be to the shame of every person that such a situation can exist.

1967

The best way I can put it, it was like being in prison.--Former resident of Fairview Training Center in Salem, Oregon

1930-1950 Institution overcrowding:

Number of people with intellectual disability in state-funded institutions grew from around 60,000 in 1930 to nearly 140,000 in 1950.

• President John F. Kennedy, 1961 White House Statement on Martial Retardation
  That failure should be corrected.

Landmark court case:

Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania supports the right of all children with intellectual disabilities to a public education.

1972

The institutional census drops to less than 50,000.

• Geraldo Rivera, 1972
  Until somebody changes them.--Geraldo Rivera, 1972

1975 Separate is never equal:

President Gerald Ford signs into law the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, or PL 94-142 (now IDEA), compelling schools to provide full educational opportunities to all children with disabilities.

Image from author's personal collection.
From Dell EA [1917] Clinical studies in leisure medicine p. [123]. Boston, MA; Richard G. Baldger.
4 • From Smith JD, & Wemhoff ML [2012]. Who was Deborah Kalkall? Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 502; 604. Washington DC; American Association in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; reported by permission.
4 • Image from author's personal collection. From Dell EA [1917] Clinical studies in leisure medicine p. [55]. Boston, MA; Richard G. Baldger.
4 • From Habeer R. [1986]. A manual on terminology and classification of mental retardation. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 197; 1988. Washington DC; American Association in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; reported by permission.
4 • Honorable mention. Honoring Kentucky Henrice Reynolds' legacy in intellectual disability.

1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act is passed, protecting the civil rights of all people with disabilities.

979 Community inclusion:

The Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University issues The Community Imperative, a declaration affirming the rights of all people with disabilities to live in and be part of a community.

• Center for Human Policy, The Community Imperative, 1979
  In the fulfillment of fundamental human rights . . . all people, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, are entitled to community living.

1987

Willowbrook closes its doors.

1991 Self-advocacy soars:

Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), a national umbrella organization for self advocacy, is established at a conference in Nashville. Within two years, SABE has affiliated chapters in 37 states.