PBS Documentary On Disability Rights Movement To Air Thursday Night
(Independent Lens)
October 24, 2011
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS– [Excerpt] People with disabilities are one of the largest minorities in the United States. But for most of American history, they occupied a sub-class of millions without access to everyday things most citizens take for granted: schools, apartment buildings, public transportation, and more. Some were forcibly sterilized under state laws. Others were committed to horrifying institutions where they were left and forgotten.
After World War II, however, things began to change, thanks to a small group of determined people with an unwavering determination to live their lives like anyone else, and to liberate all disabled Americans of the limitations their government refused to accommodate.
Lives Worth Living traces the development of consciousness of these pioneers who realized that in order to change the world they needed to work together. Through demonstrations and inside legislative battles, the disability rights community secured equal civil rights for all people with disabilities. Thanks to their efforts, tens of millions of people's lives have been changed.
This film is an oral history, told by the movement's mythical heroes themselves, and illustrated through the use of rare archival footage.
Entire article:
Lives Worth Living
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/lives-worth-living/film.html
Related:
Documentary details disability rights movement (by WLS-TV disability rights reporter Karen Meyer)
http://bit.ly/ptmg4F
