3500
BC
The
Rig-Veda, an ancient sacred poem of India, is said to be the first written
record of a prosthesis. Written in Sanskrit between 3500 and 1800 B.C., it
recounts the story of a warrior, Queen Vishpla, who lost her leg in battle,
was fitted with an iron prosthesis, and returned to battle.
355
BC
Aristotle said those "born deaf become senseless and incapable of
reason."
218
BC
Marcus
Sergius, a Roman general who led his legion against Carthage (presently Tunis)
in the Second Punic War, sustained 23 injuries and a right arm amputation. An
iron hand was fashioned to hold his shield and he was able to go back to
battle. He was denied a chance to be a priest because one needed two normal
hands.
1500
Girolamo Cardano
(1501-1576) was the first physician to recognize the ability of the deaf to
reason.
1508
Gotz von Berlichingen,
German mercenary knight, had a reputation as a Robin Hood, protecting the
peasants from their oppressors. In 1508 he lost his right arm in the Battle of
Landshut. Gotz had two prosthetic iron hands made for himself. These were
mechanical masterpieces. Each joint could be moved independently by setting
with the sound hand and relaxed by a release and springs. The hand could
pronate and supinate and was suspended with leather straps.
1575
Lasso, a Spanish lawyer,
concluded that those who learn to speak are no longer dumb and should have
rights to progeniture.
1616
G. Bonifacio published a
treatise discussing sign language, "Of The Art of Signs."
1696
Pieter Andriannszoon
Verduyn (verduuin), a Dutch Surgeon, introduces the first non-locking, below
knee prosthesis. It bears a striking similarity to today's joint and corset
prosthesis.
1755
Samuel Heinicke
establishes first oral school for the deaf in the world in Germany.
Charles Michel Abbe del' Epee establishes first free school for the deaf in the world, Paris, France.
1760
Thomas Braidwood opened
first school for the deaf in England.
1777
Arnoldi, a German
pastor, believed education of the deaf should begin as early as four years.
1784
Abba Silvestri opened
first school for the deaf in Italy in Rome.
1790
In Paris, Pinel
unshackles people with mental illnesses.
1805
Rush's Medical
Inquiries and Observations is the first modern attempt to explain mental
disorders.
1809
Louis Braille is born
(04-Jan-1809) at Coupvray, near Paris. At three years of age an accident
deprived him of his sight, and in 1819 he was sent to the Paris Blind School -
which was originated by Valentin Hauy.
1815
Thomas H. Gallaudet
departed the America for Europe to seek methods to teach the deaf.
1816
Laurent Clerc, a Deaf
French man, returns to America with Thomas H. Gallaudet.
1817
Connecticut Asylum for
the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, the first permanent
school for the deaf in America, opened in Hartford on April 15.
1822
American School for the
Deaf adds vocational training to curriculum.
1829
Louis Braille invents
the raised point alphabet that has come to be known as Braille.
1830
Alice Cogswell dies.
1846
American Annals of the
Deaf began publication at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford.
1851
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
died on September 10.
1854
Galladuet Monument was
dedicated in Hartford.
1858
Laurent Clerc retired
from teaching at age 73.
1860
The Braille system was
introduced to America and was taught with some success at the St. Louis School
for the Blind.
1861
The American Civil War
(1861 - 1865)- 30,000 amputations in the Union Army alone.
1864
08-apr-1864: Congress
authorized the board of directors of the Columbus Institution to grant college
degrees; President Lincoln signed charter on April 8.
1872
Alexander G. Bell opened
speech school for teachers of the deaf in Boston.
1876
Alexander Bell got
patent for his telephone invention; exhibited it at Philadelphia Exposition
that summer.
1887
Women admitted to the
National Deaf-Mute College (now Gallaudet).
1889
National Association of
the Deaf unveiled memorial to Thomas H. Gallaudet at National Deaf-Mute
College (now Galladuet University).
1894
National Deaf-Mute
College became Gallaudet College.
1916
British Braille became
the English language standard (although New York Point and American Braille
were both being used in the U.S.) because of the wealth of code already
available in the British empire.
1921
The American Foundation
for the Blind (AFB), a non-profit organization recognized as Helen Keller's
cause in the United States, is founded.
1935
A group in New York City
called the League for the
Physically Handicapped formed to protest discrimination by the Works
Progress Administration (WPA). The league's 300 people -- most disabled by
polio and cerebral palsy -- all had been turned down for WPA jobs. The Home
Relief Bureau of New York City was supposed to forward their job requests to
the WPA, but was stamping all their applications 'PH' for physically
handicapped, as a signal to the WPA not to give these people jobs. Members of
the league sat in at the Home Relief Bureau for nine days; and went to the WPA
headquarters and held a weekend sit-in there. They eventually generated a
couple thousand jobs nationwide.
In the United States, Dr. Alexis Carrel, a nobel prize winner who had been on the staff of the Rockefeller Institute since its inception, publishes his book "Man the Unknown." In it he suggests the removal of the mentally ill and the criminal by small euthanasia institutions equipped with suitable gases.
1939
Amid the outbreak of
World War II Hitler orders widespread "mercy killing" of the sick and
disabled. The Nazi euthanasia program was code-named Aktion T4
and was instituted to eliminate "life unworthy of life."
1940
(1940-1944) In Nazi
Germany 908 patients are transferred from Schoenbrunn, an institution for
retarded and chronically ill patients, to the euthanasia "installation" at
Eglfing-Haar to be gassed. A monument to the victims now stands in the
courtyard at Schoenbrunn.
1941
(03-Aug-1941) In Nazi
Germany a Catholic bishop, Clemens von Galen, delivers a sermon in Munster
Cathedral attacking the Nazi euthanasia program calling it "plain murder."
(23-Aug-1941) Hitler suspends Aktion T4, which had accounted for nearly a hundred thousand deaths by this time. However the euthanasia program quietly continued using drugs and starvation instead of gassings.
1953
Ed Roberts, "father of
the independent living movement," contracts polio.
1970
Ed Roberts and his peers
at Cowell (UC Berkeley Health Center) formed a group called the Rolling Quads.
The Rolling Quads form the Disabled Students' Program on the U.C. Berkeley campus.
1971
Ed Roberts and his
associates establish a Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, CA for
the community at large. The center was originally in a roach-infested
two-bedroom apartment until the Rehabilitation Administration gave them a
$50,000 grant in 1972.
1974
Disabled Women's
Coalition founded at UC Berkeley by Susan Sygall and Deborah Kaplan. Other
women involved include Kitty Cone, Corbett O'Toole, and Susan Schapiro. The
coalition ran support groups, held disabled women's retreats, wrote for
feminist publications, and lectured on women and disability.
National Association of the Deaf did census of Deaf Americans; counted 13.4 million hearing and 1.8 million deaf Americans.
1976
In his election
campaign, candidate Jimmy Carter promised that his administration would sign
regulations that had received extensive input from affected agencies and the
disability community nationwide, and which had taken years to finalize.
Federal Communications Commission authorized reserving Line 21 on television sets for closed captions.
1977
(01-Jan-1977) When
Carter's administration took office, the Health, Education, and Welfare
Department immediately began revising and watering down the regulations, with
no input from the disability community.
(05-Apr-1977) A group of disabled people takes over the San Francisco offices of the Health, Education, and Welfare Department to protest Secretary Joseph Califano's refusal to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504. No one expected to live there for almost a month, but they did. The action became the longest sit-in of a federal building to date. The historic demonstrations were successful and the 504 regulations were finally signed.
(04-May-1977) The Section 504 regulations were issued.
1980-83
Sears, Roebuck and Co. began selling decoders for closed captioning for
television.
National Disabled Women's Educational Equity Project based at DREDF is established and run by Corbett O'Toole. They did the first national survey on disability and gender, wrote No More Stares, and conducted regional training programs for younger disabled women in Pocatello, Eugene and Minneapolis.
National Disabled Women's Educational Equity Project puts on the first national Conference on Disabled Women's Educational Equity in Bethesda, MD.
Harilyn Rousso sets up the Networking Project on Disabled Women and Girls at the YWCA in New York City. She produces a book and film titled, "Loud, Proud and Female."
1983
(October) National ADAPT
action for accessible transportation in Denver, CO at the American Public
Transit Association (APTA) Convention.
1988
"Deaf President Now"
protest at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. First deaf president at
Gallaudet: Dr. I. King Jordan
(July - Sept) Greyhound across the nation - ADAPT takes on the inaccessible Greyhound buses.
1989
(September) Opening of a
memorial museum for the victims of "euthanasia" and "Special Treatment 14 f
13" at a psychiatric hospital in Bernburg, Germany.
1990
(March) ADAPT action -
Washington DC, Wheels of Justice
(26-July-1990) ADA signing ceremony at the White House.
The Secretary of Transportation, Sam Skinner, finally issues regulations mandating lifts on buses.
1993
(15-Feb-1993) Wade
Blank, one of the founders of ADAPT, dies trying to save his son from
drowning.
Sewering, an SS-member and lung specialist in Germany who had sent a 14-year old girl with TB to Elfing-Haar to be gassed, becomes president-elect of the World Physicians Association. A storm of protest forces him to resign.
1995
The struggle for the
rights of people with disabilities in Southern Africa took a giant leap
forward with the election and appointment to parliament, for the first time in
the history of the region, of two women disability leaders in South Africa and
Zimbabwe. The election of Maria Rantho early in 1995 to the government of
Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and of Ronah Moyo in April to the Robert
Mugabe government of Zimbabwe marked the beginning of an epoch in the history
of people with disabilities. Both the new parliamentarians admit they are
faced with an uphill struggle with legislators who are mostly ignorant of the
needs of people with disabilities. As for South African Federation of Disabled
People, this was a landmark victory. Rantho is SAFOD's vice-chairperson and
Moyo heads the women's wing of the Zimbabwe Federation of Disabled People.
Both women have proven to be tough fighters for human rights, having tested
their mettle in the forefront of the struggle. Ms. Rantho was sworn into
Parliament in February as part of ANC national list of candidates. She said
her first responsibility was to "ensure that human rights issues are debated
and upheld." Speaking for nearly six million people with disabilities, who
form 12 per cent of South Africa's entire population, she added, "All along
there has not been much said or done to protect the rights of people with
disabilities, and we needed to be represented by our own people."
(31-Aug-1995) The First International Symposium on Issues of Women with Disabilities is held in Beijing, China in conjunction with the Fourth World Conference on Women.
(26-Dec-1995) The organization of people with disabilities in Cuba (ACLIFM) hold their first international conference on disability rights in Havana, Cuba.
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