Body Politics: Longmore Institute's Emily Smith-Beitiks Discusses Americans with Disabilities Act

BACK STORY -- Protests in 10 cities across the U.S. were helped at Health, Education, and Welfare offices to demand the signing of 504 regulations on April 5, 1977. In San Francisco, disability rights activists occupied a federal building for nearly a month. Although protesters didn’t know it when they showed up in the morning, leaders in the movement planned to stay until they got that signature. Emily Smith-Beitiks collected oral histories from those involved in that protest. Smith-Beitiks is the associate director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University. She collected these oral histories as part of a project celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ADA. It’s called “Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights.” You can find a link to the exhibit on our website.