American Experience

PROTESTERS: A.D.A.

now!

A.D.A.

now!

A.D.A.

now!

A.D.A.

now!

Our time has come.

Pass this bill now!

(cheering) STENY HOYER: They couldn't be moved.

And Speaker Foley got very upset about it.

And he said to me, "This is just going too far."

But after you get by the "this is going too far," then you get to, "What are they saying?"

ANITA CAMERON: Civil rights aren't given.

You have to fight to get 'em and then you have to fight to keep 'em.

PROTESTERS: What do we get for 504?

PROTESTER: We feel like we'r building a real social movement.

It's the first really militant thing that disabled people have ever done.

MARY LOU BRESLIN: There were barriers every single step of the way.

JOHN WODATCH: The disability community had had enough.

ARLENE MAYERSON: In order to have equal opportunity, there had to be accommodations.

Everything was architecturally inaccessible virtually everywhere in the world.

The restrooms in my high school were not accessible.

So it wasn't possible to use the restroom during the day.

LAWRENCE CARTER: It was "out of sight, out of mind" as public policy.

CAMERON: And a lot of it was about money.

PAT WRIGHT: But we realized that people with disabilities could be a political force.

They weren't going to accep second-class status any longer.

WRIGHT: We decided to send a delegation to Washington.

CAMERON: I felt like, "Oh, my gosh.

We have to do this to make y'all see."

CYNDI JONES: She's a cute little kid, and she's crawling up those steps.

WOMAN: Do you want to take a rest?

JENNIFER KEELAN-CHAFFINS: I'll take all night if I have to!

JONES: And you could see the-- oh, I got goosebumps-- you could see the future of America.

GEORGE H.W.

BUSH: I now lift my pen and say let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.

(applauding) CARTER: For the first time in many people's lives, they were given the opportunity to dream.

I.

KING JORDAN It was a moment when I realized that life was going to change.