Not long ago American society relegated people with disabilities to broad forms of segregation. It wasn’t until the 1960s that U.S. universities began to admit students with significant disabilities. The first federal program for people with disabilities was enacted less than 100 years ago, with the Social Security Act, and many were institutionalized well into the mid-20th century.
This story is part ofColorado at 150. Each Fifty for 150 story focuses on an event that helped define Colorado over 150 years of statehood. Newsline is publishing one Fifty for 150 story every weekday in reverse chronological order until the sesquicentennial, Aug. 1, when the final of 50 stories, about the declaration of statehood, will appear.
Disability rights have come a long way since then. A major turning point was the summer of 1978, when a bold group of Colorado activists took to the streets of Denver…