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Exhibit honors 25th anniversary of the ADA’s signing

A new exhibit, “Nothing About Us, Without Us: The 25th anniversary of the ADA,” opens tonight in the Bernice Lane Brown Gallery in Doe Library. The exhibit, drawn from the Bancroft Library's extensive collection of artifacts and photos on the disabled and the disability rights movement, will be up through Feb. 17.

By Public Affairs

Judy Heumann, Ed Roberts at sit-in
Judy Heumann and Ed Roberts join a 28-day San Francisco protest over housing discrimination in 1977.

September 17, 2015

Twenty-five years have passed since the ADA — Americans With Disabilities Act — was signed into law. What better place than UC Berkeley to honor the anniversary with a major exhibit on the history of disability and disability activism?

Berkeley, after all, is widely credited as a birthplace of the disability rights movement, and the Bancroft Library houses one of the largest existing historical collections on the disabled and the activism that led to the ADA. 

Images and artifacts from that collection make up “Nothing About Us, Without Us: The 25th anniversary of the ADA,” an exhibit that  opens today in the Bernice Layne Brown Gallery in Doe Library. A reception honoring both the act, the activism and the exhibit will take place tonight in the Morrison Library in Doe. The exhibit will be up through Feb. 17.

Below are some of the images on display. Pictured in the first photo are Judy Heumann and Ed Roberts, two UC Berkeley graduates who pioneered disability rights activism on campus and nationwide. (Article continues after slideshow.)

Judy Heumann, Ed Roberts at sit-in
Judy Heumann and Ed Roberts join a 28-day San Francisco protest over housing discrimination in 1977.
Easter Seals poster child
An Easter Seals poster child.
Berkeley Institute for the Blind and Deaf
The Berkeley Institute for the Blind and Deaf, now the Clark Kerr campus, was an example of how the disabled were treated in the 19th century.
early wheelchair
An early wheelchair.
beggar card
A disabled beggar card, common in the late 1800s.
disability protest, 1987
Access to transportation was the issue in a Union Square protest in 1990.
Kitty Cone, an organizer of the 1977 housing discrimination protest in San Francisco
Disability rights movement slogan declared community empowerment.
George H.W. Bush signs the ADA
President George H.W. Bush signs the ADA on July 26, 1990.

The exhibit chronicles the history of disabled people before the disability rights movement, when non-disabled people assumed control of all decisions about the less-abled in the community. The disability rights movement was very much about the disabled asserting the right to lead independent lives and make decisions for themselves; a button on display in the exhibit carries a popular slogan: “Nothing about us, without us.”

Tonight’s opening reception runs from 5-7 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library.

Related information:

UC Berkeley offers a minor in disability studies.

The Disabled Students Program offers undergraduates a range of services designed to ensure full access to the campus.

Berkeley Law students this week won a national disability law competition.