“Is anyone really against persons with disabilities?

” | Mobilizing Ideas 2019-11-14, 12)12 PM

Mobilizing Ideas
BY DAVID PETTINICCHIO | DECEMBER 10, 2012 · 11:06 AM

“Is anyone really against persons with disabilities?”

On Wednesday, Dec. 5th, I defended my dissertation which asked the following question: “Why is the U.S. an innovator in
disability rights?” Although I could not help but rethink my answer to this question in light of the Senate voting against ratifying
the U.N. disability treaty the day before, I still posit that the U.S. was an innovator on disability rights compared to other
western industrialized countries.

Without getting into the history of disability and disability rights in America, it is important to note that political entrepreneurs
played a critical role in the late 1960s and early 1970s in reframing disability as a minority group entitled to rights. Before the
late 1960s, the disability policy community – or what I consider a policy monopoly – was composed mainly of a few political
elites, health and rehabilitation processionals and incumbent groups (like March of Dimes and Easter Seals) which occupied
a stable but small part of the policy agenda. This policy monopoly was not particularly interested in promoting rights.
Through entrepreneurship and innovation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, rights-based language made its way into the
Rehabilitation Act which was originally intended as an amendment to extend already existing vocational rehabilitation policies
and programs. At this time, a nascent disability rights movement made use of this political opportunity to mobilize around a
new policy with rights-based language.

Ironically, the Convention was actually modeled around the American approach to disability rights. Collins, in an op-ed piece
in the New York Times, mentions Senator John Kerry’s position on the matter. Kerry “kept pointing out during the debate, this
is a treaty to make the rest of the world behave more like the United States.” But more importantly, the U.N. has no really
sanctioning capacity which is also why, in part, so many countries are signatories. Nonetheless, the Convention, while limited
in what it can do materially for persons with disabilities, it does have symbolic importance in that it is a way for nations to
declare their support for disability rights: something the U.S. government initiated forty years ago.

What is interesting here is that there was no clear opposing frame against disability rights-based legislation in the U.S. until it
became obvious that unlike other groups, rights for persons with disabilities would come with some cost. Thus, some
politicians would later use cost as a way to justify their opposition. But this too was problematic because it essentially implied
that extending rights was conditional on how cheap it was. Later with the ADA, some opponents framed their dissent around
the idea that the ADA was simply another form of regulating employers and limiting their rights. This was a fairly effective
frame, given that courts since the ADA have tended to rule in favor of employers. So how are detractors framing their position
today? There are seemingly two related frames. The first was best expressed by Rick Santorum, who claims that ratifying
the U.N. Convention would take away authority from parents (he is specifically referring to the part of the Convention that
states that “The best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”) Others have focused on the Convention as
posing a threat to U.S. autonomy and sovereignty. Whatever the case, Senators were quick to proclaim that this was not a
vote against persons with disabilities or their rights.

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2 responses to ““Is anyone really against persons with

disabilities?””
Pingback: The tortoise and the hare: institutions, policy and social change | Mobilizing Ideas

David Pettinicchio
September 1, 2014 at 7:26 AM

Dear friends and colleagues, check out a related post on this topic at OpenPop.org: Did the Americans with Disabilities
Act Help or Hurt People with Disabilities?

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