Children once turned away from public school as uneducable won a legal right to learn through two early-1970s court cases and a federal law. In parallel, a project that recorded textbooks for blinded veterans grew into reading machines and universal design. The shared lesson is to fix the environment, not the child.
Who's who
- Anne T. MacdonaldFounded in 1948 what became Recording for the Blind, now Learning Ally
- Joseph C. WaddyFederal judge whose 1972 Mills opinion rejected lack of funds as defense
- Ray KurzweilInventor of the 1976 Kurzweil Reading Machine
- David RoseNeuropsychologist and CAST co-founder, a principal architect of Universal Design for Learning
- Judy SingerAustralian sociologist who popularized the term neurodiversity
Where it happens
- Pennsylvania+2 more episodesSetting of the 1971 PARC case
- District of ColumbiaSetting of the 1972 Mills case
- New York City+13 more episodesWhere Recording for the Blind began in 1948
- Massachusetts+3 more episodesWhere CAST was founded in 1984
Timeline
- 1948Anne Macdonald founds the committee that records textbooks for blinded WWII veterans
- October 8, 1971Consent decree approved in PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- August 1, 1972Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia decided
- November 29, 1975PL 94-142 signed, guaranteeing a free appropriate public education
- 1976Kurzweil Reading Machine unveiled
- 1990PL 94-142 renamed IDEA; Americans with Disabilities Act passed
Still debated
Whether inclusion in regular classrooms or specialized settings serves a child better is unsettled, and some Deaf community members favor residential Deaf schools. Whether the neurodiversity frame fits every disability, and how the term arose, are also debated.