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Campus for Disables Veterens Opens
In the 1947-48 academic year, a former Veterans Administration Hospital in Galesburg, Illinois, was converted into a satellite campus of the University of Illinois. This action was necessary to accommodate the many WW II veterans returning to the United States, who were seeking to utilize GI Bill funding to earn college degrees. -
Delta Sigma Omicron Founded
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Breaking Ground
Illinois is first post-secondary institution to provide a support service program enabling students with disabilities to attend. -
Galesburg Campus Closes
in 1949 it was decided that the Galesburg campus would be closed. At that time, the first act of self-advocacy by University of Illinois students with disabilities occurred, as they loaded into several cars and set off for Springfield to request that Governor Stevenson intervene to stop the closure. This event was so significant that on March 24, 1949, the headline of the Citizen's Tribune of Springfield read, "Crippled Students Fight College Closing, Demand Branch at Galesburg be Maintained." C -
Rehabilitation Program to UIUC
A group of self-reliant, self-advocating students with disabilities took their show on the road to Urbana-Champaign. Their goal in traveling to the main campus was to demonstrate that with minimal architectural and personal assistance, they could successfully negotiate the campus, and that they were more than equal to the challenge of the institution's academic programs. As a result of their day of demonstrations and enlightenment, the U of I rehabilitation program was begrudgingly granted prov -
Rehabilitation Act
A profound and historic shift in disability public policy occurred in 1973 with the passage of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Section 504, which banned discrimination on the basis of disability by recipients of federal funds, was modelled after previous laws which banned race, ethnic origin and sex based discrimination by federal fund recipients. For the first time, the exclusion and segregation of people with disabilities was viewed as discrimination. Previously, it had been assum -
White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals
According to the conference overview published in 1977, the mission of the White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals was comprised of three goals: to provide a national assessment of problems and potentials of individuals with mental or physical handicaps; to generate a national awareness of these problems and potentials; and to make recommendations to the President and Congress which, if implemented, will enable individuals with handicaps to live their lives independently, with dign
