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Authors Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe were advocates for individuals with disabilities. Jonathan Swift was a firm believer in charity. With this, he left his money to establish a hospital for individuals with disabilities. Daniel Defore wrote a book entitled "An Essay Among Projects" where he proposed different options for serving and housing individuals with disabilities. Link text
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Jean Marc was a Chief Physician at The National Institution for Deaf-Mutes in Paris. In 1800, a young boy was found in the woods of France. This young boy was deemed an "incurable idiot" by Pinel. Itard took the young boy, Victor, and used a series of interventions to educate him.
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Laura was determined deaf and blind at age two due to Scarlett fever. In 1837 Laura moved into Perkins Institute for Blind and was tutored by Howe. With repetition, he taught her names using raised print and eventually used fingerspelling. This opened the door for individuals with disabilities in the public school system.
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He was a student of Salpetriere and wrote the first differentiation of a mental illness (dementia) and an intellectual disability (amentia).
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Itard recommended Seguin, his student, to work with another boy similar to Victory (The Wild Boy). In 18 months, his student was able to write, speak, and count. Seguin believed a disability could be overcome by an approach called the "Physiological Method". Link text
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Howe and Mann were traveling across Europe and touring institutes for the blind and deaf. Howe viewed the education for individuals with disabilities as a cause for civil libertarians. With this, he pressured Massachusets into opening the first "public school for idiots" and issued his first report in 1847 titled "On the Causes of Idiocy".
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Edward Seguin moved to the United States and translated his book "Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method" into English. This text became the standard for institutions established in the late 1800s.
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The California Supreme Court ruled that the principal of a school could deny the students education if the student was unable to perform at the lowest acceptance of their grade level.
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Together they developed a measure of intelligence that differentiates students that are successful and those that are not. The goal was for the students that were not successful to receive appropriate support (not to rank students based on scores).
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In 1906 he was the director of a psychology laboratory in New Jersey Training School for the Feeble Minded Boys and Girls. This was one of the first laboratories housed outside of a university. He implemented the use of the Binet-Simon Intelligence scale to American Psychologists.
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Goddard traveled to Europe and learned about the Binet-Simon Scale. When he returned to the United states he had it translated into English. It was used on inmates and underwent two revisions. In 1911 it was standardized and used adopted by institutions.
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President Kennedy had a brother with intellectual disabilities. This resulted in a President's Panel on Mental Retardation. In 1962 this panel released 97 recommendations for funding streams that benefit individuals with disabilities.
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Parents began fighting for the free and appropriate education of all students. In the 1950s the Kennedy administration began to enhance this movement. By 1975, P.L. 94-142 was passed and there were around 218,000 members and 1,700 state and local chapters in the association (now called The Arc of the United States).
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This Act was passed in 1975 and requires students to be able to receive grants for higher education. It requires teachers to receive training and is made to combat all inequalities.
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This act requires that all students with disabilities be educated with nondisabled peers unless the severity of the disability requires supplementary aids and services that are unavailable in a general education classroom.
