Forgotten chapter in fight for rights
In April 1977, for 26 days, a group of more than 100 people with disabilities occupied San Francisco’s federal building. They were there to lobby and push for a law that was one of the precursors of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As with so many stories that feature marginalized people, this one is little known. It’s not taught in schools; it’s not written up in textbooks. So a new multimedia art show at the San Francisco Main Public Library is intended to bring some awareness to this lost history.
The exhibit, called “Patient No More: People With Disabilities Securing Civil Rights,” prominently features the stories of 40 of the people who occupied the building at 50 United Nations Plaza four decades ago. Curators captured these people on film and edited their extensive conversations so that people could hear about “the unsung heroes and lesser-known tales” directly from the people who were there.
A great deal of attention has been paid to making the exhibition as accessible as possible. The text of the show went through several drafts, keeping it in plain language and taking into account the feedback from the occupation’s participants. There are also built-in accessibility features “so those with various cognitive disabilities, vision, hearing and mobility impairments can visit,” allowing the show to be open to the very community it honors.