50 Fun Facts About Disability

Which US president signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law on July 26, 1990?

Senator Tom Harkin delivered part of his introduction speech in sign language so his deaf brother could understand.

Under the ADA's employment title, employers with at least how many employees are covered?

Employment agencies, labor unions and joint labor-management committees are covered too.

What did ADAPT activists famously do on March 12, 1990, to push the ADA through Congress?

ADAPT organized it as part of a "Wheels of Justice" march.

The Paralympics grew out of a 1948 sports competition for British war veterans held at which hospital?

It opened on the same day as the London Olympics; the first Games recognized as Paralympics were in Rome in 1960.

Which German-Jewish neurologist founded the games that became the Paralympics?

He was knighted in Britain and is regarded as the founding father of organized sport for people with disabilities.

Which city hosted the 1960 Games now recognized as the first Paralympics?

Some 400 athletes from 23 countries took part; since Seoul 1988 the Paralympics have followed the Olympics in the same city.

The name "Paralympic" was originally a portmanteau of "Olympic" and which word?

As other disability groups joined, the name was reinterpreted as "parallel" to the Olympics.

How many raised dots make up a full braille cell?

Louis Braille based his code on Charles Barbier's "night writing" and presented it in 1824, aged fifteen.

How was Louis Braille blinded as a child?

He was three; infection spread from the injured eye to the other.

Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing after an illness at what age?

She met her teacher Anne Sullivan at seven and became the first deafblind American to earn a college degree, at Radcliffe.

Which 1959 play, later a film, dramatized Anne Sullivan's teaching of Helen Keller?

William Gibson wrote it; Keller's own autobiography, The Story of My Life, appeared in 1903.

In which year was Gallaudet University, the first institution for higher education of deaf students, founded?

It began as a grammar school for deaf and blind children and remains the only university designed entirely around deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

What did the 1988 student protest known as DPN at Gallaudet University achieve?

The board had picked a hearing candidate, Elisabeth Zinser; after eight days of protest the students won all four demands.

American Sign Language emerged in 1817 at a school in which city?

The Hartford school, co-founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, blended a European sign system with local ones.

ASL is most closely related to the signing of which country?

About 58% of modern ASL signs are cognates of the old French system; there are 200 to 300 sign languages worldwide.

The 1977 Section 504 sit-in in San Francisco holds what record?

It lasted 25 days; the Black Panther Party helped feed the occupiers.

Which activist, known as the "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement", helped organize the 504 sit-in?

In 1970 New York had denied her a teaching license, claiming she could not evacuate students in a fire.

The wheelchair International Symbol of Access was designed in 1968 by a student from which country?

Susanne Koefoed's stick figure was adopted by Rehabilitation International in 1969.

The Seeing Eye, the oldest guide dog school in the US, was founded in which year?

Morris Frank, a blind 19-year-old from Nashville, named his dog Buddy and every dog he had afterward.

The first guide-dog training schools were set up during World War I in which country?

They were meant to help veterans blinded in combat; a 1927 Saturday Evening Post article spread the idea to America.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is observed on which date?

The UN has promoted it since 1992, after declaring 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons.

Who founded the Special Olympics, first held in Chicago in 1968?

About 1,000 athletes from the US and Canada competed at Soldier Field; the movement now spans 172 countries.

Who became the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award, for Children of a Lesser God?

At 21 she was also the youngest Best Actress winner ever.

Which 2021 film about the hearing daughter of deaf parents won Best Picture?

It was the first streaming-service film to win, and Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar.

What does the acronym CODA stand for?

Emilia Jones plays Ruby, the only hearing member of a Massachusetts fishing family.

Ed Roberts, father of the Independent Living movement, was the first wheelchair user to attend which university?

He had polio and slept in an iron lung at night.

The "curb cut effect" describes what?

Ramps built for wheelchairs are now used by anyone with a stroller, cart or suitcase.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted in which year?

It came into force in May 2008 after its 20th ratification.

Rosa's Law, signed by Barack Obama in 2010, replaced which term in US federal law with "intellectual disability"?

It was named for Rosa Marcellino, a nine-year-old girl with Down syndrome from Maryland.

At what age was Stephen Hawking diagnosed with motor neurone disease?

He went on to hold Cambridge's Lucasian chair for 30 years and keep A Brief History of Time on the bestseller list for 237 weeks.

Temple Grandin, an early autistic memoirist, is a professor of what?

She teaches at Colorado State University and designed humane livestock-handling systems.

Sesame Street's Julia, its first Muppet on the spectrum, debuted on TV April 2, 2017. What day is that?

She had first appeared online in 2015 in the See Amazing in All Children initiative.

Who invented the world's first self-propelled wheelchair in 1655?

Stephan Farffler, aged 22, built it on three wheels with cranks and cogs; the first wheelchair on record was made for Spain's Philip II in 1595.

Which two engineers invented the first lightweight folding steel wheelchair?

Everest was himself disabled; the E&J chair became the industry standard for decades.

The white cane is credited to a photographer who painted his walking stick white in 1921 in which English city?

James Biggs wanted to be visible in traffic; Peoria, Illinois passed the first white cane law in 1930.

What date did the US Congress designate as White Cane Safety Day in 1964?

The Lions Clubs had championed the cane since the 1930s.

Franklin D. Roosevelt began experiencing his paralytic illness in 1921 at what age?

He was diagnosed with polio and later founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which led to the polio vaccine.

Which two men invented the original cochlear implant in 1957?

The modern multi-channel implant was developed separately by Graeme Clark in Australia and the Hochmairs in Austria in the late 1970s.

Regular open-captioned TV broadcasts began in 1972 on which PBS cooking show?

The FCC set aside Line 21 for closed captions in 1976, and the BBC added subtitles via Teletext in 1979.

What was the US law guaranteeing disabled students free public schooling called before it became IDEA in 1990?

It had been in force since 1975.

Which framework treats disability as a limitation created by society rather than by a person's body?

The medical model instead frames disability as a condition to be treated or cured.

Which sport organization, first held in 1924, is exclusively for deaf athletes?

People with intellectual disabilities have competed in the Paralympics since 1992.

The Invictus Games for wounded service personnel take their name from a Latin word meaning what?

Prince Harry founded the Games in 2014 after seeing the Warrior Games in the United States the year before.

Prince Harry's inspiration for Invictus came from his 2013 visit to which US military sports event?

He set up the Games with Sir Keith Mills through the Royal Foundation, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence.

How many times did Tanni Grey-Thompson win the London Marathon between 1992 and 2002?

She won 16 Paralympic medals, 11 of them gold, and now sits in the House of Lords as a life peer.

Ray Charles attended a school for deaf and blind pupils from 1937 to 1945 in which Florida city?

He had lost his sight by age seven, probably to glaucoma, and learned piano, saxophone, clarinet and trumpet there.

Which childhood illness did Frida Kahlo contract in 1913, years before her bus accident?

The bus accident came at 18, when she was a promising student headed for medical school; she began painting while confined to bed.

In 1887 rentable 'rolling chairs' were introduced on the boardwalk of which seaside resort?

Meant for invalid tourists, they were soon hired by healthy visitors, complete with servants to push them.

Which English Civil War commander's self-propelled wheelchair is displayed in Newark-on-Trent?

It was built because of his many battle injuries; the Bath chair later brought such carriages into common use from around 1760.

Since which release of its operating system has Microsoft bundled the Narrator screen reader?

Freedom Scientific's JAWS and the free NVDA remain more popular on Windows; Apple's platforms ship VoiceOver and Android has TalkBack.