Moments in Disability History 3
"The Right To Be Abroad in the Land"
David Ferleger, Esq., lawyer and long-standing champion of the rights of people with developmental disabilities, notes that blind professor Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, a constitutional law scholar, a civil rights activist, a leader in the reform of social welfare, founder of the National Federation of the Blind, and a distinguished national and international humanitarian, wrote in 1966 (The Right to Live in the World: The Disabled in the Law of Torts) about the rights of people to be in the community, "the right to be abroad in the land", long before Supreme Court decisions and long before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Probably the foremost scholar on the 14th Amendment, Dr. tenBroek's work inspired advocacy for rights in The Rehabilitation Act and the ADA.
David Ferliger
David Ferleger: The Constitutional Right to Community Services
Sources:
The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities Home Page
The Evolution of Disability Rights Litigation
Jacobus tenBroek: In Memoriam, The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley
Jacobus tenBroek Library at the National Federation (NFB) of the Blind Jernigan Institute. Ten Broek was the founder of the NFB and first President.