Dawn Russell, member of the Denver Chapter of ADAPT, in front of the ADAPT flag, 2005. Photo: Glenn Asakawa/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Denver is the birthplace of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), a prominent grassroots organization that uses civil disobedience and mass arrests to fight for disability rights.
why it matters: Four decades after its official founding in 1983, ADAPT’s non-violent direct action tactics have inspired a national movement with 36 active chapters in 25 states.
Deeper: See iconic photos of ADAPT’s struggle for disability rights in Denver and across the country over the past 40 years.
Denver, 1978: Members of the “Gang of 19,” which later became ADAPT, blocked buses in the city of Denver for two days to protest the lack of wheelchair lifts.Photo: Dick Davis/Rocky Mountain News by Denver Public Library’s Western History CollectionDenver, 1980: George Roberts (left) and Les Hubbard run into a sidewalk curb as other members of the Atlantis community look on. Members of Atlantis, an independent community living center, formed the “Gang of 19” and later he started ADAPT. Photo: John Sunderland/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Why Representation Matters According to movement photographer Tom Olin:
Most ‘people with disabilities look like ‘poor’. It’s really important for groups to say ‘Hey we are strong! We need a picture’. [that show that]’” Olin told Axios.
“I was in action and there were three photographers taking the same picture. [for] For one photographer, the chair was the most important. [as] symbol of disability. I focused on the man’s face, how he exuded a power that had long been repressed. ”
Denver, 1984: ADAPT members Mike Overger, Bob Conrad, David Sheckles, and other demonstrators called on McDonald’s to make its current and future restaurants wheelchair accessible.Photo: Bill Wunsch/The Denver Post via Getty Images; Brian Moss/Rocky Mountain News, from the Denver Public Library’s Western History collection.Denver, 1986: At Stapleton International Airport, a line of pickets protests a Supreme Court ruling that only airlines funded directly by the federal government must comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.Photo: Rocky Mountain News by David Cornwell/Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection
Tom Malone Shyla Jackson (pictured below, left) and 8-year-old Jennifer Kieran Chaffins (right), protesters climbing the steps of the Capitol to persuade Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act was one of
Years later, an adult Kieran-Chuffins thought, “It was the image of me climbing those stairs that made the final decision to let the ADA pass.”
1990, Washington, DC: The Capitol Crawl.Photo: Tom OlinEdon, Pennsylvania, 2003: More than 200 ADAPT members, including Adam Neilson (right), from Philadelphia to Washington, D. Home Care.Photo: William Thomas Kane/Getty Images
In 2017, the group made headlines when actions across the country helped defeat Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut the Medicaid budget by more than $800 billion. I was.
In Denver, local ADAPT members were arrested after a 58-hour sit-in in the office of US Senator Corey Gardner.
DENVER, 2017: ADAPT members, including Carrie-Anne Lucas, a longtime local disability rights advocate who died in 2019, hold a sit-in at Senator Cory Gardner’s office to curtail Medicaid medical care. Pressed to vote against the bill. Photo: Denver Post by Helen H. Richardson/Getty ImagesDenver, 2017: ADAPT activist Jose Torres Vega leads protesters in a chant at the Save Medicaid Rally near Sen. Cory Gardner’s office. The week before, 10 of his ADAPT protesters were arrested after refusing to leave their offices during a sit-in. Photo: Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty ImagesWashington, DC, 2021: Disability rights activists and care advocates hold an all-night rally in front of the US Capitol to tell Congress to build back Better Plan full federal funding for home and community-based care services encourage inclusion. Photo: Larry French/Getty Images for The Arc of United States