On March 13, 1990, a remarkable protest unfolded at the United States Capitol as dozens of Americans crawled up the building’s marble steps to push for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This powerful demonstration, later dubbed the “Capitol Crawl,” emerged as a defining moment in the ongoing struggle for disability rights in the United States.
The Capitol Crawl was part of a larger series of demonstrations orchestrated in Washington, D.C., by the disability rights organization American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, better known as ADAPT. Using nonviolent resistance tactics, the group had been fighting for disability rights since the late 1970s. They frequently immobilized buses to highlight the need for wheelchair-accessible lifts and demanded the provision of essential services and accessible features in the construction of new buildings.
The Americans with Disabilities Act would provide the strongest protections yet for the rights of disabled Americans by prohibiting discrimination based on physical or mental disability. Modeled on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA protects against prejudice in employment, housing, public spaces, and services.
Despite the ADA having broad bipartisan support, the bill was stalled in congressional committees during the spring of 1990. The Capitol Crawl protestors sought to progress its passage while also highlighting the frequently inaccessible architecture of public buildings, including many in the nation’s capital.
Demanding that Congress take action, around 1,000 people marched from the White House to the Capitol. When they arrived, around 60 of them began climbing the steps of the West Front, having left their wheelchairs and other mobility aids at the bottom. Further underscoring the symbolism of their protest, many clutched rolled-up copies of the Declaration of Independence to remind Congress of the country’s founding principles.
A long climb towards equality:
- Galvanized by the Capitol Crawl and other protests, Congress hastened its deliberations, and the ADA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26th, 1990. The Capitol Crawl is widely recognized as having catalyzed its passage, marking a pivotal moment in the history of disability rights and civil rights in general.
- The youngest of the Capitol Crawl protestors was an 8-year-old girl with cerebral palsy named Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins. Jennifer had already been involved in activism for two years alongside her mother, Cynthia Keelan, who was arrested along with 103 other protestors in the Capitol Rotunda on the day after the Capitol Crawl. Both women have continued to be tireless advocates for disability rights.
- More than three decades have passed since the ADA became law (it was also broadened in 2008), yet the Capitol Crawl has largely gone unrecognized by most Americans. Perhaps more troubling, as Keelan-Chaffins and others have noted, is that the provisions of the ADA are not always enforced, especially on a local level when it comes to the accessibility of new buildings.
