Abstract
The book Politics of Empowerment: Disability Rights and the Cycle of American Policy Reform, by David Pettinicchio, is a meticulous historical and political account of the development of disability policy in the United States. The author used an array of sources, such as diverse government records, to construct a chronological narrative about the evolution of disability policy. Pettinicchio argues that the evolution of disability policy in the U.S. context is one of innovation and retrenchment, with the forward and backward movement creating opportunities for disability rights advancement. Thus, the development of disability policy is not necessarily a “quiet revolution” (Dimond 1973, as cited on p.138) where disability rights did not take center stage in U.S. politics, but it is more a story about the evolution of rights within the complex and dynamic U.S. political system.
Pettinicchio begins the book illustrating how, during the 1950s, disability was quietly and uncontroversially integrated into federal policies. Disability policy was centered on treating people with disabilities through a rehabilitation and social service oriented model. Essentially, people with disabilities were seen as passive patients and clients of the state that could be helped in order to assure that they became functioning members of society. The U.S. Congress and, subsequently, U.S. governmental policy routinely deferred to “science” and medical understandings of disability to drive the development of disability policy. During this time period there was also a seemingly symbiotic relationship between members of Congress and disability organizations. The coordination between government interests and disability organizations slowly increased the number of protections and services afforded to people with disabilities through policy, but it never challenged rehabilitation frameworks or medicalized understandings of disability.
It wasn’t until the 1960s, when disability nonprofit and advocacy groups bloomed, that the policy framework began to move away from rehabilitation and toward rights-based language. However, disability rights were not institutionalized in the same manner as “the civil rights afforded to other groups” (p. 137) during this time period. Pettinicchio shows how the conservative Nixon and Reagan administrations and U.S. courts rescinded many of the rights afforded to people with disabilities during the civil rights era, specifically focusing on the argument that disability rights were too expensive and expansive to implement. Noncompliance with disability policies became the norm. Pettinicchio points to how the Office of Civil Rights was stripped of its power during this time period, effectively reducing disability policy to procedural issues more than substantive, rights-based issues. Disability advocacy organizations began to take on an increasingly active role during this period of retrenchment. The shift marked the first time when rights-based advocacy frameworks were merged with an existing rehabilitation and social service oriented policy agenda.
The fusion of disability advocacy and governmental policy was consequential. Pettinicchio argues that advocacy groups began to lobby for people with disabilities as a collective, rather than by category. This was a shift from the past, which was characterized by fractured governmental representation and disability policy development by subgroup (disability category). The collective representation of disability in policy, coupled with lobbying efforts, facilitated the passage of landmark policies like the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The passage of these consequential laws during a period of retrenchment shows how retrenchment, while confining, also provides politicians, lawmakers, and advocates with opportunities to innovate and creatively work toward disability justice. Pettinicchio concludes the book with a present-day reflection on the progress and promises of disability policy in the current political climate, seemingly setting the stage for a future chapter, yet to be written, about the tug and pull of policy innovation and retrenchment.
The true power of Politics of Empowerment, though, lies in the nuance that emerges from the chapters of the book about the concept of “disability” and how it has been codified into policy. Pettinicchio argues that disability policy is “disorganized” because the policy framework consists of unresolved tensions between rehabilitation and rights (p. 73). The medical model of disability seems never to have left the policy arena and rather melded, without too much controversy, with civil rights discourse. This, to me, is the most powerful insight coming from the book. It provides clarity into why the policy landscape may have shifted over time but has not made sweeping societal changes that promote true access, equality, and inclusion for all people in the United States.
In summary, I recommend this book to readers who are interested in understanding how people, politics, and governmental and organizational goals align to increase access and opportunity for marginalized groups. The book exposes how the push and pull of U.S. politics and the development of disability policy has been relatively successful, but it also exposes how this process has not sufficiently contended with deep-seated ideological assumptions about the value of human life and how humans who do not fit the “norm” are treated in society. After reading the book I am left grappling with questions about the power of policy to truly enact change. Are incremental changes enough? Who deserves the right to exist and move freely through society without barriers? Who needs to be “rehabilitated”? Who should adapt to society, as it is, and who can take it for granted, as it is?