IN THE bad old days, many Americans with disabilities were considered indigent tragedies in need of a cure. Expectations and services improved after World War I, when rehabilitation services were founded for returning soldiers. And then came the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s, which gave rise to a movement demanding equity and autonomy for citizens with disabilities.
By 1968, federal legislation guaranteed them equal protection under the law. By 1975, federal school-funding legislation required schools provide "free appropriate public education" to students with disabilities. And by 1990, the landmark
HACKENSACK — It's Saturday morning and three teams of students sit in a classroom at the middle school anxiously awaiting the next math problem.
On the Smart Board, youngsters are given the following equation 2 + 5X + 4 + 8X. The clock starts ticking.
"You got a minute," Andy Goodman, an instructor, reminds the students. "Talk it out."
The pupils are animated and confer with one another