Devens, Chloe

Freshman, College of Science and Health

Major: Psychology

Minor: Spanish

Honors Course: HON 100: Rhetoric and Critical Inquiry

Faculty: Michael Raleigh, Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse

Abstract: Few students learn, in a cursory examination of civil rights history, about the United States disability rights movement. Ideological ableism may continue to account for the exclusion of this important series of events from the classroom. Chloe has used a combination of accounts and footage of the disabled rights movement, as well as academic analyses of its impact, in an attempt to capture the course of disability rights from institutionalization through some fundamental acts of protest and pieces of legislation. The action of disabled rights activists has contributed significantly to both the physical and cultural landscape of the United States, can inform understandings of social and legal change, and deserves a place in standard historical curricula.