American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities

The American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD) was, in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, a national consumer-led disability rights organization called, by nationally syndicated columnist Jack Anderson and others, “the handicapped lobby”. Created, governed, and administered by individuals with disabilities – which made it a novelty at the time—ACCD rose to prominence in 1977 when it mounted a successful 10-city “sit in” to force the federal government to issue long-overdue rules to carry out Section 504, the world’s first disability civil rights provisions. ACCD also earned a place of honor in the disability rights movement when it helped to secure federal funding for what is now a national network of 600 independent living centers and helped to pave the way for accessible Public Transit in the U.S. After a brief and often tumultuous history, ACCD closed its doors in 1983.

The origins of ACCD are in local and state consumer-led groups. In 1970, for example, Max Starkloff founded Paraquad, a community living support organization, so that he and other St. Louis residents could move from nursing homes and other institutional facilities into neighborhood homes. That same year, Judith Heumann and others founded Disabled in Action to fight City Hall in New York City. The precursor of the nation’s first independent living center was established that year, as well, when Ed Roberts and other students at the University of California – Berkeley wanted personal care and other support services not available at the college. In 1974, Fred Fay was one of the founders of the Boston Center for Independent Living. All of these leaders were among the founders of ACCD in 1974, when 150 activists convened in Washington, DC, during the annual meeting of the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped.

Fay was ACCD’s first president (1974–1976). Its second was Eunice K. Fiorito (1930–1999), a disability rights activist and head of the Mayor’s Office for the Handicapped, in New York City. Tall, red-headed, and fiery, she was a visionary leader who understood how the human and civil rights concerns of individuals with any given disability were, at root, similar to those of persons with other disabilities. Others on the ACCD board during the formative years included Frederick Schreiber, executive director of the National Association of the Deaf (United States); Roger Petersen, of the American Council of the Blind; and Gini Laurie, editor of the Rehabilitation Gazette; as well as Starkloff, Heumann and Fay. Only Laurie was not a person with a disability.

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