1910 Swiss Psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler Introduces the Term Autism. 1943
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1910 Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler introduces the term autism. 1943 American psychiatrist Leo Kanner publishes “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact” (Nervous Child 2 (1943): 217-250), identifying autism as a childhood psychiatric disorder. 1944 Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger publishes “ Die ‘Autistischen Psychopathen’ im Kindesalter” “[`Autistic Psychopathy’ in Childhood”] ( Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76-136). It will not be available in English until 1991. 1946 Congress enacts PL 79-725, the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, also known as the Hill- Burton Act, authorizing federal grants to the states for the construction of hospitals, public health centers, and health facilities for rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The National Mental Health Foundation is founded by conscientious objectors who served as attendants at state mental institutions during World War II. It works to expose the abusive conditions at these facilities, and becomes an early impetus in the push for deinstitutionalization. 1948 The Act of June 10, 1948, PL 80-623, forbids “employment discrimination based on physical handicaps within the United States Civil Service” – mainly to protect wounded veterans of the Second World War. 1949 Leo Kanner writes “Problems of Nosology and Psychodynamics in Early Childhood Autism” (American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 19 (3): 416–26) in which he identifies a “maternal lack of genuine warmth” in autism cases. He says that autistic children “were kept neatly in refrigerators which did not defrost.” This is the birth of the idea of “refrigerator mothers.” 1950 The Association for Retarded Children of the United States (later the Association for Retarded Citizens and then the Arc) is founded in Minneapolis by representatives of various state associations of parents of mentally retarded children 1954 The U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, rules that separate schools for black and white children are inherently unequal and unconstitutional. This pivotal decision becomes a catalyst for the African-American civil rights movement, which in turn becomes a template for the disability rights movement. 1955 The Labor-HEW subcommittee of House Appropriations, chaired by John Fogarty, holds a hearing on mental retardation. Fogarty earmarks $500,000 to the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness and (NINDB) and $250,000 to NIMH. 1961 President Kennedy appoints a special President’s Panel on Mental Retardation. The June 17 issue of The Saturday Evening Post carries an article by Rosalind Oppenheim, “They Said Our Child Was Hopeless,” about her autistic son’s struggle with autism. “We pray and work, too, for the estimated 500,000 mentally handicapped children who are receiving no treatment and have not even had diagnosis because there is no place to get it.” 1962 British psychiatrist Lorna Wing founds the National Autistic Society NAS in the United Kingdom. 1963 President Kennedy, in an address to Congress, calls for a reduction, “over a number of years and by hundreds of thousands, (in the number) of persons confined” to residential institutions, and he asks that methods be found “to retain in and return to the community the mentally ill and mentally retarded, and there to restore and revitalize their lives through better health programs and strengthened educational and rehabilitation services.” Though not labeled such at the time, this is a call for deinstitutionalization. Congress passes the Mental Retardation Facilities Construction Act of 1963 (P.L. 88-164 -- later the Developmental Disabilities Act), authorizing federal support for the construction of mental retardation research centers, university-affiliated training facilities, and community service facilities for children and adults with mental retardation. 1964 Dr. Bernard Rimland publishes Infantile Autism: the Syndrome and its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior that describes the clinical features of autism in detail and also provides the first evidence that it is a biological disorder. His theories are not as well popularized as Bethlehem's, so therefore he has less of an impact on the public. 1965 Bernard Rimland and Ruth Christ Sullivan found the National Society for Autistic Children (NSAC), later the Autism Society of America (ASA). Lyndon Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 (P.L. 89-97), creating Medicare and Medicaid. Psychologist Ole Ivar Lovaas develops the Applied Behavior Analysis treatment. The May 7 issue of Life gives it national publicity in “Screams, Slaps, and Love: A Surprising, Shocking Treatment Helps Far-Gone Mental Cripples.” The California legislature recommends that the state accept responsibility for people with mental retardation before they enter state hospitals by establishing regional, community-based medical agencies that diagnose, counsel and offer continuing services. Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown signs Assembly Bill 691, authored by Assemblymen Jerome Waldie and Frank D. Lanterman, establishing two pilot regional centers for people with mental retardation. 1966 A study in Middlesex County, England, (Lotter, V. Epidemiology of autistic conditions in young children. I: Prevalence. Social Psychiatry, 1966, 1, 124-137) estimates the rate of autism in chil- dren at 0.04% — the most commonly cited figure until the 1980s. 1967 Bernard Rimland founds the Autism Research Institute ARI in San Diego. Bettelheim publishes The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self in which he likens the relationship of autistic children and their parents to prisoners in concentration camps and SS guards. “The difference between the plight of prisoners in a concentration camp and the conditions which lead to autism and schizophrenia in children is, of course, that the child has never had a previous chance to develop much of a personality.” The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ICD of the World Health Organization classifies autism as a form of schizophrenia. Parents found the Autism Society of America. The Mental Retardation Amendments of 1967 (P.L. 90-170) authorizes federal funds to assist in the costs of initiating services in community mental retardation facilities. 1968 Vocational Education Act Amendments (P.L. 90-576) requires each state to earmark 10% of its basic grant for services for youth with disabilities. 1969 California Assemblyman Frank Lanterman introduces Assembly Bill 225, the Lanterman Mental Retardation Services Act, extending regional center services throughout California. 1970 Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1970 (P.L. 91-230) creates a separate Act - The Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA). Part B authorizes grants to states to assist them in initiating, expanding, and improving programs for the education of children with disabilities. EHA also establishes several competitive grant programs such as personal preparation, research and demonstration. The Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Amendments of 1970 (P.L. 91-517) containing the first legal definition of "developmental disabilities," includes broad responsibilities for a state planning and advisory council to plan and implement a comprehensive program of services for persons with developmental disabilities. In addition, the legislation authorized grants to support interdisciplinary training in institutions of higher education of personnel providing services to persons with developmental disabilities (currently known as university affiliated programs). The Center for Independent Living is founded in Berkeley, California. Generally recognized as the world's first independent living center, the formation of the CIL sparks the worldwide independent living movement. 1971 P.A.R.C. v. Pennsylvania, 334 F.Supp. 1257 (E.D.Pa.1971); 343 F.Supp. 279 (E.D.Pa. 1972) A class action suit filed before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of 14 children with mental retardation. Parents and advocates argue that Pennsylvania statutes violate the Equal Protection Clause. The U.S. District Court agrees and enters an order enjoining Pennsylvania from applying any statute that would postpone, deny access, or terminate a free, appropriate public education to any child with mental retardation. The Consent decree also includes important LRE language that set forth the underlying preference for the P.L. 94- 142 and the IDEA. 1972 Mills v. Board of Education, 348 F.Supp. 866 (D.D.C. 1972). This case was filed on behalf of seven school-aged children with disabilities seeking an injunction restraining the Board of Education of the District of Columbia from denying them access to public education. The Court states that no child should be excluded from public school on the basis of any D.C. policy or rule unless the child is offered an alternative educational program suited to meet his or her needs. Further, the Court rules that each child was entitled to a free appropriate public education regardless of the degree of disability. The parents of residents at the Willowbrook State School file suit (New York ARC v. Rockefeller) to end the appalling conditions at that institution. A television broadcast from the facility outrages the general public, which sees the inhumane treatment endured by people with developmental disabilities. This press exposure, together with the lawsuit and other advocacy, eventually moves thousands of people from the institution