Silence on the stomping grounds: a case study of public communication about disability in the 1990s

Abstract

This case study describes the manner in which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – the first state-funded institution of higher education in the United States – publicly addressed the disability civil rights movement just before and after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. An analysis of archived documents, reports, and correspondence among administrators coupled with a review of news coverage in two of the most prominent news sources on campus indicated that there was no attempt to create and sustain significant public communication efforts about disability. Public communication focused on accessibility issues and rarely acknowledged the significance of the disability civil rights. The potential benefit of public communication about disability issues is discussed as it relates to higher education’s obligation to assume social leadership.

Keywords:

• Americans with Disabilities Act
• higher education
• public communication
• civil rights
• social leadership

Notes

1. Later amended in 1974, 1978, 1986, and 1992.

2. Both authors criticize the mainstream press for lack of attention to such an important moment in history.

3. Members of the Committee on Persons with Disabilities included the 504 Officer and representatives from the University Counseling Center, Academic Services, the Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, Learning Disabilities Services, and the School of Education.

4. The actual report was not available for review.

5. This brochure was made available to the researcher by the current Equal Opportunity/ADA Office at UNC Chapel Hill, formerly the Affirmative Action Office in 2005. In a meeting with a university administrator, the researcher verified that the same brochure has been in print since the early 1990s and the content would have been the same.

6. Lisa Katz, the director of News Services at UNC Chapel Hill at the time this research was conducted, reported on her personal communication with Mike McFarland, the former director of News Services.

7. The Pit is a rectangular bricked area in the center of campus. It sits lower than ground level, and is accessible on all four sides only by steps leading down. This is a place of daily gathering for many students and regarded by students as a zone for freedom of speech and expression.