America’s History of Harm Against the Disabled Can be Addressed Through Reparations, Say Advocates

Reparations for America’s legacy of discriminating against those with disabilities is increasingly being advocated as a way to reckon with centuries of harm, and in some cases, restore what was lost, according to Lauren Shallish, a Rutgers-Newark professor of Disability Studies.

While reparations for ancestors of the enslaved are now part of the national conversation–and efforts have made headway in some cities and states–similar measures can also be applied to the harms against the disabled, says Shallish, who is part of a movement to raise awareness of the issue and coordinates the first Disability Studies Program at Rutgers University. 

The concept of reparations doesn’t always include financial compensation. Often, the first step is acknowledgement of centuries of abuse and injustice rooted in attitudes that, in some form, persist today in public opinion and on an institutional level, said Shallish. 

“Reparations can mean giving back what was taken from individuals and communities, a generational understanding of what’s been destroyed and taken,’’ said Shallish. “This can include how land and  belongings are returned to people, and how bodies that were used for experimentation are memorialized or repatriated. It can also include a reckoning of those denied education if someone was pushed out of school or incarcerated. What does it mean to give them access and advancement?”

Historical transgressions against the disabled range from medical research–sterilization, and euthanasia performed on those considered deviant or genetically inferior without their consent– to involuntary institutionalization. Centuries of mistreatment based on dehumanizing theories about mental disability often resulted in the confiscation of property, a practice that affected generations of family members, said Shallish.

“Those who were mad, ‘feeble-minded,’ disabled, and everyone else considered genetically deficient, were thrown in an institution based on subjective and unfounded beliefs,” said Shallish.

Present day harms, including the high rate of incarcerated people with disabilities, should also be addressed through programs and policies that offer reparation, she added. Today, more than 70 million Americans identify as having a disability. 

Many crimes against the disabled were driven by eugenics–theories and practices designed to increase the genetic quality of humans, sometimes by eradicating those considered undesirable.  Eugenics dominated medicine, education, and science from the late 19th-century up through the 21st, when its ideas were disproven as unscientific.  Institutions of higher education were major beneficiaries of eugenic science, which was used to justify abusive and violent experiments. 

 “Colleges and universities were trying to prove evidence of genetic inferiority. Research and funding, in the past and sometimes in the present– much of that has been at the expense of disabled people rather than for their benefit,’’ said Shallish.

Eugenics was  also the basis for of Nazi ideology. It informed government policies toward the disabled and those considered mentally disabled or predisposed to criminality. Many eugenicist beliefs and experiments targeted Black people, indigenous people and women.

“People who are unhoused, who experience poverty or high rates of interaction with the criminal legal system or family removal systems–they’re  believed by many to be morally and psychologically unfit rather than affected by larger determinants that impact the lives and well-being of communities,’’ said Shallish.

Reparations could involve programs that restore educational opportunities and proper mental health supports to those with disabilities, especially those who have been incarcerated, she said. According to Shallish, at least one in every three youth arrested in the U.S. has a disability, a pattern that’s called the “special ed to prison pipeline.’’

While incarcerated people who consider themselves legitimately disabled are denied services both inside and outside prison, others were erroneously classified during their K-12 years. The label can hinder them academically and steer them toward interactions with the juvenile legal system, which often leads to adult prison, Shallish said.  

Activist Sammy Quiles, who earned a degree in Criminal Justice at Rutgers-Newark in 2023 as part of Rutgers’  NJ-Step program, which provides a college education to people who are incarcerated, believes reparations can include programs that support  youth involved in the criminal legal system and adults who have been incarcerated.

“Reparations for me is something that includes a holistic approach, providing services that factor in someone’s upbringing and what their family was like, the systems they were forced to contend with. What did that look like and how do you repair that?” said Quiles, who works with youth as a case manager for the Center for Justice Innovation in New York City, providing alternatives to incarceration.

For Quiles and others, programs like NJ-STEP are a form of reparations, providing educational opportunities to those who have been denied, sometimes due to a disability and exclusionary school discipline practices. 

Whatever form reparations might take, it’s crucial that the disabled themselves guide the process, said Shallish. Too often, perspectives on disability are framed by non-disabled experts in law, medicine, and education.

“It hasn’t been told from the point-of-view of disabled people,’’ said Shallish. “Their expertise is left out of the conversation. The disability rights phrase ‘nothing about us without us’  captures the idea that disabled people should be part of creating the literature, art, laws, policies, and history about disability.”