07/27/2026
Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins was eight years old when she climbed out of her wheelchair at the foot of the United States Capitol and began to crawl up the steps. (See pic in comments)It was an unseasonably hot day in March 1990. The Americans with Disabilities Act had been stalled in Congress, and more than a thousand activists had marched from the White House to demand its passage; now some sixty of them set aside their wheelchairs and crutches and began to pull themselves up the eighty-three stone steps by their arms, to show the country in the plainest possible terms what a building without a ramp meant to the people it shut out.
Organizers had worried that the sight of a child crawling would read as pity rather than protest, but Jennifer insisted. "If somebody my age didn't do it," she told them, "then nobody from my generation would be represented." And so she climbed, in the heat, in front of the television cameras, declaring "I'll take all night if I have to."
Thirty-six years ago today, on July 26, 1990, the bill she helped push out of committee was signed into law -- the Americans with Disabilities Act, the world's first comprehensive civil rights law protecting people with disabilities. This is the story of the determined young girl whose climb helped transform the lives of millions.
Jennifer was born in 1981 in Michigan, a month premature and weighing just three pounds and ten ounces. By the age of 2, her mother, Cynthia, and her grandfather, Chuck, were told by doctors at the Shriners Hospital in Arizona that she had cerebral palsy and would never be able to move, talk, or learn. "[We] were told to put her in a home or put her up for adoption," recalls Cynthia. The family opted to keep her at home and soon became active in the growing disability rights movement. "When she was born, she had her fist clenched in the air. We just let her do the rest," says Cynthia. "She was a very strong advocate."
After moving to Phoenix, Arizona, Jennifer participated in her first protest at age six, supporting the efforts of the disability rights group ADAPT, which was fighting for greater accessibility. The experience made a big impression on her; as she reflected later, "it was pretty cool [to see] a bunch of people in wheelchairs fighting for their rights." Shortly after, Jennifer had her first experience with blatant discrimination when she went with other ADAPT members to eat at a restaurant, and the group was denied service. The staff told them, "People don't want to watch you all eat."
Jennifer continued to join protests, including one in Montreal, Canada, where she was arrested at age 7 along with other activists at a peaceful disability rights demonstration. The following year, at the Washington, D.C. protest focused on passing the ADA, some organizers didn't think it was a good idea for her to participate in the Capitol Crawl, fearing that the image of a child crawling up the steps, Jennifer explains, "would send a message of pity instead of empowerment."
Jennifer was determined, however, telling them that "if somebody my age didn't do it, then nobody from my generation would be represented." She recalls that it was a very hot day and the crowd at the base of the stairs had grown very large, but the "further up the steps I went, the more I felt empowered. I felt like I had all of the other kids behind me [who couldn't be there]. I felt that it was important, not just to represent myself, but to represent them and their voices."
Pressure by the participants in the Capitol Crawl and other activists helped push the stalled bill out of committee, and four months later, on July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA into law. To many disability rights activists, its passage was the culmination of a fight for civil rights that had been waged for over twenty years around the country.
The historic law not only transformed life for many people with disabilities in America; it also became a global model, according to the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund -- since 2000, 181 countries have passed disability civil rights laws inspired by the ADA. And yet, while the disability rights movement has been one of the most successful and impactful social change movements of the last century, it remains one that most people know relatively little about, its history little taught in schools.
The ADA was the first major piece of national legislation in the world to treat disability rights as a civil rights issue, and its impact was far-reaching. Requirements for accessibility made it standard for architects and designers to incorporate features like automatic doors, bathroom stalls with grab bars, and Braille on elevator buttons. Telecommunications companies were required to provide services for those who were deaf or hard of hearing, and television began including closed captioning. People with disabilities who had previously been forced into nursing homes from a young age gained the opportunity to live independently. Schools began integrating classrooms, which changed how children saw their peers with disabilities: instead of oddities, they were classmates and friends.
"The great thing about the ADA is that it covers almost everything," says Edward Steinfeld, Director of the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access at the University at Buffalo. "It's created a society in which people know they have to provide accessibility, and treat people with disabilities with dignity and respect."
Today, Jennifer lives in Denver, Colorado, and remains a vocal advocate for disability rights. In 2017, she graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Family and Human Development, and she has since founded Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins LLC to continue her activism, working as an educator and public speaker who teaches children across the country about disability, accessibility, and standing up for themselves and others. She was the model for a sculpture by artist Gina Klawitter titled "All the Way to Freedom," reimagining her climb, and she collaborated on a picture book telling her story, "All the Way to the Top," to show young readers that they can make a difference on the issues they care about, no matter their age.
Jennifer hopes her example will encourage kids, parents, and teachers to learn more about this little-known but hugely influential movement. "For me, the disability rights movement is just as important as the civil rights movement," she says, "and these are things that need to be taught in our schools."
But today, that fight is more urgent than it has been in a generation. The Trump administration has moved on several fronts at once to undermine the protections Jennifer helped win. Last week, the Justice Department moved to stop enforcing the "integration mandate" -- the principle, rooted in the ADA and affirmed by the Supreme Court, that people with disabilities have the right to live in their own communities rather than be confined to institutions -- reversing nearly fifty years of federal interpretation.
A separate lawsuit, led by Texas, is trying to strike down the federal rule that puts that same right into practice -- though it has been steadily losing states, from seventeen at the outset to just three today, as disability advocates have pressed their own governments to withdraw. Only Texas, Florida, and Alaska remain.
Even where the law holds, the funding may not. The deep Medicaid cuts signed into law last year threaten the home- and community-based services -- help with bathing, dressing, and daily living -- that millions of disabled Americans depend on to stay in their own homes rather than nursing homes or institutions. None of this repeals the ADA, which only Congress can do to the likely frustration of the administration -- but together, the moves hollow out the enforcement, the funding, and the legal underpinnings that give the law its force.
Thirty-six years after the Capitol Crawl, the rights those activists won are under real threat -- and defending them starts with a phone call.
--> Call your representative and senators through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to defend the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the right of disabled Americans to live in their own communities rather than be forced into institutions. 5 Calls has a script and will connect you to the right offices at https://5calls.org/issue/disability-rights-olmstead-ada-section-504
--> To learn about the legal fight over Section 504 and how to get involved, visit the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and its Protect 504 campaign at https://dredf.org/protect-504
--> To support the disability rights group Jennifer first marched with as a child, which continues to organize for community living and against institutionalization, visit ADAPT at https://adapt.org
--> To learn more about Jennifer's story and join her ongoing fight for disability rights, visit https://jkclegacy.com/
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Jennifer's "Capitol Crawl" story is told in the inspiring picture book "All The Way To The Top" for ages 5 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/all-the-way-to-the-top
For more books for children and teens starring Mighty Girls with disabilities of all varieties, visit our blog post "Many Ways To Be Mighty: 35 Books Starring Mighty Girls with Disabilities" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12992
Among the featured titles in an uplifting picture book about disability by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that celebrates the different abilities that make each of us unique, "Just Ask" for ages 4 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/just-ask
For an excellent book about the history of the disability rights movement for adult readers, we highly recommend "Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780807059296 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/30TLqQ0 (Amazon)
Disability rights movement leader Judith Heumann is also the author of a powerful memoir for adult readers "An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist," (https://www.amightygirl.com/being-heumann), which has been adapted for ages 10 and up in "Rolling Warrior" (https://www.amightygirl.com/rolling-warrior)
Heumann's incredible story is also told in a captivating picture book biography "Fighting for YES! The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann" for ages 6 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/fighting-for-yes
Judy Heumann started using a wheelchair at a young age, and as soon as she did, she started hearing NO. No, she couldn't go to public school because she would be a "fire hazard." No, she couldn't get a teaching license; how would she help her students in an emergency? So she decided to start fightin...
