ABSTRACT
During the 1930s, people with disabilities faced segregation and oppression. Considered by the medical and political establishments as “unfit” for normal roles in society, disabled people were excluded from jobs provided by the New Deal’s
Works Progress Administration (WPA) programs, which, according to the WPA Workers’ Handbook, were reserved for “able-bodied” Americans who were “certified by a local agency.”6 “Ugly laws,” which made it illegal for people with visible disabilities to be seen in public, were passed across the country, and many were not repealed until the mid-1970s.7 Twenty-eight states adopted statutes that sought sterilization, marriage restriction, and institutionalization of the disabled, and eugenicists advocated euthanasia for disabled infants.8 People with disabilities were systematically incarcerated, as well as subject to deportation under immigration law.9 Following the increased demand for segregated housing brought on by prejudicial medical diagnoses and public discrimination, states began building residential institutions, such as Letchworth Village, at a rapid pace.
