1973 Rehabilitation Act

Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act was a piece of American legislation that guaranteed particular rights to people with disabilities. While Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was only the last sentence of the Act, it is the most often cited and questioned portion of the Act.

No implementing rules has been outlined or issued by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and this spurred action by the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities to make completion of Section 504 a top priority. A nationwide demonstration was launched by Frank Bowe who was at the time the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities leader.

Regulations regarding Section 504 were issued in April 1977 and over the following several years Section 504 became somewhat controversial. Opponents thought it extreme that the Rehabilitation Act had then come to emulate many of the rights afforded to larger minority groups in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

During the Reagan administration there were efforts made to weaken Section 504. These efforts failed and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 extended Section 504 so that private employers, stores, restaurants and hotels were also held to the standards of the revised Rehabilitation Act. This extension included no weakening or amendments to the original Act.

Section 504 covers after school programs and extracurricular activities like music lessons, sports practice and after school care programs. It has been determined that the Act applies to band programs, playgrounds, field trips, graduation, late bus transportation and other special on and off site programs.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act covers accessibility of computer technology and was added in 1986, but not fully implemented until 1998.

For more information of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or any of its sections, you may wish to visit the United States government website about Section 508 found at http://www.section508.gov.