Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights
​ July 8, 2023 – October 29, 2023

At last, in April of 1977, frustration turned into bold action. A diverse coalition launched protests across the country, and in San Francisco, more than 100 people began a 26-day occupation of the Federal Building to insist on getting civil rights. On April 30, the occupiers emerged victorious from the longest unarmed take-over of a federal building in US history after the Head of Health Education and Welfare (HEW) had finally added his signature to the 504 regulations.
Patient No More provides content that can be applied to the classroom to satisfy the disability curriculum requirement of California’s 2011 Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. In addition, the traveling exhibit includes exhibition text in braille, large-print panels, audio description tracks, and audio-described and captioned videos to make the show as accessible as possible.
The colorful freestanding panels provide a flexible layout, are easy to install, and are designed to fit a variety of venues – including, but not limited to, libraries, museums, community centers, lobbies, and government buildings.
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Themes explored include:

• Disability as a source of creativity and innovation, not pity or tragedy
• Daily life inside the building, including a calendar of activities of the 26 days of occupation
• How the occupiers built networks of support, from unions to the Black Panthers
• The national protests that occurred, with a focus on the SF occupation
• How protesters influenced the media, developing close ties with the press and changing the language of their coverage
• Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act
• The controversies of 504, especially in regards to race and deafnes