Vocational Rehabilitation

In the United States, recognition of the problems faced by physically disabled people led to the founding in 1899 of the Cleveland Rehabilitation Center in Ohio. It was followed by the establishment in 1917 of the Red Cross Institute for the Crippled and Disabled, now the Institute for the Crippled and Disabled, in New York City. Since that time, public awareness of the problem, made greater by the large numbers of men injured in wars, has resulted in the creation of numerous private groups, many of them designed around one specific problem, which cover a broad medical spectrum.

The laws for workers' compensation enacted in many states between 1911 and 1920 created an awareness of the need for rehabilitating those injured in industrial accidents; 12 states enacted rehabilitation laws toward the end of this period. The great number of soldiers who were disabled in World War I presented a problem to the U.S. Congress, which passed the Smith-Sears Soldier Rehabilitation Act in June 1918, the first of many measures limited to people disabled in military service.

Federal aid to the states for the rehabilitation of civilians was initiated with the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1920, amended in 1943 by the Barden-La Follette Act, which established the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, now the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, a unit of the Department of Education since 1980. The office administers rehabilitation programs for both employment and independent living and provides funds for the development of services and facilities for people with disabilities. More recent federal legislation has focused on more severely disabled individuals, promoted public involvement in the rehabilitation process, and funded the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research.