The precursor of the nation's first independent living center was established that year, as well, when Ed Roberts and other students at the University of California – Berkeley wanted personal care and other support services not available at the college.
All of these leaders were among the founders of ACCD in 1974, when 150 activists convened in Washington, DC, during the annual meeting of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped.
Others on the ACCD board during the formative years included Frederick Schreiber, executive director of the US National Association of the Deaf; Roger Petersen, of the American Council of the Blind; and Gini Laurie, editor of the Rehabilitation Gazette; as well as Starkloff, Heumann and Fay.
In early 1976, Fay wrote a small grant proposal to the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the federal Health Education and Welfare (HEW) department.
Fiorito found him: at a conference in NYC, she heard a speech by Dr. Frank Bowe, a deaf researcher at NYU, and decided that he was the person.
That September, Bowe went to Washington, occupying a one-room office on Connecticut Avenue with an interpreter, Jan Jacobi.
These annual sessions revolved around resolutions, or broad goals for ACCD to pursue in the coming year, election of board members, and adoption of amendments to the bylaws.
The delegates passionately viewed ACCD as "our organization" as opposed to professional associations that were run by persons without disabilities.
Basic governing rules were invented on the fly, keeping parliamentarian Louis Rigdon, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, constantly busy trying to maintain some semblance of order.
Meanwhile, delegates ordered the staff to work on a wide swath of issues, ranging from transportation to housing to education and civil rights, blithely ignoring time and budgetary constraints on carrying them out.
The coalition's national advocacy effort, culminating in a raucous 10-city sit in, including a record 25 days at the San Francisco HEW building, has had lasting effects.
Section 504 requires non-discrimination on the basis of disability of any organization or agency that receives any federal funds, for any purpose.
After its success with Section 504, ACCD mounted projects to train individuals with disabilities about their new rights and to educate officials on their new responsibilities.
That year, the coalition also demonstrated to prevent a rumored veto by President Carter of the 1978 Rehabilitation Act Amendments.