‘We want to ride’: the 1978 protest that sparked the disability rights movement

July 26, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In July 1978, nineteen young people in wheelchairs blocked two city buses at a busy Denver intersection and refused to move. They stayed through the night and into the next day. The police could not figure out how to arrest them—the buses, the police vans, the jail, and the courthouse were all inaccessible to wheelchairs. So the officers began arresting the able-bodied attendants who were helping the protesters eat, take medications, and empty catheters. One attendant, Lisa Wheeler, challenged them: "Why are you arresting the able body person? This person in the wheelchair has been here for longer than I have. It's their fight. Arrest them." Instead, she was handcuffed and charged with resisting arrest. The judge later dismissed the charges, ruling that the disabled protesters had been denied the right to be arrested—an odd right, but a right nonetheless. You have the right to be taken seriously, and you don't get that right if they won't arrest you. The group became known as the Gang of 19, and their protest helped spark the modern disability rights movement in America.

The nursing home that became a turning point

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What you'll learn

1 Timestamped Navigation Outline
2 (00:01) **Introduction: The ADA and Its Legacy** - NPR's Sunday story opens with President George H.W. Bush signing the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, framing it as a major civil rights victory that guaranteed disabled people access to jobs, transit, and community living.
3 (03:13) **Independent Living: The Core Idea** - Reporter Joseph Shapiro introduces the concept of independent living and profiles Nikki Bishop, a 39-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy who embodies what the ADA made possible.
4 (06:19) **The Gang of 19: Origin Story** - The episode introduces the Gang of 19, a small group of young wheelchair users who met in a terrible Denver nursing home called Heritage House.
5 (08:06) **Wade Blank's Radical Vision** - Blank, burned out from antiwar activism, took a job at Heritage House and was horrified by conditions, then began taking young residents out into the community.
6 (09:53) **From Nursing Home to Community** - After being fired, Blank co-founded a Denver group that secured public housing for residents leaving Heritage House, but they quickly discovered the city wasn't built for wheelchair users.
7 (11:19) **The July 5, 1978 Protest** - After losing their lawsuit, Blank called for civil disobedience: on July 5, 1978, George Roberts tried to board a bus in his wheelchair at a busy Denver intersection.

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Guests on this episode

John Holland Wade Blank George Roberts

Show Notes

Thirty-six years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, guaranteeing civil rights for millions of Americans. But the movement that made that day possible began years earlier. One pivotal victory was won by a small, often-forgotten group of activists in Denver known as the "Gang of 19."

On The Sunday Story, NPR’s Joseph Shapiro and Colorado Public Radio’s Stephanie Wolf trace the history of the disability rights movement—from the protests that secured accessible public transit to the modern-day fight to protect the hard-won right to live independently.

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