They didn't just show up one day and ask for reasonable consideration and have that granted with a "no problem" smile in a year or so.
"By the 1960s, the civil rights movement began to take shape, and disability advocates saw the opportunity to join forces alongside other minority groups to demand equal treatment, equal access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The struggle for disability rights has followed a similar pattern to many other civil rights movements—challenging negative attitudes and stereotypes, rallying for political and institutional change, and lobbying for the self-determination of a minority community.
Disability rights activists mobilized on the local level demanding national initiatives to address the physical and social barriers facing the disability community. Parent advocates were at the forefront, demanding that their children be taken out of institutions and asylums, and placed into schools where their children could have the opportunity to engage in society just like children who were not disabled."
"After decades of campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, and ensured the equal treatment and equal access of people with disabilities to employment opportunities and to public accommodations."
I hate to break it to you, but 30+ years of advocacy to get basic rights under the law is a war. When you have to repeatedly demand that your interests be heard and taken seriously, that is a far cry from Tony's premise. Just because the police weren't sicing dogs on disability rights advocates doesn't mean it was any less of an intense struggle than the one for civil rights based on race. The word demand is used over and over again in this description.
I'll say it again for the cheap seats - there are ZERO examples in history of people with less social power asking for redress from those with more and that being easily and readily agreed to, supported, or enacted. It always, always has to be demanded and it nearly always takes decades of struggle. Disability advocacy had been going on at least since the 1930s, if not earlier. Wow, it only took it ramping up to new levels in the 60s to finally at last get the first step passed in 1973, but even then, it still took until the 1990s to really get full legal coverage.
I'm not talking about the difference between rioting and not rioting. I'm addressing Tony's premise that if people just present their needs logically and respectfully, that this will be well received and lead to action. Because there is literally no history of that ever happening in the history of the world - ever.
