Generally speaking, the intellectually disabled are very well treated in the US.
Not too long ago, people here, as in other parts of the world, held the view that persons with mental disabilities were unhealthy, defective and deviant. For centuries, society as a whole treated these people as objects of fear and pity. The prevailing attitude was that such individuals were incapable of participating in or contributing to society and that they must rely on welfare or charitable organizations.
Things started to change, and change rapidly, during the 1960's and 70's under the leadership of US presidents from John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon, which had a great influence on the treatment of and attitudes toward people with disabilities.
President Kennedy set up a presidential panel which affirmed that mental retardation is not a hopeless condition; it is subject to prevention and amelioration. Kennedy passed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963. Medicaid and Medicare were then established in the mid-1960's, making it possible for many developmentally disabled persons and their families to secure medical and other long-term care in their communities.
President Lyndon Johnson established a permanent presidential committee on mental retardation in 1965. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964; tenets of which were subsequently applied to many disadvantaged groups, including people with developmental disabilities. The civil rights movement spread. Legal Advocacy by groups such as the ACLU in the “public interest” resulted in numerous judicial decisions expanding the rights of people with developmental disabilities.
President Nixon established a goal of moving 1/3 of the nation's 200,000 institutionalized individuals with mental retardation into supportive community living. He issued presidential directives that required the Attorney General enforce the rights of mentally retarded and that the Department of HUD create ways to improve their housing. A mandate included in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required states to address the vocational rehabilitation problems of the severely disabled as a first priority.
