RI grew from its small town roots in the American Midwest in 1922 to an internationally prominent organization in just a few years. RI maintained its contacts around the world during World War II, thanks to the efforts of Bell Greve, LLD, and Dr Henry Kessler, who were determined to keep it alive. Unlike most international organizations with a large core staff at the headquarters level, the RI Secretariat in New York has never been large. Instead, the majority of the work has been carried out by RI’s member organizations.
Along the way, there have been four major name changes: The International Society for Crippled Children, 1922; The International Society for the Welfare of Cripples, 1939; The International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1960; and Rehabilitation International, 1972. These name changes reflected changing social awareness towards disability. At present, the organization prefers to go by the abbreviation of its 1972 name, and RI now stands for Rights and Inclusion as well.
RI takes pride in having developed the International Symbol of Access in 1969, which is said to be one of the five most recognized signs in the world today.
At all levels, RI members and RI leadership have been key players. From advocating to bring services and facilities to disabled children in 1922 or petitioning the League of Nations to establish an office to oversee the collection of disability-related statistics in 1929, to setting down a list of policies to govern use of the International Symbol of Access in 1978, to presenting the Charter for the Third Millennium (in English, Spanish, Portuguese) in 1999 and then adopting the Beijing Declaration on the Rights of People with Disabilities in the New Century in 2000 to help push for a UN Convention on human rights for people with disability, RI’s achievements have been many over the years.
To learn more about RI’s history, read From Charity to Disability Rights: Global Initiatives of Rehabilitation International 1922-2002.
Most Recent Past President
2004-2008 Mr. Michael Fox, Australia