As Co-Executive Director I have learned that many people don’t know why The Arc is called The Arc—not even some of our members. Our name reflects a lot of history and when you understand the history you will be proud of our name and hopefully sign on as a member as well…

When a child was born with a disability 45 years ago it was not uncommon for the doctor to suggest that the child be sent to a state institution to live his/her life. Families were told that the institutions were filled with trained professionals who would help their child grow to his/her fullest potential and this arrangement would be best for the family as a whole…Often times these institutions were far from a persons home.

45 years ago we were in the middle of a civil rights movement for woman and people of color. Well, parents of children with disabilities decided to join the movement and fight for the rights of their children with disabilities…they wanted to fight for the right to attend school and live in the community. This is how The Association for Retarded Children was formed. (I bet there are some parents in here who were part of this movement!)

The Association for Retarded Children became a national movement and was very successful in passing public law 94-172—which “Opened the doors of the schools” and mandated that children with disabilities had the same right to learn in public school as their peers without disabilities.

In the 1970’s -1980’s the children had grown up, and The ARC it’s name to reflect its membership…it was now The Association for Retarded CITIZENS. The ARC spent these years starting the first group homes, job programs, transportation and recreation services for adults and children with intellectual disabilities—it was an exciting time! As The ARC grew opportunities in the community—there was less and less need for keeping the state institutions, and in many states they began to get smaller and even close down.

In the 1990’s the “Retarded” citizens began educating the community about People First language. Basically people with disabilities voiced that they wanted to be called by their names…not their disability, or worse yet “Retarded”—even if it was a medical term. So The Arc changed its name again and now it stands for The Arc of Northern Virginia working for “A Life like Yours!”