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Janet Taggart: A Key Player in Making Seattle More Welcoming to People with Disabilities

By Colin Wilfrid

WARNING: This story talks about a disability-accessible school that the person this story focuses on, Janet Taggart, founded. The school’s original name uses ableist language that some readers may find offensive.

Just like all mothers across the world, Janet Taggart loved her daughter, Naida, and she did whatever it took to make sure her daughter had the best possible future. However, Taggart’s goal to help Naida succeed was not easy. Naida was born with a developmental disability and cerebral palsy. When Naida was five years old, Seattle Public Schools rejected her as a student. Because of her disability, Naida was denied access to public education and healthcare insurance. Taggart knew there needed to be changes in policy to be more accessible and inclusive to people like her daughter and so she became a disability rights advocate.

Making education more accommodating for her daughter and other children with disabilities was the first of many ways in which she was able to successfully advocate for disability rights not just in Seattle, but across the United States.

Taggart created a school program for children with disabilities called Central School for the Severely Retarded. They rented a church basement to hold their classes. The progress Naida made at this school was undeniable. By 1965, the Central School parents were instrumental in founding the Northwest Center for the Retarded, which is still in operation as the Northwest Center today.

Janet Taggart’s disability rights advocacy did not stop with the Northwest Center. By 1969, four mothers from Northwest Center, including Janet Taggart, created the Education for All committee (EFA). They also worked with two University of Washington law students to create the new Washington State law. In 1971, they succeeded, and HB 90 was passed. This law mandates publicly funded, individualized education in public schools for children with disabilities. HB 90 was the first mandatory special education law in the United States, and it was directly copied for the national mandatory disability education law in 1975. In the mid-70s, Taggart assisted in a legal case that led to the prosecution of a person accused of sexually assaulting a disabled woman prosecuted. Over the years, Taggart was honored for her advocacy on behalf of disabled individuals and their families.

On May 25th of 2021, The Northwest Center held a virtual panel in honor of HB 90’s 50th Anniversary, with Janet Taggart as one of the panelists. On the panel, Taggart acknowledged that even though HB 90 was a success in making education better for people like her daughter, there is still a long way to go. Particularly, Taggart proposed the formation of groups per state consisting of parents and professional advocates for children with disabilities, who would lobby for laws improving upon special education every year based on recent special education issues. Such annual pushes for special education legislation in each state would help make sure legislators continue to understand that special education is a necessity, as opposed to forgetting about it, like they have done in the past. To learn more about HB 90 and its significance, you can watch the panel featuring Janet Taggart and her colleagues discussing the legislation’s importance here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRUJk6yZskY. To learn more about the Northwest Center, go to this website: www.nwcenter.org.

Janet Taggart sadly passed away on April 5th, but her legacy in the disability community will always be looked at fondly.


The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Historic Preservation staff have been supporting a team of researchers and advisors to gather information on the history of disability activism in Seattle for a historic context study.  The project is designed to be an inclusive and intersectional exploration of disability activism in the city. We are working directly with the disability community to share stories and experiences that highlight advocacy efforts for equitable access and disability justice.