In 1949, I contracted polio at a very young age. Suddenly, I was unable to walk and had to use a wheelchair for mobility. I was the only one in my family who had a disability. In those days, because of my disability, I was denied equal access to education. At the age of five, I could not attend my local public school and was expected to be satisfied with my “good fortune” when the New York Board of Education sent a teacher to my home for 2.5 hours a week for instruction. In fact, when I set out to teach in a New York public high school years later, I was initially denied the opportunity to do so because I in my wheelchair was considered a “fire hazard.” In those days, this was not considered discrimination, but rather that people just didn’t know better. And for those of us with disabilities, we simply had to accept the way the world was – a world where we were marginalized, often invisible, sometimes forgotten. But the world was changing. Read Judith Heumanns story about how the signing of the Civil Rights Acts inspired her to fight for equality for herself and millions of others with disabilities.go.usa.gov/XavF
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 20:57:53 +0000
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