The Broader Fight for Equality
Celebrating the ADA's 30th Anniversary
I found something greater than myself in the independent living movement
In the fall of 1981, when I was 17-years old, I dived into an above-ground swimming pool that was not well lit or marked for depth. I injured my spinal cord (C5 - C6) and became disabled.
It wasn't until 12 years later that I first identified as a person with a disability.
I had lost both of my parents and was in search of something greater than myself. I found that in the independent living movement and the fight for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Fighting for passage of the ADA and focusing on my college education were the catalysts for me to steer my life in the direction that I wanted to take it. Too often, people with disabilities face enormous challenges in defining—on their own terms—their goals in life and then getting the opportunity to pursue those dreams. I was determined not to let the world around me and our ableist culture pull me off course.
One of millions of civil rights warriors
A decade ago, I was invited to the South Lawn of the White House by President Obama to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ADA.
I remember being so proud to be there—not just as a person with a disability representing the wider disability community—but as a civil rights warrior, representing millions of other civil rights warriors across the country.
Similar to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA did not change the way that Americans think about people with disabilities overnight.
People change people. It's harder to oppress someone, discriminate against them, or think of them as "the other" when you actually get to know them. Knowing and deeply understanding that another person is a human being is the unfinished civil rights work that all of us must undertake.
As we continue to fight along with our fellow warriors, especially people of color, I recognize how far we have to go. I stand with people of color and every other oppressed community.
May we all reach what should be a given: a recognition of our humanity and the protection afforded by the enforcement of basic rights that make equality possible and all of our lives richer.
I'm honored to fight that fight together.