[.ca] Disability Rights Movement (ISBN 1566398126)

Disability Rights Are Everyone's Rights:
Unlike race or other minority groups, anyone can potentially become victims of this type of discrimination at some point in their lives, as I have learned. Anyone can understand the heroic action of someone like Rosa Parks who refused to be put in the back of a bus, but can you imagine not being allowed to ride a bus at all? These rights were not given. They were the result of individuals of equal heroism and the movement described in this book. It seems until you have experienced discrimination you can't understand it. The disabled live in a different world. Many care, many think they care and many don't understand at least until it happens to themselves or someone they love, so it is important for everyone in our soceity to make the effort to understand this reality so many quietly experience. We have a mythology in this country. Most working people actually believe the government, their fellow citizens, will somehow protect and support them if they truly need it, although they also probably believe they are invulnerable to such a need. In my own experience, it took three years to earn the right to live in isolation and poverty, and endured homelessness while waiting for someone simply to listen, but was not allowed to keep my job or even try. I was told that I couldn't receive unemployment because I was disabled and by the same government and at the same time couldn't receive disability because I could work. These basic human rights and freedoms are constantly under challenge. Our Supreme Court, who we expect to be the defenders of liberty, has undermined these vital efforts and the media seems to be a happy participant in spreading stories like the color-blind traffic light installer abusing the ADA, while simpler stories of individuals who want to work doesn't seem worthy of public discussion. Our nation is a diverse one. That should be our strength, yet in more homogeneous cultures such as in Europe, there seems to be less resistance to the basic hallmarks of humanity, the desire to not always be selfish and to know that there is a greater good that benefits all. This book is an important part of that desire.