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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities,

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Speaker 1: which is an observance that the United Nations first established

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Speaker 1: in so today's episode draws from disability history. It's on

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Speaker 1: Ed Roberts and the Independent Living movement that is a

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Speaker 1: movement focused on collective self advocacy by and four disabled

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Speaker 1: people with a goal of getting people to support they

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Speaker 1: needed to live, work, and go to school within the

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Speaker 1: greater community rather than segregated away from it. Some of

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Speaker 1: the other subjects that are touched on in this episode

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Speaker 1: include polio and the five oh four sit Ends that

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Speaker 1: took place in nineteen seventy seven. Previous Hosts episode on

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Speaker 1: Polio was a Saturday classic recently in September, and the

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Speaker 1: five oh four sit Ends were part of an installment

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Speaker 1: of six Impossible episodes that came out on February of

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Speaker 1: This episode originally came out on January. Enjoy Welcome to

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Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B.

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Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today's podcast is a listener

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Speaker 1: suggestion and I'm pretty sure it was a comment somebody

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Speaker 1: left us on our Facebook page. I really thought I

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Speaker 1: had written down the name of the person who sent

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Speaker 1: it in. Apparently I didn't, And I feel really bad

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Speaker 1: about that because it was such a great suggestion that

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Speaker 1: was definitely from that one specific person. It's not a

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Speaker 1: suggestion I think we've gotten other times. Besides that, by

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Speaker 1: absolute total coincidence. It was also a Google doodle literally yesterday.

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Speaker 1: In terms of when we are recording this podcast, uh,

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Speaker 1: it is about disability rights activist ed Roberts, who was

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Speaker 1: known as the father of the independent Living movement. That's

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Speaker 1: a movement for and by people with disabilities which combines

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Speaker 1: advocacy and resources and education all towards the goal of

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Speaker 1: living independently and fully integrated with abled society. And with

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Speaker 1: one quick heads up today there's a brief part of

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Speaker 1: today's episode while we are discussing roberts eighteen month hospitalization

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Speaker 1: with polio, that might be triggering for people with depression

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Speaker 1: or with eating disorders, and if that applies to you

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Speaker 1: when we get to that part of the story, you

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Speaker 1: might want to skip ahead about thirty seconds, starting with

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Speaker 1: our mention of that eighteen month hospital stay. Edward Verne

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Speaker 1: Roberts was born on January twenty, nineteen thirty nine, in

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Speaker 1: San Mateo, California, to Zona and Verne Roberts and at

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Speaker 1: the age of fourteen, he contracted polio, which is a

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Speaker 1: viral disease that primarily affects children under the age of five.

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Speaker 1: In addition to symptoms such as fever, headache, and vomiting,

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Speaker 1: polio also attacks the nervous system and causes paralysis. Because

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Speaker 1: of its typically young patients and the way the disease progresses,

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Speaker 1: it has also been known by the name infantile paralysis.

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Speaker 1: Polio still exists today. There's no cure for it, but

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Speaker 1: it can be prevented by a vaccine. The first polio

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Speaker 1: vaccines were introduced in nineteen fifty five, which was about

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Speaker 1: two years after Roberts contracted the disease, and if you're interested,

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Speaker 1: there is a whole podcast on the history of polio

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Speaker 1: and its vaccines in our archive from past hosts Sarah

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Speaker 1: and Babuina. In many cases of polio, the diseases progression

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Speaker 1: affects a person's ability to breathe. Until this stage of

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Speaker 1: the disease was usually fatal, but that year the first

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Speaker 1: version of the iron lung was introduced. The iron lung,

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Speaker 1: which is the more colloquial name for a tank respirator

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Speaker 1: or a negative pressure respirator, could keep patients alive during

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Speaker 1: this acute stage of the disease. An iron lung looks

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Speaker 1: like a big metal cylinder. It's big enough for a

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Speaker 1: person's whole body to fit into from the neck down. Typically,

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Speaker 1: there's a bed inside that can be slid in and

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Speaker 1: out of the cylinder, allowing the patient to be removed

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Speaker 1: and returned when necessary. Windows and portholes on the sides

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Speaker 1: of the cylinder let caregivers touch the person who's inside,

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Speaker 1: adjust their bedding, generally care for them while they are

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Speaker 1: still inside of the iron lung and The iron lung

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Speaker 1: works by alternately lowering and raising pressure inside the chamber.

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Speaker 1: When the pressure is lowered, air is drawn into the

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Speaker 1: lungs through the patient's nose and mouth, and when the

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Speaker 1: pressure is raised that air is pushed out, which both

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Speaker 1: forces the patient to exhale and allows them to speak

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Speaker 1: during the exhaled breath, so for a person using an

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Speaker 1: iron lung, speech is usually timed with the machine cycle

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Speaker 1: of breathing. Today, iron lungs have been almost completely replaced

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Speaker 1: by other respiration technologies. As of fourteen, there were only

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Speaker 1: about ten of them still in use in the world,

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Speaker 1: and those were mostly with people who had survived polio

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Speaker 1: in childhood very long ago. But during Robert's early life

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Speaker 1: they were the standard of care and polio patients who

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Speaker 1: couldn't breathe on their own. In many patients, the muscle

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Speaker 1: weakness and paralysis associated with polio were temporary, as was

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Speaker 1: the need for an iron lung, but in about one

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Speaker 1: and two hundred patients, the paralytic effects of polio are permanent.

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Speaker 1: This was the case for Ed Roberts. After contracting polio

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty three. He was hospitalized for about eighteen months.

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Speaker 1: While in the hospital, he was very ill, with a

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Speaker 1: very high fever and near total paralysis. His mother asked

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Speaker 1: his doctor whether he would live, and the doctor's answer,

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Speaker 1: which was given where Ed could hear him, was that

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Speaker 1: she should hope that he didn't because he would be,

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Speaker 1: in the doctor's words, no more than a vegetable. And

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Speaker 1: for a while Roberts decided he didn't want to live.

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Speaker 1: He was being continually looked after by nurses and the

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Speaker 1: only thing in his life that he had control over

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Speaker 1: was whether to eat and so he stopped. His weight

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Speaker 1: dropped to about fifty pounds, down from approximately a hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty. But after the last nurse left, the medical

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Speaker 1: staff had basically decided that the end was near for him.

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Speaker 1: As he would describe later in his life, he decided

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Speaker 1: that he did want to live. He started eating again.

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Speaker 1: He was eventually able to return home. His family had

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Speaker 1: moved into a different house when it had fewer stairs

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Speaker 1: and could accommodate this eight hundred pound iron lung, and

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Speaker 1: from there he returned to school, calling into classes at

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Speaker 1: Burlingame High by phone. Prior to contracting polio, Roberts had

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Speaker 1: wanted to be a professional baseball player, and he hadn't

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Speaker 1: been particularly interested in schoolwork, but that changed after his illness.

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Speaker 1: He was about two years behind because of his lengthy

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Speaker 1: hospital stay, but he dedicated himself to his schoolwork and

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Speaker 1: he became an excellent student. At this point, people with

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Speaker 1: apparent disabilities weren't really seen all that often in American society.

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Speaker 1: Many were placed in institutions or were cared for at home,

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Speaker 1: but never really got out of the house. But as

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Speaker 1: Ed's senior year of high school approached, his mother and

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Speaker 1: his social worker insisted that he not spent his whole

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Speaker 1: life in his room. They arranged for him to attend

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Speaker 1: some of his senior year classes, at least some of

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Speaker 1: them in person in a wheelchair. Roberts had learned a

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Speaker 1: method of breathing called glossop angel breathing, also known as

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Speaker 1: frog breathing, and this is sort of like swallowing air,

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Speaker 1: so basically using the muscles of his mouth and throat

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Speaker 1: to force air into his lungs. While he still needed

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Speaker 1: the iron lung for much of the time, especially while

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Speaker 1: he was asleep, he was able to live outside of

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Speaker 1: it for periods of time. He was worried about being

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Speaker 1: stared at, and people did stare at him, but he

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Speaker 1: quickly realized that the people staring weren't the ones who

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Speaker 1: were really uncomfortable with with his being there. People who

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Speaker 1: were really uncomfortable avoided looking at him, so he decided

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Speaker 1: that the ones who were staring at him were the

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Speaker 1: people who were interested and curious. So he decided to

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Speaker 1: approach it as though they were staring at him because

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Speaker 1: he was a famous person and not because he was disabled.

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Speaker 1: And this approach to other people's reactions to him really

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Speaker 1: set the stage for the man that Edward Roberts would

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Speaker 1: become throughout his life. The people who knew and worked

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Speaker 1: with him remarked on how charismatic and ambitious he was,

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Speaker 1: a very funny, very determined person, an adventurous man who

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Speaker 1: loved good food and good drinks and good company and

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Speaker 1: was absolutely unafraid to demand accessibility and equality and to

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Speaker 1: do the things that people told him would be impossible.

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Speaker 1: Uh through the wonderful work of oral historians and documentary filmmakers,

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Speaker 1: there is a lot of footage and oral history from

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Speaker 1: ed Roberts, and he is a character like he Everyone

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Speaker 1: over and over marks on just having a big, big

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Speaker 1: personality and being very gregarious and very funny. And so

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Speaker 1: we will link to a lot of those in our

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Speaker 1: shore notes for the people who are interested and learning more,

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Speaker 1: but for now. One of Ed's first experiences with advocacy

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Speaker 1: would play out while he was actually still in high school,

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Speaker 1: and we will talk about it after a quick sponsor break.

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Speaker 1: Even though ed Roberts had good grades in high school,

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Speaker 1: when it was time for him to graduate, the school's

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Speaker 1: principle refused to let him. The state required credits and

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Speaker 1: physical education and driver's d. He had neither because neither

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Speaker 1: class was accessible to him. His mother's zona, who had

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Speaker 1: experienced in advocacy through her work as a labor organizer,

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Speaker 1: first took it up with the school. The vice principle

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Speaker 1: came by their house and suggested that since Ed hadn't

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Speaker 1: done the required coursework, his diploma would be a quote

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Speaker 1: CHIE one and he should stay an extra year to

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Speaker 1: make up for it. And the family, of course declined

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Speaker 1: this offer. It was not really reasonable to say, because

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Speaker 1: he didn't take PE and drivers that you need a

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Speaker 1: whole extra year of high school zone and then took

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Speaker 1: the matter to the school board, which ultimately allowed physical

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Speaker 1: rehabilitation to account for his PE credits, and they waived

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Speaker 1: the requirement for Driver's ED, which, uh, if you've ever

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Speaker 1: done any kind of of physical rehab it's harder than

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Speaker 1: most PE classes, Like he should have gotten extra credit

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Speaker 1: for that. Uh, so his high school diploma received. Roberts

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Speaker 1: attended his local community college, the College of San Mateo,

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Speaker 1: from nineteen fifty nine to nineteen sixty two, and he

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Speaker 1: at first planned to become a technical writer. He was

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Speaker 1: a good writer and he knew how to dictate documents,

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Speaker 1: so it seemed like a good way to be able

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Speaker 1: to earn a living, but after taking a class in government,

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Speaker 1: he became very interested in political science. Roberts had originally

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Speaker 1: planned to transfer from the College of San Mateo to

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Speaker 1: u c l A, and that was a campus that

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Speaker 1: was already wheelchair accessible, in part because of a program

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Speaker 1: for World War Two veterans that was already in place

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Speaker 1: at the school, but Ed's advisor at College of San Mateo,

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Speaker 1: Dean Worth, recommended the University of California at Berkeley for

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Speaker 1: the strength of its political science program. Ed's brother Ron,

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Speaker 1: was going to UC Berkeley, and Ed knew from his

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Speaker 1: visits there that the campus was not particularly accessible, but

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Speaker 1: even though Berkeley's lack of accessibility made it a list

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Speaker 1: practical choice, it was definitely the stronger option for him

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Speaker 1: in terms of academics. Ed went to the California Department

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Speaker 1: of Rehabilitation for financial help with school, something it had

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Speaker 1: made available to other disabled students. They gave him a

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Speaker 1: personality test and later told him that it scored him

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Speaker 1: as being very aggressive, something that Roberts suggested, given his disability,

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Speaker 1: should be seen as a positive and not a negative,

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Speaker 1: but the counselor assigned to him at the Department of

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Speaker 1: Rehabilitation denied his request or financial aid on the grounds

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Speaker 1: that he was not employable, and then when you See

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Speaker 1: Berkeley learned about his disability, it tried to resend his

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Speaker 1: acceptance to the university. But similarly to how he'd had

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Speaker 1: his mother's support and getting his high school to allow

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Speaker 1: him to graduate, here, he had the support of the

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Speaker 1: staff at the College of San Mateo, including gene Worth,

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Speaker 1: as well as the school's president and Dean of students

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Speaker 1: uh and they backed his efforts to enroll at you

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Speaker 1: See Berkeley. They pointed to his strong academic record as

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Speaker 1: evidence that he had the right to continue his education

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Speaker 1: at the school with the best academic program that he

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Speaker 1: wanted to study, and that he shouldn't be forced to

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Speaker 1: go elsewhere just to be on a campus that was

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Speaker 1: already accessible. You See Berkeley, arguing that there was nowhere

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Speaker 1: on campus to how someone who used an iron lung,

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Speaker 1: and worried about Robert's medical needs and the risk that

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Speaker 1: something could happen to him while he was at the school,

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Speaker 1: again said no. This time, Roberts and his advocates went

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Speaker 1: to the newspaper You See Berkeley eventually relented Robert's plan

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Speaker 1: to work around you See Berkeley's lack of wheelchair accessibility

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Speaker 1: by using a wheelchair when he could, but being carried

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Speaker 1: into places like classroom buildings or cafeterias that had stairs.

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Speaker 1: But there was still the real issue of having nowhere

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Speaker 1: in student housing that could accommodate an eight hundred pound

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Speaker 1: iron lung, and eventually the decision was made to house

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Speaker 1: him in a wing of you See Berkeley's Cowl Hospital,

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Speaker 1: and he moved in in nineteen sixty two. For that

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Speaker 1: first year, it was a really lonely existence. Roberts was

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Speaker 1: the only student being housed full time in the hospital,

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Speaker 1: and his primary company was an attendant that was paid

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Speaker 1: for by state funds from a program to provide services

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Speaker 1: for people with disabilities. Sometimes his friends or his brother

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Speaker 1: Ron helped out as well, but at night he was

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Speaker 1: basically being treated as a patient and not a student.

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Speaker 1: At the same time, though in typical college fashion, he

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Speaker 1: had a lot more freedom and independence than he had

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Speaker 1: had at home. He could breathe on his own outside

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Speaker 1: of the iron lung long enough to go to class,

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Speaker 1: go have a drink, and even to go on dates.

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Speaker 1: It was that last one that prompted Roberts to try

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Speaker 1: to find a way to make a power wheelchair, which

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Speaker 1: was at this point a relatively new technology work for him.

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Speaker 1: Today there are a lot more options for controlling power wheelchairs,

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Speaker 1: including head and mouth controls, but at the time, hand

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Speaker 1: controls were really the only one in existence. For this reason,

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Speaker 1: Roberts threehab counselors had told him that he wouldn't ever

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Speaker 1: be able to use one. He only had the use

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Speaker 1: of two fingers on his left hand, and not in

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Speaker 1: a way that could operate those controls. But Roberts, highly

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Speaker 1: motivated by a desire to be alone with his girlfriend,

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Speaker 1: figured out that with the controls simply turned around, he

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Speaker 1: could operate the power wheelchair by pulling with his two

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Speaker 1: fingers rather than pushing on them as they were designed

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Speaker 1: to be used. In nine Roberts was no longer the

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Speaker 1: only student living in Cowell hospit Battle. He was joined

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Speaker 1: by John Hessler, who had broken his neck in a

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Speaker 1: diving accident, and soon Cowel Hospital was home to other

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Speaker 1: students with similar disabilities as well. By nineteen sixty seven,

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Speaker 1: at which point Roberts had finished a bachelor's and the Masters,

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Speaker 1: and had moved on to PhD work in political science.

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Speaker 1: There were about twelve students living in Cowel Hospital who

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Speaker 1: called themselves the Rolling Quads. They formed a support network

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Speaker 1: and advocacy group, coming up with ideas and strategies for

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Speaker 1: better accessibility both on and off campus. You see, Berkeley

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Speaker 1: was a hotbed of political activism, including protests for women's rights,

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Speaker 1: free speech, and against the Vietnam War. Berkeley is one

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Speaker 1: of the campuses that shows up again and again in

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Speaker 1: coverage about student protests, some of them uh quite radical,

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Speaker 1: and this was true for the Rolling Quads as well.

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Speaker 1: When the program administrators tried to cut funding for students

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Speaker 1: who weren't completing their coursework fast and the Rolling Quads

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Speaker 1: petitioned and then went to the media on the grounds

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Speaker 1: that the same standards were not being applied to non

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Speaker 1: disabled students. Basically, the school was in a hurry for

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Speaker 1: the students with disabilities to finish faster because it was

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Speaker 1: more expensive to house them, but that same measurement was

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Speaker 1: not being applied to other students who were in more

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Speaker 1: typical student housing. When the city started refurbishing a shopping

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Speaker 1: center near the campus, eight of the Rolling Quads went

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Speaker 1: to a city council meeting to demand that curb cuts

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Speaker 1: be included in the budget. They were with the city

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Speaker 1: devoting fifty thousand dollars a year to making accessibility improvements

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Speaker 1: to city streets. The curb cut is just that little

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Speaker 1: slope that goes from the curb level to the street level,

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Speaker 1: which today is completely standard, was not standard at that point,

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Speaker 1: and it meant that, you know, if if you were

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Speaker 1: using a wheelchair, it was really hard for you to

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Speaker 1: get from like across the street. And when they went

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Speaker 1: to the city council, one of the arguments that they

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Speaker 1: got back, well, we don't need those, We never see

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Speaker 1: any people out in wheelchairs. And they were like, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because it is because safe, we can't use the sidewalks.

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Speaker 1: It's such like a jacked up logic. I know. Uh.

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Speaker 1: As all of this was going on, Robert's former counselor,

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Speaker 1: back from the College of San Mateo, Jean Worth, had

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Speaker 1: been working on a college readiness program for minority students.

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Speaker 1: And this was a program that was working toward reducing

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Speaker 1: high school dropout rates and preparing minority students for college.

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Speaker 1: Through peer counseling, students who were at risk for dropping

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Speaker 1: out were paired with other students who were their mentors

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Speaker 1: who could help them remove whatever obstacles were in the

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Speaker 1: way and keeping them from finishing school. Based on the

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Speaker 1: work that the Rolling Quads had been doing UH and

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Speaker 1: how much they had been able to advocate for themselves

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Speaker 1: and support one another, Roberts thought the same model could

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Speaker 1: be used for students with disabilities. So Roberts flew to

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Speaker 1: Washington to help Worth write a plan that included disability

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Speaker 1: among the minority students the program sought to help, and

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Speaker 1: he presented a grant proposal to the Department of Health, Education,

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Speaker 1: and Welfare to implement a peer support program at UC Berkeley.

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Speaker 1: The department approved eighty one thousand dollars in funding. With

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Speaker 1: this grant, Roberts and the Rolling Quads started the Physically

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Speaker 1: Disabled Students Program or PDSP. The p DSP was run

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Speaker 1: by and for students with disabilities, and it sought to

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Speaker 1: provide attendance, wheelchair repair, and resources for accessible housing, including

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Speaker 1: the relocation out of Cowell Hospital into actual accessible housing

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Speaker 1: rather than a hospital ward. Even though it was only

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Speaker 1: meant to be a student program, it was so successful

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Speaker 1: that people in the greater community began to rely on

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Speaker 1: it really quickly. Something that was technically against the rules,

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Speaker 1: but the p DSP was just not really willing to

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Speaker 1: turn people away. It was grounded in the self advocacy

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Speaker 1: and the folk us on self determination that became the

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Speaker 1: hallmarks of the independent living movement. Much of the disability

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Speaker 1: advocacy before this point had been by and on behalf

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Speaker 1: of caregivers, not of people with disabilities themselves. It was

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Speaker 1: often paternalistic, and it approached people with disabilities as a

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Speaker 1: population to be pitied and looked after, not as autonomous

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Speaker 1: human beings capable of making their own decisions. Although there

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Speaker 1: are still divisions between self advocacy and caregiver advocacy today,

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Speaker 1: the independent living movement changed that direction entirely. You will

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Speaker 1: definitely see huge divisions especially among like uh parents of

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Speaker 1: children with disabilities and then those adults who have grown

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Speaker 1: up and are able to advocate for themselves. A lot

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Speaker 1: of times very different needs and opinions. But before this

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Speaker 1: movement really started, the only voice was the more paternalistic

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Speaker 1: I need to look after you. Here's how I'm going

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00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,320
Speaker 1: to fix your problem kind of voice. Soon, the p

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00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,480
Speaker 1: DSPs work made a more official move off of campus,

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Speaker 1: rather than just seeing to the needs of community of

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Speaker 1: the community, even though it was really a student program,

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Speaker 1: and we will talk about that after another quick sponsor break.

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Speaker 1: As more students with more types of disabilities came to

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Speaker 1: Berkeley's Physically Disabled Students Program for help, the p DSP

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Speaker 1: broadened its focus from primarily wheelchair users to include, for example,

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Speaker 1: providing rail readers for blind students. And as we noted

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Speaker 1: before the break, the p DSP didn't want to turn

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Speaker 1: away anyone who needed help, regardless of whether they actually

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00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,480
Speaker 1: went to Berkeley or not, so almost immediately the p

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Speaker 1: DSP staff of nine full and part time counselors was

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Speaker 1: just completely overwhelmed. The result was that in Robert and

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00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:04,520
Speaker 1: the Physically Disabled Students Program launched the Center for Independent Living.

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Speaker 1: It followed the same model as the PDSP, an organization

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Speaker 1: run by and for people with disabilities, incorporating a broad

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Speaker 1: range of disabilities and working towards the goal of completely

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Speaker 1: integrating people with disabilities into the greater community. The by

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Speaker 1: laws stipulated that at least fifty one of the staff

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Speaker 1: and board had to be people with disabilities. While the

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Speaker 1: p DSP had been launched by federal grant money, the

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00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,560
Speaker 1: Center for Independent Living was funded by whatever money its

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Speaker 1: founders could scrape together, including donations, occasional grant money, and

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Speaker 1: ten percent of the pot at some of the founders

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Speaker 1: periodic poker games. And after a brief time away from

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Speaker 1: Berkeley teaching community organizing at an all black school, Roberts

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00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,640
Speaker 1: returned to the Center for Independent Living in nineteen seventy four.

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Speaker 1: As its director, he began more explicitly approaching his disability

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Speaker 1: rights advocacy in terms of civil rights. Other centers for

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Speaker 1: Independent Living soon opened in other states, following the same

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Speaker 1: model for self advocacy, self determination, integration, and quality of life.

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Speaker 1: By the nineteen eighties, there were more than three hundred

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Speaker 1: of these centers around the United States. Roberts stayed and

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Speaker 1: his in his role at the Center for Independent Living

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Speaker 1: for about eighteen months until nineteen seventy five, when California

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Speaker 1: Governor Jerry Brown came for a tour. After seeing the

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Speaker 1: work that Roberts was doing, he offered him a new position,

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Speaker 1: director of the state's Department of Rehabilitation. This was the

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Speaker 1: same department that had told Roberts he was unemployable when

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Speaker 1: he was looking for financial help to go to UC

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Speaker 1: Berkeley and Roberts would work as the director of the

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Speaker 1: state Department of Rehabilitation for the next nine years. During

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Speaker 1: that time, he would radically shift the department's direction and

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Speaker 1: the way that it offered services. The department's federal funding

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00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:53,600
Speaker 1: was based on how many people it was able to

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Speaker 1: place into jobs, so for years it had focused most

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Speaker 1: of its attention on the people whose disabilities were easiest

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Speaker 1: to accommodate in a workplace setting, and that was why

386
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:08,600
Speaker 1: it had written Roberts off as unemployable. Instead, Roberts added

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Speaker 1: day to day support for a person's independent quality of

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Speaker 1: life to the Department of Rehabilitation's roster of duties, as

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Speaker 1: well as advocacy for non discrimination policies other things that

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Speaker 1: were basically meant to take a broader, more holistic scope

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00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,320
Speaker 1: to what the department was doing. The department did see

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Speaker 1: a fair amount of turnover as employees resisted the shift

393
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,639
Speaker 1: in direction and in some cases were let go because

394
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: they did not agree with the shift in direction, and

395
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 1: the debate on how much to continue to focus on

396
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Speaker 1: more easy to place jobs for the sake of federal

397
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: funding continued, and really in a lot of places continued

398
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Speaker 1: still today and in the midst of all of this UH,

399
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 1: in those same years, Robert got married and he and

400
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 1: his wife Catherine also had a son named Lee. Also

401
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: during these same year's very busy collection of years was

402
00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,400
Speaker 1: a lengthy governmental back and forth related to what's known

403
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: as Section five oh four. This is a non discrimination

404
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 1: clause and the Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three UH.

405
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:11,879
Speaker 1: Section five oh four reads quote, no otherwise qualified handicapped

406
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: individual in the United States shall, solely on the basis

407
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:19,199
Speaker 1: of his handicap, be excluded from the participation, being denied

408
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any

409
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 1: program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Section five oh

410
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 1: four was added to the Rehabilitation Act almost unnoticed during

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00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:35,120
Speaker 1: the Nixon administration, and the fight over it lasted into

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Speaker 1: the administration of Jimmy Carter, largely due to the financial

413
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 1: costs involved with making buildings and programs accessible and fears

414
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 1: about its scope being too broad. A four year delay

415
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 1: in writing regulations to actually implement section five oh four

416
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 1: ultimately led to an enormous takeover of the Regional Health,

417
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Speaker 1: Education and Welfare Building in San Francisco in nineteen seventy seven,

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Speaker 1: one or and ized by Judy Hyman, who had been

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00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: paralyzed after contracting polio as a baby. Roberts made several

420
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 1: visits to this sit in, which was ultimately successful, prompting

421
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: Carter's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to finally sign

422
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,679
Speaker 1: off on the necessary regulations also in nineteen seventy seven.

423
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 1: Section five oh four would eventually lead into the Americans

424
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:24,879
Speaker 1: with Disabilities Act in nine ed Roberts continued to be

425
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 1: a strident advocate for disability rights and independent living for

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00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,120
Speaker 1: the rest of his life, and this included travel all

427
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 1: over the world, which itself involved advocating for accessible airports

428
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: and airplanes. He helped found the World Institute on Disability

429
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three, and he was awarded a MacArthur

430
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: Foundation grant in nineteen eighty four. He served on the

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00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: board of directors of numerous disability rights organizations while also

432
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: serving as the president of the World Institute of Disability

433
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 1: until until his death from cardiac arrest on March fourteenth

434
00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: of nineteen five at the age of fifty six. His

435
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:04,639
Speaker 1: wheelchair is now part of the Smithsonian Collection. He was

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Speaker 1: inducted into the California Hall of Fame in eleven and

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Speaker 1: the United States House of Representatives declared at January at

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Speaker 1: Roberts to day. Also January is the day that he

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Speaker 1: was a Google doodle. Coincidentally, as I was like, that

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Speaker 1: was the day I finished writing this podcast. Good accidental timing,

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Speaker 1: Tracy Well, and as I was doing the research, I

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Speaker 1: was like, oh, his birthday's coming up, and then there

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Speaker 1: was the Google doodle today. The nonprofit Ed Roberts Campus,

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Speaker 1: a fully accessible campus and events based in Berkeley, is

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Speaker 1: also named for him. That is had Roberts. He really

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Speaker 1: did so much to shift the way that people thought

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Speaker 1: about disability and to shift the way that people regarded

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Speaker 1: people with disabilities. Uh, not at all to suggest that

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Speaker 1: everything is perfect now. I mean basically, everybody I know

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Speaker 1: who is living with a disability, especially if it is

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Speaker 1: not something that is easily accommodated, faces a basically continual

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Speaker 1: uphill battle to get services and basic uh equipment and care.

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Speaker 1: But going from nothing two to that, like it was

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Speaker 1: a huge, a huge deal. So I think we definitely

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Speaker 1: owe a lot to Ed Roberts. Heany so much for

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Speaker 1: joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out

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Speaker 1: of the archive. If you heard an email address or

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Speaker 1: a Facebook U r L or something similar over the

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Speaker 1: course of the show that could be obsolete now. Our

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00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,920
Speaker 1: current email address is History podcast at i heart radio

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00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,320
Speaker 1: dot com. Our old health stuff works email address no

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00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,159
Speaker 1: longer works, and you can find us all over social

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Speaker 1: media at missed in History. And you can subscribe to

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Speaker 1: our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, the I heart

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00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff

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Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H