By Robert Ambrose

People with disabilities are probably undercounted in our everyday thinking. For example, when we think of people with disabilities, we think of people who use wheelchairs. But the term disability extends to people with short stature, people with hearing or vision limitations and special education students. All of them deserve our respect. Because of the required courage to work with one’s setbacks, they can inspire us in our own lives. Also, simply helping a person in a wheelchair if they need a door opened in public, for example, costs no money.

We are all in this life together.

Today compared to hundreds of years ago, we all benefit with tech development in travel. But technology also enhances mobility for people with physical disabilities. Technology like wheelchairs and elevators make fast mobility possible for people with disabilities. One person on TV in an electric wheelchair is in Madrid, Spain, a politician who regularly makes declarations. But tech aside, it’s the people’s character that counts.

Charisma appeared to play a current role in Spain’s Pablo Echenique’s job. Back home, our 32nd U.S. President, Franklin D Roosevelt, won four presidential terms in his wheelchair. In fact, one source said that “Americans were not shaken by his disability.”

Disability affects many people with nearly 20% of Americans having a disability of some kind. Unfortunately, men with a disability have a higher rate of unemployment than men without disability, according to the World Health Organization. Of the disabled people in the US, 70% rely on family and friends for help. 

Fast forward to this month, our nation will celebrate National Disability Independence Day/Americans with Disabilities Act Anniversary. Observed on July 26, this day recognizes the civil rights guarantee which is afforded to every person who is disabled. The new expanded rights helped people with disability in the areas of independent living, public accommodation, jobs, transportation, state and local government services and self-sufficiency. On that day in US history in 1990 the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) officially made discrimination a thing of the past for people with disabilities.

We see one clear ADA overhaul as we walk on sidewalks. The sloped sidewalks encourage people with disabilities to stay on the sidewalks rather than move in the streets. How did we get there?  “Title II of the ADA requires state and local governments to make pedestrian crossings accessible to people with disabilities by providing curb ramps.” To make good on that earlier claim that we are all in this life together: we all are also traveling together – on sidewalks.