There are some remarkable key stories in the saga of the modern disability movement.

Judy Heumann was denied employment as a teacher because of her post-polio use of a wheelchair. She fought and won.

Ed Roberts was denied admission into the University of California Berkeley in the 60s due to his quadriplegia and iron lung dependence in the sixties. He not only fought and won, but with Heumann and other legends of the movement, established what became a network of Independent Living Centers across the U.S. He was ultimately appointed head of the CA Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, the office which tried to deny his tuition because they said he would never work!

To pass Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which stated simply that the Federal Government and its contractors shall not discriminate against people with disabilities, the longest occupation of a federal building to this day occurred in downtown San Francisco to compel the Carter Administration to sign the regulations into law.

It's an amazing story. And still continuing.

We've achieved a much more accessible world. We've achieved communication options for people who are deaf or with impaired speech. We've allowed more people to live in their communities and get out of institutions (though that job is not yet done). We've designed technologies from sophisticated wheelchairs and athletic vehicles, personal transportation, and ways of interacting with computing, even for someone with no arms or sight. We've achieved civil rights under the law, by which we are protected from discrimination based on the fact of having a disability (again, more work to do on that one!).

Much of this work has been done by people who use chairs, who devoted themselves to engineering and design when they were either given old technologies that they knew fell short of what is possible, or when a solution didn't exist at all.

Everyone has noticed that people with disabilities of all kinds are increasingly part of the daily scene. The more visible they are in public life, then the more progress we make in breaking down prevailing disability stereotypes. As the general population sees people who are highly active and clearly feeling just fine about themselves as people with disabilities, then the more authentic and whole they become in the collective mind.

Best of all, kids with disabilities are increasingly mainstreamed in public schools. When children grow up having direct relationships with kids with disabilities, the stereotypes don't even take hold. They get that these are people. Friends. They get what life is possible, and that they have the same feelings and desires as anyone else. There is real cause for hope that the stereotypes will continue to break down.

Having leveled the field to the degree we have, it's now possible for people to participate and contribute more than ever before in our history. This is true in our communities as full participants, as volunteers, and as employees and leaders in the workplace.

So now it's up to us. Having fought for all of these changes and successes, the best way to follow up — and build the momentum even further — is to get out there and prove what a great investment has been made. Fair or not, because we are still convincing society of who we are, we need to commit to a level of self-responsibility. We need to accept being held to the same standards as everyone else, such as behaving professionally in the workplace.

This is exactly what we have fought for: the right to sink or swim like everyone else, once the obstacle have been moved aside and the tools made available for us to succeed.

Gary's message to the disability community includes a plea to be patient with the people who don't get it yet. Poor souls. They get so uncomfortable being around us. It's not their fault that they say or do things that are patronizing or innapropriate!

To keep fostering the mission, we need to invite people into the conversation in a safe way. Some, of course, never will, but most people are open to having their thinking brought up to date — unless they feel accused or aggressively challenged.

One of Gary's great skills is to make the conversation safe, directing his anger at the work that remains to be done (and the lives that are still compromised) by translating it into passion for a clear message that anyone can understand.

Disability issues are eveyone's issues, and not just because it can become a personal reality for anyone at any time — or someone they love or care about. People want their taxes spent productively, so need to care about investing in independence. People want the best colleauges and leaders in the workplace to achieve success. And people want to know that, should it be them, they will have the right to pursue their highest potential in the context of their disability.

People get it when they hear Gary speak, and he urges disability audiences to engage with others in a way that allows them to see the real people we are, devoted to living real and productive lives.