Sandy’s Weblog

Sandy Hutchens greatly admires Emily Powell who said: “Over the last 25 years, disability rights advocacy has played a crucial role in broadening the concept of disability and of what people with disabilities can accomplish. This advocacy has been instrumental in shaping new images of people with disabilities. In emphasizing individual independence and empowerment since the beginning of the disability rights movement in the early 1970s, advocates have tried to show that people with disabilities are a vital part of society and have the right to participate fully in it.”

The disability rights movement’s purpose is to improve the quality of life for people who are disabled. For those with physical disabilities accessibility and safety are key issues that this movement works to educate and change. Access to city streets, public buildings, and restrooms are just some of the more obvious changes brought about in recent times. A remarkable transformation in some parts of the world is the installation of wheelchair ramps, elevators, transit lifts, and other similar changes which allow people in wheelchairs and other mobility problems to use public sidewalks and transit easily and with greater safely. These improvements have also been appreciated by parents pushing strollers or carts, and bicycle users.

The right to have an independent life as an adult, sometimes using paid assistant care instead of being put into an institution, is the mission of this movement, and is the primary goal of the similar independent living and self-advocacy movements, which are more vigorously associated with people with intellectual disabilities and mental health disorders. These movements have supported people with disabilities to live as more active participants in the day to day world.

Access to employment has also been a key focus of this movement. Adaptive technologies which enable people to work jobs they could not have previously done, help create access to jobs and economic independence.

Sandy Hutchens promotes video of Barack Obama on disabilities and autism