10 Disability Rights Leaders Everyone Should Know

Being part of the disability community, specifically the Disability Rights Movement, makes me proud of our history and leaders. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of trailblazing and pioneering men and women who gave so much of themselves for the betterment of us all at a tremendous personal sacrifice. My list of 10 is just a mere drop in the bucket. But ten is better than none.

I've hyperlinked each name to a Wikipedia entry should you want to learn more about any of them. Comment below if there were any names on the list unfamiliar to you. Or if there is someone you'd like to include that I did not highlight.

Reverend Wade Blank was a non-disabled former nursing home recreational director who assisted several residents in moving out and starting their own community. He co-founded ADAPT, which initially started as Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit since the group's initial issue was to get wheelchair-accessible lifts on buses.

Justin Dart Jr. was an American activist and advocated for people with disabilities. He helped pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), and is regarded as the "Godfather of the ADA."

Ed Roberts was the first student with severe disabilities to attend the University of California, Berkeley. Roberts is often called the father of the Independent Living movement. He had polio and for many years lived and advocated from inside his iron lung. His advocacy began on the Berkeley campus and led to improving access in his community. While he did not start CIL Berkeley, he is credited with guiding CIL's rapid growth during a decisive time for the emerging disability rights movement. The CIL provided a model for a new kind of community organization designed to address the needs and concerns of people with a wide range of disabilities. In 1976, newly elected Governor Jerry Brown appointed Ed Roberts Director of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation—the same agency that had once labeled him too severely disabled to work.

Judith Heumann co-founded the World Institute on Disability with Ed Roberts. She became the first person in a wheelchair to teach in New York City and taught elementary school there for three years. She was the Director of the Department of Disability Services for the District of Columbia, but in 2010 became the Special Advisor on Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department under President Barack Obama.

I King Jordan became, in 1988, the first deaf president of Gallaudet University, the world's only University with all programs and services designed specifically for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. That year Gallaudet students, with support from many alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the University, protested the Board of Trustees' appointment of a hearing person to the presidency. After the week-long protest Deaf President Now, the Board reversed its decision and named Jordan the eighth president of Gallaudet and the first deaf president since the institution was established in 1864.

Diane Coleman is the President and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group she founded in 1996 to give voice to disability rights in opposition to the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Leroy Moore is a rapper, educator, and activist who performs and lectures about the intersections of race and disability. He was born in New York City with cerebral palsy. Moore is co-founder of Krip Hop Nation, a project which came out of his interest in black musicians who were marginalized because of their disabilities. The project's mission is "to get the talents of musical artists with disabilities into the hands of media outlets, educators, hip hop, disabled, and race scholars."

Billy Barty was an American film actor and television star who stood three feet, nine inches tall due to cartilage-hair hypoplasia dwarfism. Barty founded the Little People of America organization to help people with dwarfism in 1957 when he called upon people of short stature to join him in a get-together in Reno, Nevada. That initial meeting of 21 people grew into Little People of America, a group that, as of 2010, has more than 6,800 members.

Mary Lou Breslin has been a disability rights law and policy advocate and analyst for over thirty-five years. In 1979 she co-founded the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), a leading national civil rights law and policy center. She presently serves as a senior policy advisor with DREDF directing the organization's healthcare initiatives.

Michael Winter was born in 1951 with osteogenesis imperfecta and grew up in Chicago. His advocacy began in college, and he served as director for the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, followed by the president of the National Council on Independent Living. He also held various positions at the U.S. Department of Transportation.