We are not a tragic minority. We are a magnificent, triumphant majority. Science and democracy have created a new human. The majority of Americans will triumph over death to live with a disability at some point in their lives. Every single American family will experience disability.
Disability is a normal characteristic of the new human.
Policy that does not meet the needs of people with disabilities does not meet the needs of anyone. Science gives all the new humans, with and without disabilities, a new potential to be a hundred times more productive, to live immeasurably better than our strongest, smartest, richest ancestors of only 200 years ago. But we are allowing old attitudes, old systems to limit this magnificent potential. America's task now is not to go back, not to defend the adolescent status quo. Our task is to go vigorously forward, to focus full the force of science and free enterprise on creating a new culture that will enable the new humans to live their new potential.