They yearn for the day when wheelchairs, hearing aids, guide dogs and ventilators will be overlooked and the individuals using them will not. People with disabilities are sometimes offended by words and terms in the nondisabled person's vocabulary. The disability community focuses on abilities, not limitations. People are more important than their disabilities. Figures do not include people in institutions.
Severe disability is defined as a complete inability to perform one of the above activities.
The disability rights movement is a struggle for independence, respect and equality. And that fight is far from over. Disability rights advocates want to replace the hodgepodge of state programs with a national attendant care initiative. Children with disabilities find themselves fighting for equal opportunities in the classroom. He was a staff writer at The Pittsburgh Press before joinging the O-R in June 1993.