Attorney, national policy advocate, and spokesperson for disability rights organizations, 1976-1990s
By: Deborah Kaplan ; an interview conducted by Sharon Bonney in 1998 ; Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley,
Contributors: Bonney, Sharon, interviewer.; Bancroft Library. Regional Oral History Office.
Published: 2000
Subjects: Kaplan, Deborah, 1950 Jan. 17-; Center for Independent Living. Disability Law Resource Center.; World Institute on Disability.; Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.; United States.; United States.; Women with disabilities -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Interviews.; Political activists -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Interviews.; Lawyers -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Interviews.
Genres: Interviews.
Description: Topics covered include: youth in Massachusetts, undergraduate study at UC Santa Cruz; disabling accident, 1972; law studies at Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley, 1973-1976; work with the Center for Independent Living, Disability Law Resource Center, Disabled Women's Support Group, 1974-1976; establishing the Disability Rights Center, Washington, D.C., 1976; work at the Public Interest Law Center, Philadelphia, 1978; marriage to Ralf Hotchkiss, adoption of son Desmond, discussion of parenthood, life with a disability, aging; attorney for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, 1980-1985; employment discrimination, developmental disability issues; World Institute on Disability, 1986-1996, executive director since 1997: work on disability access to emerging technologies, the Telecommunications Act of 1996; reflections on Ed Roberts and other disability movement leaders.