Ted Kennedy Jr.
Addresses - Challenge for Disabled
at SUNY - Albany
by Nancy Denofio
Listen to this article in real audio
Those who attended on Saturday night, May 2nd 1998, at the University at Albany heard Ted Kennedy Jr. as he addressed the greatest barrier the disabled Americans
face, societal attitudes.
"The problem is not in someone's physical of mental condition but in the
way society erects barriers," said the son of US Senator Edward Kennedy.
His personal experience is what prompted him to be the keynote speaker at
the 25th Anniversary gala for the University Office of Disabled Student
Services in Albany.
Ted Jr. lost his leg to cancer in 1973 at the age of 12, and now he is on
the research faculty of Yale University School of Medicine and Law and is
the director of the New Haven Lead Safe Home Community Health Project.
During a cocktail reception at the University Center where gusts too
arrived in wheelchairs and navigated with white tipped canes and guide
dogs... Kennedy said, "We are here to recognize the tremendous
accomplishments of the disabled students," it's a model program in the way
that it has been able to expand the opportunities of college students not
just here, but as a model for other states."
Kennedy stated the important issues and landmark of the Americans with
Disabilities Act which requires reasonable accommodations for the disabled
yet he added, "discrimination will continue unless peoples attitudes
change."
The Federal Rehabilitation Act requires that all colleges be accessible.
A guest stated when she became part of the University at Albany there were
88 disabled students, now they have 400. The Disabled Student Services
office opened in response to the Federal Rehabilitation Act in 1973. She
had a dream of putting all these people together because she knew the
graduates are out in the world and are successful... no matter their
disability. Now, we all must direct Society on the right path to
understand what disability means to each individual student along the way.Page back on your browser or click here for MedSupport FSF Home
