Where we are.

Recently I read a blog about Martin Luther King by Matt Stowe at the Beach Center. He talked about the impact the civil rights movement had on individuals with disabilities. This ties in with a theme that I have thought about. I graduated from H.S. and college in the 60's and besides my parents, my philosophy was impacted a great deal by JFK and MLK. While we are far from perfect, protecting "civil rights" and helping others has been a strong theme and concept in this country. This applies to the groups that these 2 men were working with at the time and to individuals with disabilities.

I have worked with individuals with disabilities mostly in school settings for 35+ years. I remember terms like deaf and dumb, retarded and handicapped being used even by "professionals". Now we have "people first language". In many ways we have come a long way and in many ways we have not. There are civil rights and education laws for individuals with disabilities. A variety of programs exist and are being developed often that benefit individuals with disabilities. Persons with disabilities have more access to jobs than ever before and even appear on tv, in movies and in ads. Near where I live a young man in a wheelchair owns a new car dealership and is in all of the ads for the dealership.

Has this country come a long ways? Yes. Is there a lot more that needs to be done? Absolutely. Will we continue to move forward? I believe that the answer is yes, the question is how fast. I feel that the speed is picking up and could continue for some time to benefit individuals including children with disabilities. This is due to the potential impact on our society of two groups, baby boomers and military personnel.

I am at the upper end of the boomer wave and there are millions moving forward behind me. Boomers as a group have more disposable income than other age groups and will live longer than their parents. They have already put pressure on the health industry and will continue to do so. As a physically active group we will need more joint replacements than any previous group. I have already read that improvements have been made in the durability and "life span" of artificial joints. There is a prediction that the demand will be so great that there soon will be a shortage of orthopedic surgeons. The boomers will demand more and better services and products and will have the money to pay for them.

Sadly many of our young people in the military are coming home with physical injuries. As a group they are also physically active and believers that technology has and can improve the world. They are already making more demands on the medical system and themselves to improve their lives quickly. They want and demand things now. Devices, limbs, etc. are being developed and improved at a rapid rate. Recently a young man with two artificial legs was ruled ineligible to participate in the Olympics because he had an "unfair advantage" over "normal" runners. People with various disabilities are climbing Mt. Everest.

Put these two groups together and I see an increasing demand for new and better medical services, treatments (vision for the blind, help for those with spinal cord injuries) and products, more accessible housing (inside, not just getting to the front door), accessible hotel rooms, facilities and automobiles. I am somewhat technologically impaired, so I am sure that there is already much more going on. There will also be more demands for training programs and vocational services for people with disabilities.

Much of the research occurring and many of the things that are developed will benefit children with disabilities. The issue will be how as a society we chose to make these things available to the children and others. A common saying in the 60's was, "We can put a man on the moon, but we can not feed the hungry in this country." An older saying is "As much as things change, some things do not change."