Sally Writes and We Need to Listen

Today's print column

“Here's some food for thought, so to speak,” it said on the envelope, with a smiley face. Inside was a letter from Sally Christenson of Cedar Rapids.

Christenson, who has been disabled for more than 20 years and in a wheelchair for a decade with degenerative arthritis and other afflictions, wrote to tell me that, despite good laws, barriers for her and others with disabilities still exist.

“I don't believe that removing these barriers and making modifications for us is too much to ask or that it is an inconvenience to any healthy individual,” she wrote. “Just because we are in a wheelchair ... does not mean that we do not have the ability to think, laugh, cry, have passion about something, or love life ... Please listen to us and work with us and not against us.”

I wrote back, asking her to tell me more. She came in for an interview.

Sally is not complaining, or demanding that somebody do something, or else. She's infinitely positive, and wants that attitude to rub off on others as she explains her concerns. She simply wants to remind us that even as we pass laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, reality and law are still strangers in some places.

Sometimes, the button she needs to press to open an automatic door is installed in an inconvenient, or even impossible, position to reach. Some parking spots for the disabled are hardly what you'd call “adjacent,” or they're far away from curb cuts for a wheelchair. Sometimes there are no curb cuts at all. Public transit tries to accommodate, but that doesn't always go smoothly, either, she said.

Christenson said it's tough to find help paying for or repairing an assistive device. And there's the constant struggle to stretch disability income to cover the costs of living. It's difficult for her to work, although she's looking for some way to contribute. “There are so many things disabled people have to offer to society,” she said.

When she left our office, Sally rolled into a small elevator near the entrance. She couldn't turn in tight quarters to reach the buttons, so I pushed one for her. Message received.

I'm going to take her cue and refrain from a lecture. But we so-called healthy individuals need to listen very closely to her message. She's not asking for special favors. She wants to be included in our society, not excluded.

The World Health Organization reported Friday that 1 billion people around the globe are disabled in some way, and as many as 190 million face “significant difficulties.” In Iowa, one-third of the 1,458 employment discrimination cases and nearly half of the 167 housing cases investigated by the state Civil Rights Commission in 2010 involved various disabilities.

Clearly, there is much work left to do, and many barriers to remove. Some food for thought.