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Show Awareness 3 What are those objectives? 1. Architectural-free public buildings and access to them. 2. Housing, accessible to handicappeds, inside and out. 3• Employment. 4. Recreation. Handicappeds are tired of having able-bodied individuals tell them what they can and can't do, according to their preconceived ideas. "Let us do it ourselves. Then we can't accuse you of doing it all wrong, because you don't really understand our needs," they assert. Thirteen years ago Dan was a skilled sheetmetal worker by trade. While working on a building in Vernal, a ladder gave way and he plummeted to the concrete floor, landing on a tie-down bolt which severed his spinal cord and paralyzed him from the waist down. When he was able to handle himself in a wheelchair, he attended Utah Technical College for re-training, and was known as their most vocal rebel. Several prisoners from Utah State Prison were also students. These men, who lost their freedom through their own intelligence and selfishness by committing capital crimes, had more rights than free disabled citizens. Dan says, "By an act of God we are disabled, but we are handicapped by society." These prisoners were given free transportation, schooling and even lunch. Yet a handicapped person must "qualify" before being accepted for rehabilitation and schooling and struggle to get there. Prisoners can strike. They have free medical care, and all the privileges of a normal working person, except freedom to wander. |