Celebrate Ed Roberts Disability Rights Day

UC Berkeley may be one of the most accessible, disabled-friendly universities in the United States. Much of that is thanks to one man, Ed Roberts.

Roberts, who became a quadriplegic after contracting polio as a teenager, was admitted as a student in 1962 to the Berkeley campus. He immediately found difficulty in obtaining campus housing, however, as campus housing officials refused to accommodate the 800-lb iron lung he had to sleep in.

Roberts used this as motivation, found housing, and eventually helped launch the Physically Disabled Students Program at the Cal campus. Rather than allow himself and others to be discriminated against, Roberts was part of creating an organization that changed disability attitudes and increased disability advocacy across the U.S.

So on January 23 next year, remember Ed Roberts and the extraordinary efforts he made to increase the opportunities for the disabled.

You can read the full story of Ed Roberts at the UC Berkeley web site.