Moments in Disability History 2
January 23, 2013 – Ed Roberts Day: "Built Upon Alliances"
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was built upon alliances. The ADA was an outcome of the self-advocacy and the independent living movements but the ADA would not have passed in Congress without alliances.
Ed Roberts knew that. A pioneering leader of the disability rights movement, and widely acknowledged as the father of the independent living movement, Ed built alliances with elders, civil rights, unions, women's rights, politicians and youth to bring the goals of people with disabilities into national politics.
His activism was the model used by advocates nationally to build the independent living movement into a political process linked to the wider American experience resulting in the passage of the ADA.
Ed Roberts Discover Interdependence