“We reject the …

“We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn,” – President Barack Obama

So I thought it was pretty amazing that disability issues made it into the President’s inauguration speech yesterday.  It’s powerful because it further connects the issues faced by the disability community to the more obvious civil rights issues touched upon yesterday.  While we have indeed come so far with the ADA and IDEA, the issues of disability (and the influence of other factors such as poverty and access to resources) are so intertwined now.  Parents of children with disabilities, and adults with disabilities, do indeed have places to turn now… but those places often require extensive knowledge, perseverance, and access to resources.  It is much easier to grow up with a disability than it was in generations past, but there is still such a ways to go in our society.  Let’s hope we can eventually get there.