Chapter 2 - From Charity to Independent Living

This chapter was just stacked full of information. It was a little tough to get through the chapter because of all the history it contained about the rights of disabled people. However, the first part of the chapter was pretty enlightening with the story of Ed Roberts.

Reading through the chapter, it was tough to believe everything that Roberts had to go through in order to just attend a University. I'm not talking about the physical requirements, more along the lines of the beaurocratic nonsense that was in his way. I believe I can get a grasp of what the administration was thinking when they told Roberts he wouldn't be able to attend Cal, but I couldn't understand why they would try so hard to prevent him from trying. I enjoyed hearing about how he was the "trailblazer" for disabled students, and how that group would meet together in the hospital and plan their next moves to help change the University to better suit their needs.

The second half of the chapter that dealt more with the history aspect was a little tough to read through. There was quite a lot of information all packed in to a relatively small number of pages. From what I was able to take away, it seems that the government acted the same way they do on most legislation: postpone, postpone, postpone. I have never been a big fan of protests (I think people have better things to do with their time), yet I rooted for the people who protested until the bill was signed. It was a good way to show their voice and their need for changes in America.