The story of people with disabilities, our history and Disability Rights Movement is one that must be told. I would like to strongly voice the necessity to include people with disabilities, our history and our tremendously important civil rights movement as part of the PreK-12 curricula. If we are able to reach kids at a very young age and let them know that people with disabilities are not strange nor something to fear or avoid, the easier it will be to slowly rid ourselves of the stigma and stereotypes surrounding people with disabilities. This lesson can easily  continue throughout a student's academic life. We can begin by teaching young children how to interact with people with disabilities and move toward more in-depth topics as it becomes age appropriate.

From the long-ago days of hiding relatives with disabilities in the basement to forced institutionalized living both in the past and present. People in the disability community have fought long and hard  for their freedom and for legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act making discrimination against someone on the basis of disability illegal. We still fight daily for the most basic human right: to be seen as a human being with both intrinsic value and value to society. People with disabilities are no more or less important than anyone else. Yet we still fight stigma and the perception that our lives are not as worthwhile. Well-meaning people look at people with disabilities sometimes with pity or silently (or even verbally) rejoice that they do not have a disability and cannot conceive of having disability pride. Of course, no one wishes to have a disability and not all experiences are positive. However, whether a person has a disability or not does not diminish or enhance their worth as a human being. People with disabilities may look, act, think or communicate differently than others. Those differences make us no less human. Having differences does not make us less equal to other human beings. All of us, disability or not, are equally 100% human beings and the same kind of human. Our story is a human story and a story of so many. Please help me ensure that our human stories and the people who live(d) are valued and never forgotten.

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-gang-of-19-ada-movement-hxrjxw/