Striving to Be Normal Part VII

Advocating for the disabled is nothing new for me. That’s right I’m the Bruce who you have been reading about. I have been advocating now for 46 years or since that fateful day on Janurary 10, 1955. I have been advocating for a type of change that will benefit all disabled people. However, before the American’s with Disability Act no one would listen. Instead they just shrugged me off as a constant complainer. Since ADA was passed,I have been able to become a more efficient advocate for people with disabilities on the state and the National level. Today, even with ADA under attack, enlightened people listen because they realize that what I advocate will be good for the disabled as well as for all our citizens. Even people form other countries have contacted me and told me to hang in their and fight for the rights of the disabled. So you could say that my ideas have an international appeal. I attribute this to my writings in Suite 101.

What have I done on the state level? I have tried to get our civil service system opened up to all our disabled citizens instead of just a select few. I went to a state senator and asked him to sponsor legislation that would place all disabled citizens-miliitary or otherwise-on an equal footing. I asked him to have wording changed on the civil service exam to read, “All disabled citizens shall receive preferential treatment”.

Preferential Treatment was already in the civil service exam but only applied to the disabled military. It meant that extra points would be added to your score when you showed proficiency. It did not mean that employment would be given to you. Therefore, it should not have been considered to be Affirmative Action. However to my dismay I learned that the senator who I asked to sponsor this legislation considered preferential treatment to mean Affirmative Action so the legislation died for lack of interest.

How can helping a qualified person with a disability be equated with affirmative action? To give the disabled a job, one for which he may not be qualified, is irresponsible. The disabled. do not want Jobs simply because they are disabled. They want Jobs because they are qualified.

Because of my advocacy efforts, I was recognized, by a former governor, as a person who is actively trying to make life better for the disabled of his state and his nation. This same Governor also made me a gubernatorial appointee to a state agency created to meet the needs of the head and spinal cord injured. In the year 2000, I was also inducted into Whose Who in Business under the heading of Social Service.

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