From the [New Orleans] Times Picayune:

Gilda Reed, Democratic candidate for Louisiana’s open 1st Congressional district seat, defies conventional wisdom. She is a survivor of childhood polio, and adopted a son with cerebral palsy after being told by doctors that he would “probably be a vegetable.” Her son is now a college graduate.

“Polio has taught me that you have to fight for what you have,” said Reed, who wears leg braces and gets around with help from a walker. “The word ‘can’t’ is a four-letter word at my house. I don’t want to hear it.”

Acclaimed SF State teacher living history of disabled rights movement

From Xpress online, a news service of San Francisco State University: a feature about disability rights activist Paul Longmore, history professor and author of “Why I Burned My Book.” Longmore had polio as a child and uses a motorized wheelchair.

An excerpt:

As a student at Occidental College, Longmore began to learn about his life experience as it related to his disability.

He was inspired by two women who had also become disabled from polio, but whom he said raised children and traveled the world independently. “They lived their lives so much more competently than most people. That’s what inspires me and that’s what I’ve learned from them.”

“During college I came to realize that all of us [with disabilities] had been drilled in a sense of shame about our disability and about our bodies. We turned our devaluation inward, against our bodies, against ourselves,” he said.

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A Hollins professor and polio survivor leads a global organization to help others with the disease.

From the Roanoke (VA) Times: A feature on Lawrence Becker, a philosopher and fellow at Virginia’s Hollins University who heads Post-Polio Health International. The organization is dedicated to enhancing the lives and independence of polio survivors.

Following his polio diagnosis in 1952, Becker’s parents insisted that he pose for photos as a March of Dimes poster child, a role which he resented. He details his journey from what his wife calls an “undercover crip” to a public advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

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