Dedication

Dedicated to all those who believe-We Shall Overcome

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to all those who consented

to interviews or otherwise gave of their time.

A special note of appreciation to the staffs of Newington Children's Hospital and the West Roxbury Veterans Administration Hospital.

Finally, a debt of gratitude to three men-Professor Richard Hoefnagel, who made the medical terms comprehensible; Dr. Carleton Chapman, who opened the doors; and Professor George Theriault, who was there from the beginning and had confidence that the author knew how to write.

Introduction

My purpose in undertaking a senior fellowship

was to learn as much about the lives of America's

physically handicapped as was possible in a year. I

wanted to encompass as many different areas as possible and was successful in covering a number of topics.

My primary conclusion after the fellowship's completion was that the disabled must become more active politically to achieve their primary goal of integrating into non-disabled society.

As I said before the Senate Subcommittee on

the Handicapped on May 18, 1972:

the disabled have to get up and
fight for the things they believe in
because only they are in a position to
know what this government should do
for them. We are in a new age in
rehabilitation. We have opportunities
opened up that, when I was growing up,
never existed. Yet new opportunities
always bring new responsibilities. If
the disabled of this country assume their
responsibilities in shaping the policy
that affects them, the rehabilitation
program will be one of this nation's
lasting successes.

Students granted senior fellowships at Dartmouth College are exempted from all regular course work and pursue independent study during their senior year of college under supervision of their advisors. This volume is one of two written under my fellowship. The other is a series of personal sketches about growing up with cerebral palsy. These sketches touch on facets of the disabled's lives, such as surgery and convalescence, which are not covered here.

Crutch power, the ability to make the government

and other elements of society respond to the needs of the handicapped, is what the disabled have to secure. They

can only do this by speaking out to legislators, to the courts, to the agencies and institutions concerned with rehabilitation, and to the general public.

The present is full of hope for the handicapped,

as Parts III and IV of this study demonstrate. The Congress, the courts, and the public are showing greater awareness of what should be done for the impaired. But it is up to the disabled themselves to turn that awareness into New opportunities do bring new responsibilities.

action.