Saturday, March 7, 2015

Parenting and the ADA

I just wrote a paper about raising my son. I had great fun writing this essay as I was flooded with warm memories and the baseless prejudice I encountered. In short the essay discusses how my son and the ADA came of age. The essay appeared in the Houston Law Review and is in part a celebration of the ADA.

Below is the opening paragraph and link to my full essay.


PARENTING AND DISABILITY: THE FINAL FRONTIER

William J. Peace

My life was transformed on July 26, 1990. I sat in front of a television and became teary eyed as I watched President Bush sign the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).1 He declared that the ADA was the beginning of “a bright new era of equality, independence, and freedom” for the then estimated 43 million people in the United States living with a disability.2 I was overjoyed. I believed that the ADA would end discrimination against people with disabilities. After forty years of progressive legislation designed to empower people with disabilities, disability rights law had reached its zenith. Millions of people with disabilities were not going to be barred from employment opportunities. The ADA would ensure that accessing mass transportation would be easy and accessible housing was going to become commonplace. There was no question the ADA was going to revolutionize my life and the lives of countless others. I was an American and now shared the same civil rights as those Americans without a disability took for granted. I was a true believer. 

Link:  http://www.houstonlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Peace-Parenting-and-Disability_FINAL.pdf

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The Walking Dead and Assisted Suicide at Cripping the Con


My talk at Syracuse April 9, 2014. 
The most fun I ever had presenting a paper. 
Disability Cultural Center at Syracuse is outstanding.