ABSTRACT

At the weekly luncheon of a service club in Massachusetts two men-one a local federal official who is well known for his civil rights work and who is black, the other an advocate for disabled people and who is disabled and the author of this piece-were invited to give short presentations about civil rights. The federal official made the comment that blacks were the only group whose civil rights had been limited by statute. When the disability advocate demurred, the federal official became very incensed. Like many persons the official was unaware of the many statutory ways in which the civil rights of disabled people were and still are violated through state and local government laws in the US.