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[Logo: Ampers radio station, with tagline that reads, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities.]
[Photo: Sharon Van Winkel]
Sharon Van Winkel: “No” is not part of my vocabulary. It has to be, “Yes, and let’s figure out a way we can do it.”
[Logo: Ampers radio station, with taglines that read, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities, and Keep Moving Forward.]
Host: This is Keep Moving Forward.
[Photo: President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Photo courtesy of the George Bush Presidential Library.]
George H. W. Bush: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.
[Logos: ADA 25: Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990-2015, and Disability Rights Are Civil Rights. Logos courtesy of the ADA National Network, www.adata.org.]
Host: Exploring the legacy and promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
[Photos: Sharon Van Winkel and her husband]
Sharon Van Winkel: I’m Sharon Van Winkel. I’m paralyzed from the waist down from an automobile accident a long time ago. I was a computer programmer. My company would not take me back. But what that did was it freed me up to do a lot of other things, and one of the things that I was introduced to was wheelchair sports. I was asked to join a women’s wheelchair basketball team. It gave me something to feel good about, something that I was being recognized for. I guess I was good enough that I made the Paralympic team, USA women’s team. I found a passion that really made my life project beyond the stars.
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This disability could happen to anybody at any time. Would you want to have to give up your Jazzercise class because you could no longer see? Find a passion, get involved in it. It doesn’t have to be wheelchair sports. But dig in. Do it!
[Logos: the Minnesota Council on Disability, the Minnesota Humanities Center, the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, and the Ampers radio station.]
Host: Keep Moving Forward is supported by the Minnesota Council on Disability, the Minnesota Humanities Center, and the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, online at Ampers.org.