[Music]
[Logo: Ampers, with tagline: Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities.]
[Photo: Mai Thor]
Mai Thor: People have the idea that people with disabilities don’t know how to be a parent. Can they be parents? Are they able to find a partner that would even want to start a family with them? Right?
[Logo: Ampers, with taglines: 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: Mai Thor and her family]
Mai Thor: My name is Mai Thor. I have polio. I think anybody with a disability is going to tell you that they’re going to be self-conscious about something. I was always sort of thinking, “Am I good enough? Do I do this as good as my able-bodied counterparts?”
But when I had my kids, I couldn’t be self-conscious anymore. You know, I couldn’t hold back. If my kids wanted to go to a water park, I took them. And I think it’s been a real learning experience, you know, being a parent, trying to really just tackle some of those issues that I have as a woman with a disability.
You know, I told myself, “My insecurities about my disability are not going to hold me back from being a good mom to my kids.”
[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.