Reeve’s Crusade Is Irrelevant to Many Disabled People

To the Editor:

I would like to congratulate Domenica Marchetti for including the views of advocates for independent living in her article on Christopher Reeve and the American Paralysis Foundation (“Courageous Crusade for a Cure,” May 21).

Those who seek to cure disabilities, and those who opt instead to accept their situations while seeking the means to live independently, exist in the same universe. Unfortunately, the mechanism of donation — the poster child or movie actor — presents a public image which is at odds with the daily reality of the millions of Americans with disabilities for whom basic economic opportunity and civil rights are routinely denied.

I do not believe that Mr. Reeve intends to speak for all people with disabilities. Rather, his goals are personal. His crusade is irrelevant to most of us who have disabilities, and his courage is no greater than that of any person with a disability who chooses to do something with his or her life.

But to the broad American public, Christopher Reeve has come to represent all disability. We are an impatient culture, and, as you have often noted in your pages, our philanthropy is mutable. With his insistence that he will kick his wheelchair in five years, Mr. Reeve sets us up for disappointment and further neglect when disability doesn’t get fixed so quickly.

For 49 million Americans, disability is a fact of life. This is perhaps the largest minority ever identified. Yet the discrimination experienced by people with disabilities is so deeply entrenched, and the fear of personal disability which engenders it is so pervasive, that a figure like Mr. Reeve serves mainly to enhance the general denial of its impact and existence.

Philanthropy can help reverse this course.

Cure is an attractive goal, and far easier to sell to a board of directors than access and accommodation. For all of us who do not seek cures, however, a more immediate goal is the eradication of discrimination against people with disabilities through education and advocacy.

Sure, let’s cure paralysis. But our first priority should be to eradicate the discrimination that plagues all people with disabilities.

Gil Ott
Director of Development Liberty Resources
Philadelphia