I know that I can become a braille teacher if I study hard. My parents have worked hard in the textile mill, and I know that I must also work hard to get ahead in life. I hope to be the first person in my family to go to college. I am worried, however, that people will treat me differently because I am blind, black, and female. Some people will think that I cannot be a teacher, but I know I can.

I do not need sympathy. I do not need prejudice. I do need a fair chance to get a job and live independently. Discrimination against blind and other disabled people must be eliminated, and the Americans With Disabilities Act will help that happen. People pay attention when it is the law.

Please pass the Americans with Disabilities Act now so that I and other young people can look forward to a fair chance tomor

row.

Thank you. [Applause.]

Senator HARKIN. I think for the benefit of those who are sitting back there in the back, Lakisha went through that whole thing from her memory. That is really brilliant.

Well, you are just all outstanding. What can I say? You are tremendously outstanding, every one of you.

I would recognize, if you want to, Senator Weicker for any questions or comments you might have for the panel.

Senator WEICKER. I have no questions at all. I cannot say anything that will better express to America what needs to be done and what each of our panelists has stated. I am so proud of you. I really am.

Senator HARKIN. Congressman Owens.

Mr. OWENS. I have no questions. I want to just congratulate and thank the witnesses. Your being here will help us a great deal in the passage of this legislation. Thank you very much.

Senator HARKIN. Congressman Jeffords.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I just have one question. One of the most controversial aspects of 94-142 was the mainstreaming aspect. I wondered if you could give us some reflections on the reaction to the mainstreaming and whether it has improved, from your observations, as far as the acceptability in the schools, since the initiation of the 94-142 from your own history? Jade.

Mr. CALEGORY. You mean, like is it easy to get into the school? Mr. JEFFORDS. How are the young people reacting, perhaps from your observations not only to yourself, but other disabled that might have come into your school since the time you started?

Mr. CALEGORY. How did the young people react to me?

Mr. JEFFORDS. Yes, and others that you have observed? And has it improved over the course of time?

Mr. CALEGORY. In junior high and in my new school, they do not treat me different or anything. They just treat me like I am one of them.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Did you observe any change in the other schools that you were in, over the course of time, or were you still kind of treated different?

Mr. CALEGORY. Any other of my schools, was I treated differently?

Mr. JEFFORDS. Yes.

Mr. CALEGORY. I think so. I was a little bit teased, like I said in my speech, that I was teased because of my disability and just stuff like that, in some of my elementary schools. But the teachers were good about it, and stuff like that. It was just the kids did not understand.

I am with the Easter Seals now and I think what we are trying to do is educate them so they will not tease kids with disabilities, so they will not tease them anymore, so they know what is going on and they can make friends with them.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Thank you.

Senator HARKIN. Thank you. I just have a couple of questions, maybe just to further elaborate on a couple of things, and why this bill is so necessary.

Mary, I am sorry I missed your testimony. However, I have read it. You have really had a rough time. What I would like to ask you is you are now 58 years young?

Ms. LINDEN. Yes, I just turned.

Senator HARKIN. How would your life be different today?

Ms. LINDEN. I think I would be a 30-year veteran of the Chicago school system, or one from the suburbs, because my family, my mother, my father and all my aunts, were teachers. Of course, you follow in your family's profession. By now I would be worried about my retirement.

I think I would have been in one of the teacher's union because I love politics, but I do not know. That is about it.

If the transportation were better, I would right now be too busy to come here because I would be working for my degree at Northeastern, because I want to go up and get my job. And Mr. DeJong needs a fully educated woman, not a half one. That is where I would be right now.

Senator HARKIN. So I guess, Mary, what you are saying is that not only will future generations benefit from this bill, but you will, also?

Ms. LINDEN. Oh, yes, sir. The day the bill is passed, the very day that you gentlemen have fixed it up so they can use it, my attorney will put a lawsuit through the Federal courts to sue the RTA and the CTA for whatever I have to.

Senator HARKIN. I like your attitude.

Ms. LINDEN. I will get my education, I swear. I would intend to sue them, because there is no reason for this. They have a transit authority and it provides provisions for handicapped people in the city of Chicago and the suburbs, but there is no way in the world that we can get into the city of Chicago or out of it.

And would you believe we have to be home at seven o'clock at night? My gosh, the shows do not even start until 8:30. [Applause.] Senator HARKIN. Mary, I just had a letter here.

Mr. Chairman, I hope you will express my deep regret for missing the hearing this morning. I am particularly sorry not to be able to welcome Mary Linden, the witness from Illinois. I had the opportunity to meet her yesterday, and I know the committee will benefit from her testimony.

The subject of this hearing is important, not just for Americans with disabilities, but to all Americans. I look forward to reading the testimony of all the witnesses. Thank you very much, Senator Paul Simon from Illinois.

He could not be here, but you saw him yesterday, right?

Ms. LINDEN. Yes, we did and I thank him very, very much. Senator HARKIN. Jade, do you see the day coming when you will get a role that will be advertised as child actor and not as child actor with disability?

Mr. CALEGORY. Right now my mom had my agent, if she got information for a part for someone with blue eyes or someone to play basketball or something, that she would send me out for it. So right now I am going out for any part that comes out, whether it is for someone with blue eyes, or something like that.

Senator HARKIN. I am going to see that movie this weekend. It is down in our neighborhood and I am going to go see it. "Mac and Me."

Lakisha, I was very moved by your testimony and by what you have had to overcome and what you are overcoming. I have all the confidence in the world that you are going to be the first person in your family to go to college, and that you will indeed be a braille teacher. We know you are going to do it, do we not? [Applause.] Is this your first trip to Washington?

Ms. GRIFFIN. Yes, it is.

Senator HARKIN. I want you to know that within the last year, we have prevailed upon the Sergeant of Arms and we now have braille maps of the entire Capitol and indeed of all of the downtown monuments and surrounding area. Have you gotten those yet?

Ms. GRIFFIN. No, I have not.

Senator HARKIN. As soon as you get done here, how about getting a set of those, OK?

Ms. GRIFFIN. OK.

Senator HARKIN. I am sure that you can get taken around the Capitol and make sure that you take in everything that you can while you are here, OK?

Ms. GRIFFIN. OK.

Senator HARKIN. We have those for anyone else here who needs them, we have braille maps now of the entire Capitol and of all the downtown monuments and the mall. If you have any problems getting them, you come see me or see one of my staff. I will make sure you get them.

Dan Piper, like I said, Dan, I use you a lot in my speeches around the country. You are getting to be pretty famous, Dan Piper from Ankeny, IA. I just have to tell you, you are not only a source of pride and joy to your parents, but a unique sense of pride and joy to me and to a lot of people.

The State of Iowa has had an early intervention program-I hope you do not mind if I be a little chauvinistic here-since 1975, I think. Since the mid-1970's anyway. We have got a good support group in Iowa. This is a great example of what can be done with early intervention.

Dan, I know from your mother, and also from your own testimony, that you are going to be 18 pretty soon and you are thinking of moving away. Are you not kind of afraid that might break your mother's heart, moving away from Ankeny?

Mr. PIPER. Oh, no. Just me and my dad is.

Ms. PIPER. I did not know he was taking his father with him.

Senator HARKIN. At least you will invite her to come visit you, right?

Mr. PIPER. Yes, and my girlfriend.

Senator HARKIN. I will not get into that, all right?

I just want you to know I am the father of two young people, and I am not looking forward to the day when they leave home either, so I know how your mother feels.

Dan, your hopes for the future are real hopes, and I know that you can accomplish a lot. Let me ask your mother a question. Mr. PIPER. All right, go ahead.

Senator HARKIN. Is that OK?

Mr. PIPER. Sure.

Senator HARKIN. Ms. Piper, do you agree with Ms. Parrino, when she says that the Americans With Disabilities Act should be looked at as bringing about cost savings to our Nation, rather than additional costs?

Ms. PIPER. Definitely. In our circumstances, we certainly have spent a lot of time and energy, as I stated, in seeing to it that Dan is appropriately trained to be a tax payer rather than a tax recipient. However, with discrimination, we are looking at a future that may very well hold nothing more than sheltered employment for him, which is certainly an opportunity for some people.

However, he has a desperate need for growth and is capable. Our concern is that he will be sitting at home, on our living room couch, watching television for the rest of his life. That is not acceptable, with all of the money that has been poured into his education. There is no reason he cannot be a tax payer.

Senator HARKIN. And it is not acceptable with-look at him. My gosh, look how good he is. Danny, you can do a lot of things. Mr. PIPER. That is right.

Senator HARKIN. You sure can. We are going to make sure that you are able to do those things, too. You are a great source of pride.

Is this your first trip to Washington? This is your first time here, is it not?

Mr. PIPER. Yes.

Senator HARKIN. I think so, yes. Make sure you get around and see the monuments and everything like that, OK?

Mr. PIPER. Yes.

Senator HARKIN. You do not mind if I keep using you as an example, do you? You do not mind if I keep talking about you, do you?

Mr. PIPER. Yes.

Senator HARKIN. As long as I say good things, right?

Mr. PIPER. Yes, you got it. [Laughter.]

Senator HARKIN. All of you are just great. Thank you so much. You have made our day and made our year and hopefully we will make this bill get through next year.

Thank you all, and now we will call our second panel. [Applause.]

Our second panel is Judith Heumann, World Institute on Disability at Berkeley, CA; Gregory Hlibok-if I mispronounce that, you tell me-Gregory Hlibok from Gallaudet University; Belinda

Mason, Tobinsport, IN; and W Mitchell from Denver, CO. Please come up.

We welcome you all to the hearing, and some of you for coming a long, long distance. I will just go in the order in which I called you. Judith Heumann. Judy is the mother of the disability rights and independent living movement. She has a masters in public health and she's going to discuss the history of the movements and personal examples of discrimination and the need for the bill.

STATEMENTS OF JUDITH HEUMANN, WORLD INSTITUTE ON DISABILITY, BERKELEY, CA; GREGORY HLIBOK, GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON, DC; BELINDA MASON, TOBINSPORT, IN; AND W. MITCHELL, DENVER CO

MS. HEUMANN. Good morning, Senator. I got a little alarmed. I thought you were about to tell me I was a mother. I did not know I had any children.

Senator HARKIN. No, I wondered what that momentary disturbance was. No, the mother of the disability rights and independent living movement.

Ms. HEUMANN. After taking a redeye here, I did not know something had happened.

It is really a privilege to be here with all of you today. My name is Judy Heumann. I am the oldest of three children born to an immigrant family. Like most other Americans, I was born without a disability. When I was 12 years old, I contracted polio. Becoming disabled changed my family's life and mine forever.

My disability has made me a target for arbitrary and capricious prejudices from any person with whom I come into contact. Over the years, experience has taught us that we must be constantly aware of people's attempts to discriminate against us. We must be prepared at every moment to fight this discrimination.

The average American is not, nor should they have to be, prepared to fight every day of their life for basic civil rights. All too many incidents of discrimination have gone by undefended because of lack of protection under the law.

In the past, disability has been a cause for shame. This forced acceptance of second-class citizenship has stripped us as disabled people of pride and dignity. This is not the way we, as Americans, should have to live our lives.

When I was 5 my mother proudly pushed my wheelchair to our local public school, where I was promptly refused admission because the principal ruled that I was “a fire hazard." I was forced to go onto home instruction, receiving 1 hour of education twice a week for 31⁄2 years. Was this the America of my parents' dreams? My entrance into mainstream society was blocked by discrimination and segregation. Segregation was not only on an institutional level, but also acted as an obstruction to social integration. As a teenager, I could not travel with my friends on the bus because it was not accessible. At my graduation from high school, the principal attempted to prevent me from accepting an award in a ceremony on stage simply because I was in a wheelchair.

When I was 19, the house mother of my college dormitory refused me admission into the dorm because I was in a wheelchair