Journalist John Hockenberry spoke in McKeldin Library yesterday about why society should reach out to those with disabilities.
John Hockenberry has been in a wheelchair for 35 years, but that never stopped him from covering international news stories, writing two books, winning Peabody and Emmy awards, hosting radio shows and becoming a father.
Hockenberry, a career journalist who currently hosts a morning radio show in New York, spoke to about 60 students and faculty members last night during a 90-minute discussion in McKeldin Library on the importance of community inclusion for people with disabilities.
Sharing the story of a car accident that left him paralyzed when he was a 19-year-old student at the University of Chicago, Hockenberry explained that all of his college courses were held in one place — the only wheelchair-accessible classroom on campus.
“I realized immediately what the price of not really being included was all about,” he said.
Hockenberry said although circumstances have improved since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, federal legislation that prohibits discrimination based on disability, he’s seen firsthand that inequalities still exist — and university officials agreed.
“[People with disabilities] are greatly discriminated against because the world hasn’t been designed for them,” said Dan Newsome, adaptive technology coordinator for Disability Support Service. “But that doesn’t mean that they can’t do things, it just means that they don’t have majority status and so the world hasn’t been conveniently tailored to their needs.”
For much of his life after the accident, Hockenberry said he was constantly trying to prove his independence, instead of embracing his wheelchair. That is, until he had kids — who simply saw their dad’s chair as a part of him and thought it was fascinating.
Hockenberry said it didn’t take long to realize that fighting for community inclusion was necessary for change.
“You can see he faced [his life] with a very strong, affirmative, proactive attitude and has the intelligence and creativity to back that up,” Newsome said.
Because much of the world still isn’t accessible to disabled persons, Hockenberry said it is vital that communities assume responsibility for others when an emergency situation arises, citing the most recent disaster in Japan.
“It was immediately clear that [disabled] people in the tsunami zone were particularly vulnerable,” he said. “Staff were faced with the question of, ‘Do we get the people out, or do we save ourselves?'”
But activists should not be the only ones who are working toward change, he said — inclusion for all people should be a common goal and will only be achieved if it is universally prioritized.
“It’s a sense that there’s something wrong with our community if it’s not inclusive,” he said. “Many of the issues we’re confronted with in our political lives depend on an active sense that we have responsibilities to other people in our community.”
Some students who attended the event said they were motivated by Hockenberry’s life philosophy.
“I felt it was very enlightening for me thinking about disabilities from the standpoint of how it enriches your community,” said graduate journalism student Ashley Latta. “‘It’s as much about democracy as it is about health’ is a pretty interesting point of view.”
Other students said they were familiar with the issues Hockenberry discussed, thanks to courses offered on similar subjects.
“I’m taking a ‘Disabilities in America’ class … where we watch a lot of videos about people in wheelchairs and I can see how much they’re discluded from everything else, so I can see what he’s saying,” said senior biology major Nareh Issayans.
Though Hockenberry said he noticed this campus is especially accessible to wheelchair users, university officials said more can be done to raise awareness that disabilities are a part of diversity.
“We’ve covered some ground and we’re doing better as a culture and as a campus community … but there’s a long way,” Newsome said. “We can still do more.”
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