I am reading Judith Heumann’s memoir “Being Heumann.” I have just started reading it but she talks about two huge wins in the disability world–the signing of Section 504 and the passage of ADA. These two laws afford equal rights to people with disabilities. We must cherish these historic victories and be vigilant in protecting these hard-fought gains from those who would seek to undermind our precious rights. We don’t want to go back to where we were–second-class citizens. We have intrinsic value flowing from our personhood and we want to be respected and treated that way. We have a long way to go in terms of inclusion and acceptance, housing, transportation, and employment, but as I just said we will never go back to the way things were.