ship at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, she organized a mentoring program for disabled women that she named Women Without Barriers. She found a wealth of disability rights resources there and fi rst made contact with what she calls “the civil rights movement for people with disabilities.” When she returned to school,
she organized a similar program for disabled high school students in Philadelphia, using money awarded to her through a Eugene Lang Community Scholarship. “It was great,” she says. “I got as
much out of it as they did. I recruited mentors who had disabilities. We also did a lot of group mentoring. We met monthly, and had formal sessions with speakers. We helped them with dating and health issues; it made them realize they weren’t alone.” T is was important to her because
she had always dealt with disability alone, and it was her community activism teacher who helped her
understand the importance of having a disability rights community. “Disability is an essential part of
my identity,” she says. “But it is a part that makes me very proud—not because I have ‘overcome’ my dis- ability but because I recognize how adaptable, empathetic, and perceptive it makes me. My disability has been an incredible bridge to other people.” Her years at Swarthmore proved to be
signifi cant. She distinguished herself as a student by winning numerous academic awards and also as a leader by spearhead- ing several human service projects. At Harvard Law School, however,
she felt isolated again. In contrast to Swarthmore, a small college where nearly everyone has some idiosyncrasy, Harvard was much less diverse. During these years, she also had two hip replacement surgeries and began using a motorized scooter to get around campus. “I didn’t see others with disabilities;
it was really awkward,” she says. In one of her classes, her profes-
sor singled her out as an inspiration because of her disability. “It was not the right thing to do
because it separated me from the others,” she says. “T ere’s a saying in the disability rights movement, ‘Nothing about us without us.’ T ere are a lot of things in which we’re not included. People without disabilities try to help and mean well but do not always do the right thing. We don’t want people’s charity. We don’t want to be treated diff erently.” Nevertheless, her years at Harvard
were quite advantageous. She worked as an assistant for Professor Samuel Bagenstos and helped him prepare a case that was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also founded an online network of lawyers and law students with disabilities, and interned at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the Disability Rights Section. After law school, she worked
at Spiegel and McDiarmid in Washington D.C., and received the
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