With all the talk about the legal victories and setbacks that have occurred since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, I sometimes think we too easily lose sight of what may be an even more vital aspect of the struggle for equal access: The responsibility of the average person to be a living example of why the ADA laws are just.

Every day of our lives is an opportunity to show the “non-disabled” population that the words of the ADA are not just empty rhetoric; and are not just another attempt, by another self-proclaimed persecuted minority, to get special treatment (and better parking places). It’s important to put a face on the problem the legislation is intended to correct, and that’s something only members of the disabled community can do.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, the way the protestors for civil rights conducted themselves was just as important (if not more important) than the passing of the laws they were fighting for. Yes, the laws were important and necessary. But, without the articulate words and dignified conduct of the protestors (even in the most violently adverse conditions), the laws would have been faceless. And faceless laws are often the hardest to enforce. That’s why the day-to-day behavior of people like Rosa Parks and others was so important – because it showed those who were opposed or apathetic to the struggle, that blacks were people, not stereotypes.

If Rosa Parks had been a different person than she appeared in public, a lot of people might not have been as sympathetic to her plight – they might have written her off as just another phony, who would put on any act to get her way. But what people saw was what she really was. She could have been anyone’s mother, aunt, or sister. Suddenly, the problem of racial inequality began to have a face – and that made it harder for people to ignore the evil of it. (In a similar way, people who know someone with a disability tend to be much more sensitive to, and offended by, barriers of discrimination.)

Ferdie Pacheco (Muhammad Ali’s fight doctor) has said that when his family moved to America from Cuba (when he was a boy), his father told him that if he’d learn to speak the language better than those born here, he’d never have a problem. His father understood the fact that, as the member of a minority group, he would have to try harder to win the respect of those who might view him with certain prejudices.

Many, if not most, people get their impressions of what the disabled are like from the media (especially television). And that’s a big part of the problem. Television is notorious for showing people with disabilities as helpless victims (i.e., sob stories intended to elicit the wrong kind of pity), courageous caricatures (oh, what a brave, inspiring bunch of super-humans we are), or doing things they don’t really have a talent for (e.g., letting someone sing, who can’t sing in tune – which makes the show’s host and audience feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because they’re helping some poor little cripple “realize their dream and boost their self-esteem”). I can’t count the number of times someone has come up to my brother or me, after a live performance, and exclaimed, “Wow, you really can sing!”– and it’s only because experience has taught them (thanks mostly to television) that people in wheelchairs tend to sing out of tune.

Some people have decided that it is words (such as “cripple”) that are the problem, and have attempted to come up with more politically correct alternatives. Unfortunately, what they fail to realize is that changing the label from “cripple” to “physically challenged” is meaningless, if others still perceive you as a cripple. Changing labels is not going to change anything (in fact, it often just looks silly). What need to change are the erroneous preconceptions behind the labels. And that’s where the real challenge lies. Are we willing to live our lives in such a way that people will stop referring to us using negative terms – or in such a way that the terms themselves will lose their negative connotations?

Every day, each of us is faced with opportunities to break or reinforce stereotypes about the handicapped. How we handle those opportunities will not only determine how others think of us individually – it will also affect the preconceptions others have about disabled people in general. Like it or not, we often have to try a little harder to prove ourselves – and all the laws in the world won’t change that fact. Actions really do speak louder than words.