A scene of people with various disabilities gathered around a blue lake, enjoying their home, community, the out-of-doors, health, recreation, housing, transportation and education with an accessible path for them to a high mountain and large yellow sun on the horizon.  New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.


Press Releases: 2012

New Horizons Un-Limited - 30% of us will become disabled before we turn 65 years of age !

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:
New Horizons Un-Limited
P.O. Box 510034
Milwaukee, WI 53203
Phone: (414) 299-0124
Email: horizons@new-horizons.org

New Horizons Un-Limited - 30% of us will become disabled before we turn 65 years of age !

At the turn of the 19th century working conditions in the United States for the average worker; man, woman or child, were deplorable. Yet, after 1918, when many soldiers returned home from World War I, companies recognized the need to hire people with wartime disabilities. Employers such as Henry Ford evaluated the skills of all his employees, including those whether one legged, one armed or infirmed and found a place for all on the assembly line. He found exceptional production results from those individuals with disabilities when they used the work skills they could do best. This philosophy of being more interested in employees’ abilities than any disability continued through the aftermath of World War II under Henry Ford II with this company’s’ legacy of inclusion through today.

Great social injustice against people with disabilities, however, did develop in general in the work places of our country much later at the end of the twentieth century. People with physical disabilities who had received post secondary degrees and high honors in education were unable to find jobs after applying to every business they could. An impairment or use of a wheel chair could mean unemployment. Against vast social injustice people fought for the American Disabilities Act (passed in 1990) to help level the playing field and attempt to bring opportunity for employment.

Unfortunately much misunderstanding about disability continues today!

We hear people with disabilities referred to as those people over there, not a part of us, or our lives, and as such, as a group are a social burden. What our politicians and some people are not realizing is that people with disabilities are you or me. They may also be our child, our spouse, our mother or father, our brother or sister, our grandparent, our friend, a returning war veteran, or a member of our family. Life sometimes throws some of us a physical challenge that we must face such as amputation or a limb difference, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, cancer, arthritis, post-polio syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, brain injury, or hearing or visual impairment to name a few.

We are the 30% of us who will become disabled before we turn 65 years of age and in much greater numbers after 65.

Some of us may continue with our current jobs or develop new skills for employment, for some, our disability may require more accommodation to work. To turn our backs on any of us with disability is to turn our backs on ourselves or on our humanity. Do not leave people discarded socially or economically because of disability before fully understanding their potential. It could be you facing that disability challenge and we are all a valuable human resource.

(Continue to NHU Press Release on People with Disabilities Live and Work in their Own Home and Communities!)

Go to Top

If you have questions or ideas, information and solutions that you would like to share with us, contact us by e-mail at: horizons@new-horizons.org or to use our NHU E-Mail Form or NHU Community Forum, click the links below.

Homepage icon Home  / Disability News  / NHU Quarterly Newsletter
Share Your Knowledge!  / NHU Community Forum  / Contact Us
About NHU  / Announcements and Features  / Contribute  /  What's New?  /  Site Plan

© Copyright 2012 New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.
[Updated October 31, 2012]
NHU has no liability for content or goods on the Internet.