My name is Rebecca Cokley, I'm the Executive
Director of the National Council on Disability.
NCD is a thirty- year old federal agency made
up of fifteen presidential appointees that
are tasked with advising Congress and the
White House on national issues of disability
public policy
 (Interviewer)Tell me about the first time
you interacted with the disability community?
I was actually born into the disability community,
both of my parents  had achondroplasia just
like I do. And my dad ran a center for independent
living in the bay area and my mom was a disabled
student's coordinator uh at a community
college. And so I grew up surrounded by people
with all different types of disabilities because
both of my parents had dwarfism, they actually
met in the seventies at a Little People of
America Conference, um, and LPA has been a
central part of my life since the time that
I was born so I was never without a disability
identity, it was always something that was
looked at with pride and honor in our family.
(Interviewer) Why did you decide to go into
disability policy work?
When I was fifteen, uh, my parents got a phone
call, actually my mom got a phone call that
a friend of ours had been, um, brutally bullied,
um, and was left in a dumpster by some 
kids
at school. And my school experience was nothing
like that. I always had very positive experiences,
I had teachers and principals and educators
who really supported me. Um, but the fact
that a friend of mine with the exact same
disability I did would be treated that way
and have his school's response be "well
boys will be boys he needs to get used to
that" was completely horrifying to me. And
that, coupled with um my exposure to the disability
rights movement really sort of threw me in
head first, um and really gave me a mission
through most of my young adulthood into choosing
my career path, choosing my college, um choosing
what I really wanted to do with my life.
(Interviewer) What would you say to a young
person either interested in going into your
work or someone who needed to be motivated
to uh sort of understand their own personal
disabilities?
The first thing I would say is if you are
a person with a disability there is nothing
wrong with you. Disability is part of life's
infinite diversity, it's part of what makes
this world an amazing place. Um the Second
thing I would say is um part of knowing it
to own it is finding people like you, so seek
out mentors with similar disabilities as yours
and different disabilities as yours, you'll
be amazed at what you'll learn. But also
remember that you have to lift as you climb,
and as you move up always bring folks along
with you with similar and different experiences
you'll be amazed at what you can learn.
(Interviewer) If I was looking for more information
on disability where should I go?
A great place to start is the NCD website,
 www.ncd.gov
, you can find reports from before the ADA
was passed all the way up to current issues
such as the Convention on the Rights of People
with Disabilities and the Civil Rights of
Parents with Disabilities. Another great website
is disability.gov where you can find great
resources including the One Hundred Days of
the ADA done back for the 20th Anniversary
of the ADA, highlighting the experiences and
the history of the disability rights movement.
