Edward Verne Roberts was diagnosed with polio at the age of fourteen. Paralyzed from the neck down, Roberts required extensive medical care, and he even spent two years in the hospital. His mother took upon herself the tremendous task of taking care of him. Not only that, she demanded that Edward was educated. Through the support of his mother Zona Roberts, Edward Roberts attended school through a special telephone communication device but was forced to attend his senior year; Roberts’ counselors threatened that he could not graduate if he did not take driver’s ed and physical education. Unfortunately, this incident was just the beginning of the obstacles he faced due to his disability.
Post high school, Roberts dreamed of attending University of California, Berkeley, but because of his disability, Berkeley rejected him. Roberts did not allow himself to let go of his ambition to be educated; in fact, he went to a community college and then transferred to Berkeley. Other issues that Roberts faced during his postsecondary schooling was that he was limited because of the lack of handicapped accessibility. Simple things …show more content…
This sit for Civil Rights for the handicapped in was one of the longest one’s in the history of a federal building in American History, lasting 28 days. A day prior to the sit-in, Roberts gave a motivational speech to his fellow people which fueled those there with passion for what they were doing: without his speech, the sit-in may have not been as successful as it was. Their perseverance directly led to forcing the San Francisco HEW office into signing the Section 504 into