I was born in 1947, a long time ago, and when I was 18 months old, I had polio. I was in an iron lung for three months and in and out of the hospital for three years. Now, we had lots of neighbors in our Brooklyn neighborhood, and some of them were really very helpful for my parents. Some of them were really afraid of contagion, and they wouldn't even walk in front of our house. They would literally walk across the street. I think this was a time when my family really began to realize what disability meant to some people: fear.
Rođena sam davne 1947. godine, a kada sam imala 18 meseci, dobila sam dečju paralizu. Tri meseca sam bila na aparatima za veštačko disanje i tri godine sam bila primana i otpuštana iz bolnice. Imali smo puno komšija u našem komšiluku u Bruklinu, i neki od njih su bili od velike pomoći mojim roditeljima. Neki od njih su se plašili da će se zaraziti, i ne bi čak dolazili ni do ulaza naše kuće. Bukvalno bi prelazili preko puta ulice. Mislim da je u to vreme moja porodica zaista počela da shvata šta invaliditet znači za neke ljude: strah.
And it wasn't even a sure thing that I would live at home, although I didn't learn about this until I was 36 years old. I was having a discussion with my father one night, and he said, "You know, when you were two years old, one of the doctors suggested to your mom and I that you live in an institution, that they could just go ahead with their lives and raise their kids and kind of be done with having to deal with all the disability-related things. I didn't believe my father, not because he was a liar, but I'd never heard this story, and my mother in fact validated that. She never wanted to tell me.
Nije čak bilo sigurno da li ću živeti kod kuće, iako sam to saznala tek sa 36 godina. Razgovorala sam sa ocem jedne večeri, i on mi je rekao: "Znaš, kada si imala dve godine, jedan od lekara je predložio tvojoj mami i meni da živiš u jednoj instituciji", da su mogli samo da nastave sa svojim životima i da podižu svoju decu i da prestanu da se bave svim tim stvarima vezanim za invaliditet. Nisam verovala ocu, ne zato što je bio lažov, ali nikad nisam čula tu priču, a moja majka je u stvari potvrdila to. Nikad nije želela da mi kaže.
But in reality, I don't know why I was really surprised by this story, because when I was five years old, and my mother, like mothers and fathers all across the United States, was taking me to school to enroll, she pushed my wheelchair to the school in walking distance to our house, pulled the wheelchair up the steps into the school, and we were greeted by the principal. Not really greeted. But the principal said, no, I couldn't come to that school because it wasn't accessible. But he told us not to worry, because the Board of Education in fact would send a teacher to my house. And they did for a total of two and a half hours a week.
Ali zapravo, ne znam zašto sam toliko bila iznenađena tom pričom, s obzirom na to da, kada sam imala pet godina, moja majka, kao i sve majke i očevi širom Sjedinjenih Američkih Država, me je vodila da me upiše u školu, gurala je kolica do škole pešaka od naše kuće, popela je kolica uz stepenice do škole, i pozdravio nas je direktor. Nije nas baš pozdravio. Ali direktor je rekao da, ne, ne mogu da idem u tu školu zato što nije bila pristupačna za mene. Ali rekao nam je da ne brinemo, zato što će školski odbor da pošalje učitelja kod mene kući. I jesu to uradili na ukupno dva i po sata nedeljno.
(Audience murmurs)
(Žagor publike)
But for good behavior, they threw in an occupational therapist who taught me that very essential skill of cross-stitching.
Ali za dobro vladanje, ubacili su i profesionalnog terapeuta koji me je učio toj veoma važnoj veštini veženja.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I don't cross-stitch today.
Ja i dan danas ne vezem.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I didn't actually get to go to school in a real building until I was nine years old, and then I was in classes only with disabled children in a school that had mainly nondisabled children. And in my classes, there were students up to the age of 21. And then, after 21, they went to something called sheltered workshops with menial work and earning either nothing or below minimum wage. So I understood discrimination. My parents understood discrimination.
Nisam imala priliku da pohađam školu u pravoj zgradi do moje devete godine, a i tada sam bila u razredu samo sa decom sa invaliditetima u školi u kojoj je većina dece bila bez invaliditeta. I na tim časovima bilo je učenika do 21 godine. A onda posle 21. godine, išli bi na nešto što se zove obezbeđene radionice sa nekvalifikovanim radom i zarađivali bi ili ništa ili manje od minimalne zarade. Tako da sam razumela šta je diskriminacija. Moji roditelji su razumeli šta je diskraminacija.
My parents came from Germany. They were German Jews who left in the 1930s, escaping the Holocaust. My parents lost family and they lost parents. Both my parents lost their parents in the Holocaust. And so they realized that they could not be silent as things were going wrong for me in my life. Not me personally, but what was going on around me.
Moji roditelji su došli iz Nemačke. Bili su nemački Jevreji koji su otišli tridesetih godina, bežeći od holokausta. Moji roditelji su izgubili porodicu i izgubili su roditelje. Oboje su izgubili svoje roditelje u holokaustu. Tako da su znali da ne mogu da ćute dok su se stvari odvijale loše za mene u životu. Ne za mene lično, ali ono što se dešavalo oko mene.
They learned that because I used a wheelchair, none of the high schools in New York City, in the entire city, were wheelchair accessible, so what was supposed to happen is I was supposed to go back onto home instruction along with many other students. So my parents banded together with other parents. They went to the Board of Education and they demanded that the Board of Ed make some of the high schools accessible. And they did. And so I and many others were finally able to go to high school, a regular high school, and take regular classes.
Shvatili su da zato što koristim kolica, nijedna srednja škola u Njujorku, u celom gradu, nije imala pristup za kolica, tako da ono što bi se desilo je bilo da je trebalo da nastavim sa učenjem od kuće zajedno sa mnogim drugim đacima. Tako da su se moji roditelji udružili sa drugim roditeljima. Otišli su kod školskog odbora i zahtevali su da odbor učini neke od škola pristupačnim. I učinili su to. Tako da je meni i mnogim drugima konačno bilo omogućeno da pohađamo srednju školu, običnu srednju školu, i da idemo na obične časove.
So what happened next? I was learning more and more about what discrimination was, and equally important, I was learning that I needed to become my own advocate. I was entering college, Long Island University, and I had always wanted to be a teacher, and so I minored in education and I took all the appropriate courses, and then when it was time for me to go for my license, I had to take a written exam, an oral exam and a medical exam. At that time, all three of those exams were given in completely inaccessible buildings, so I had friends who carried me up and down the steps for these exams, not in a motorized wheelchair.
I šta se desilo sledeće? Učila sam sve više šta je diskriminacija, i podjednako važno, učila sam da je potrebno da se borim za sebe. Krenula sam na koledž, Long Ajlend univerzitet, i oduvek sam želela da budem nastavnik, tako da mi je diplomski bio iz obrazovanja i išla sam na sve potrebne kurseve, i onda kada je došao trenutak da idem da uzmem licencu, polagala sam pismeni ispit, usmeni ispit, i medicinski test. U to vreme, sva ova tri testa su se održavala u potpuno nepristupačnim zgradama, tako da su me prijatelji nosili uz i niz stepenice za ove ispite, ne u motorizovanim kolicima.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
In a manual wheelchair. But I passed my oral exam. I passed my written exam.
U ručnim kolicima. Ali prošla sam usmeni ispit. Prošla sam pismeni ispit.
My medical exam was something completely different. One of the first questions the doctor asked me was, could I please show her how I went to the bathroom. I was 22 years old and you know when you go for any kind of an interview, you think about all the kinds of questions that people could ask you?
Sa mojim medicinskim testovima je bila drugačija priča. Jedno od prvih pitanja koje mi je lekar postavio bilo je da joj pokažem kako idem u WC. Imala sam 22 godine i znate kada idete na bilo kakav intervju, razmišljate o svim pitanjima koja bi ljudi mogli da vam postave?
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
That was not one of them. And I was freaked out in the first place because I had heard that there were actually no disabled people using wheelchairs who were teachers in New York, so each step along the way I was expecting something bad. So I said to her, is it a requirement that teachers show their students how to go to the bathroom? If it is, I can do that.
To nije bilo jedno od njih. U prvom trenutku sam se prestravila zato što sam čula da zapravo nije bilo ljudi sa kolicima koji su predavali u Njujorku, tako da sam svakim korakom na tom putu očekivala da će se desiti nešto loše. Tako da sam pitala doktorku, da li je obaveza da nastavnici pokazuju svojim đacima kako da idu u WC? Ako jeste, mogu ja to.
So no surprise, I was failed because I didn't pass the medical. The official reason that I was denied my job was paralysis of poliomyelitis sequelae of -- I'm sorry. Paralysis of both lower limbs, sequelae of poliomyelitis. Honestly, I didn't know what the word "sequelae" meant, so I went to the dictionary, and it meant "because of." So I'd been denied my license because I couldn't walk.
Tako da nije bilo iznenađujuće, da sam oborena zato što nisam prošla medicinski test. Zvanični razlog što mi je uskraćen posao je bio paraliza dečje paralize posledice - izvinite. Paraliza donjih ekstremiteta, kao posledice dečje paralize. Iskreno, nisam znala šta "kao posledice" znači, tako da sam pogledala u rečnik, i znači "usled". Tako da mi je odbijena licenca zato što nisam mogla da hodam.
So what was I going to do? This is a really important time in my life, because it would be the first time that I really would be challenging the system, me, and although I was working with a lot of other friends who had disabilities who were encouraging me to move forward with this, it was nonetheless quite frightening. But I was really very lucky. I had a friend who was a disabled student at Long Island University and was also a stringer at the "New York Times," and he was able to get a reporter to write a really good piece about what had happened and why he thought what had happened was wrong. The next day there was an editorial in the "New York Times" with the title of "Heumann v. The Board of Education" and the "New York Times" came out in support of my getting my teaching license.
I šta sada da radim? Ovo je bio posebno važan trenutak u mom životu, Zato što je to bio prvi put da ću se stvarno suprotstaviti sistemu, ja, i iako sam radila sa ostalim prijateljima koji su imali invaliditete, koji su me ohrabrivali da idem napred sa tim, ipak je bilo zastrašujuće. Ali sam imala dosta sreće. Imala sam prijatelja koji je bio student sa invaliditetom na Long Ajlend univerzitetu a takođe i izveštač za Njujork Tajms, i uspeo je da dobije reportera da napiše veoma dobar članak o onome što se desilo i zašto je on mislio da je ono što se desilo pogrešno. Narednog dana pojavio se novinski članak u Njujork Tajmsu sa naslovom „Hjuman protiv školskog odbora,“ tako da je Njujork Tajms pružio podršku da ja dobijem licencu za nastavnika.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
And then the same day, I got a call from an attorney who was writing a book about civil rights. And he was calling me to interview me, and I was interviewing him. He didn't know that. And at the end of our discussion, I said, "Would you be willing to represent me? I want to sue the Board of Education." And he said yes. Now, sometimes I say that the stars were aligned around this court case, because we had an amazing judge: the first African American female federal judge --
A onda istog tog dana, dobila sam poziv od advokata koji je pisao knjigu o ljudskim pravima. I pozvao me je na intervju, a ja sam intervjuisala njega. On to nije znao. I na kraju razgovora, rekla sam, „Da li biste želeli da me zastupate? Hoću da tužim školski odbor.“ Pristao je. Ponekad volim da kažem da su se zvezde poklopile oko ovog slučaja, zato što smo imali sjajnog sudiju: prvog ženskog afroameričkog državnog sudiju -
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Constance Baker Motley.
Konstancu Bejker Motli.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
And she knew discrimination when she saw it.
A ona je odlično znala šta je diskriminacija.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So she strongly encouraged the Board of Ed to give me another medical exam, which they did. And then I got my license, and while it took a number of months for me to actually get a principal to offer me a job, I finally did get a job and I started teaching that fall in the same school that I had gone to, second grade. So --
Tako da je izričito zahtevala od školskog odbora da radim drugi medicinski test, što su oni i uradili. A onda sam dobila moju licencu, i dok je trebalo da prođe puno meseci da zapravo dođe direktor i ponudi mi posao, konačno sam ga dobila i počela sam da predajem te jeseni u istoj školi u koju sam ja išla, drugom razredu. Tako da...
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
That's a whole other TED Talk.
To je jedan sasvim drugi TED govor.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But I was learning as my friends were, and people I didn't know around the country, that we had to be our own advocates, that we needed to fight back people's view that if you had a disability, you needed to be cured, that equality was not part of the equation. And we were learning from the Civil Rights Movement and from the Women's Rights Movement. We were learning from them about their activism and their ability to come together, not only to discuss problems but to discuss solutions. And what was born is what we call today the Disability Rights Movement.
Ali učila sam kao što su i moji prijatelji i ljudi koje nisam poznavala širom zemlje, da moramo da se borimo za svoja prava, da moramo da se suprotstavimo mišljenjima drugih ljudi da ako imaš invaliditet, potrebno je da se izlečiš, da jednakost nije deo te jednačine. I učili smo od pokreta za ljudska prava i od pokreta za prava žena. Učili smo od njih o njihovom aktivizmu i njihovoj sposobnosti da se okupe zajedno ne samo da raspravljaju o problemima već i da raspravljaju o rešenjima. a ono što se rodilo tada je ono što danas zovemo
So I'd like to tell you a couple of riddles.
pokret za prava ljudi sa invaliditetom.
How many people do you think it takes to stop traffic on Madison Avenue during rush hour in New York City? Do you have a guess? How many?
Tako da bih sada želela da vam postavim nekoliko zagonetki. Šta mislite koliko je ljudi potrebno da zaustavite saobraćaj u Medison Aveniji tokom saobraćajne gužve u Njujorku? Da li možete da pogodite? Koliko?
(Audience members shout out answers)
(Pojedinci iz publike uzvikuju odgovore)
Fifty. One would be too little. Fifty people. And there were no accessible paddy wagons, so they had to just kind of deal with us.
Pedeset. Jedan bi bio premalo. Pedeset ljudi. A nije bilo pristupačnih kočionih kola, tako da su jednostavno morali da se izbore sa nama.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
But let me tell you another riddle. How many people does it take to stop a bus in New York City when they refuse to let you on because you're in a wheelchair? One. That is the right answer. So what you have to do though is take your wheelchair --
Ali dopustite da vam postavim još jednu zagonetku. Koliko ljudi je potrebno da zaustavite autobus u Njujorku kada vam ne dopuštaju da uđete zato što ste u kolicima? Jedan. To je tačan odgovor. Ipak ono što treba da uradite je da dovezete kolica
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Sidle in the right place right in front of the steps and give it a little push underneath, and then their bus can't move.
zaobiđete na pravom mestu pravo ispred stepenica i gurnete ih malo ispod i onda autobus ne može da se pomeri.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Any of you who want to learn how to do that, talk to me after this.
Oni koji žele da nauče kako da urade ovo obratite mi se nakon govora.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
In 1972, President Nixon vetoed the Rehabilitation Act. We protested. He signed it. Then the regulations that needed to be promulgated to implement that law had not in fact been signed. We demonstrated. They were signed. And when the Americans With Disabilities Act, the ADA, our Emancipation Proclamation Act, looked as though it might not in fact be passed in the House or Senate, disabled people from all across the United States came together and they crawled up the Capitol steps. That was an amazing day, and the House and Senate passed the ADA. And then President Bush signed the ADA. It's a great picture. President Bush signed the ADA on the lawn of the White House. It was an amazing day, and there are about 2,000 people there. It was July 26, 1990. And one of the most famous statements he had in his speech was, "Let the shameful walls of exclusion finally come tumbling down."
Predsednik Nikson je 1972. godine stavio zabranu na Zakon o rehabilitaciji. Protestvovali smo. Potpisao je. Onda regulacije koje su bile potrebne da bi zakon stupio na snagu zapravo nisu bile potpisane. Demonstrirali smo. Potpisane su. A kada je zakon o amerikancima sa invaliditetom, naš zakon o proglašenju emancipacije, izgledao kao da zapravo neće proći na Senatu, ljudi sa invaliditetom širom Sjedinjenih Američkih Država su se okupili i uspuzali su uz stepenice zgrade Senata. To je bio neverovatan dan, i Senat je odobrio ovaj zakon. A onda je presednik Buš potpisao zakon o amerikancima sa invaliditetom. To je sjajna slika. Presednik Buš je potpisao ovaj zakon na travnjaku ispred Bele kuće. To je bio neverovatan dan, bilo je oko 2000 ljudi tamo. Bio je 26. jul 1990. godine. Jedna od najpoznatijih izjava u njegovom govoru bila je: „Hajde da konačno srušimo te sramne zidove isključivanja ljudi.“
For any of you in the room who are 50 or older, or maybe or even 40 or older, you remember a time when there were no ramps on the streets, when buses were not accessible, when trains were not accessible, where there were no wheelchair-accessible bathrooms in shopping malls, where you certainly did not have a sign language interpreter, or captioning, or braille or other kinds of supports. These things have changed, and they have inspired the world. And disabled people around the world want laws like we have, and they want those laws enforced.
Za sve vas ovde u ovoj prostoriji koji imate pedeset godina ili više, ili možda čak i četrdeset i više, sećate se vremena kada nije bilo rampi na ulicama, kada autobusi nisu bili pristupačni, kada vozovi nisu bili pristupačni, kada u tržnim centrima nije bilo pristupačnih WC-a za ljude sa kolicima, kada definitivno nije bilo prevodioca za znakovni jezik, ili titlova ili Brajeve azbuke ili druge vrste podrške. Ove stvari su se promenile, i inspirisale su čitav svet. Ljudi sa invaliditetom širom sveta žele da imaju zakone kakve mi imamo, i žele da se ti zakoni primenjuju.
And so what we've seen is something called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is a treaty that was adopted in 2006. It's celebrating is 10-year anniversary. More than 165 countries have joined this treaty. It is the first international human rights treaty fully focused on disabled people. But I am sad to say that our US Senate has failed to recommend to our president that we ratify the treaty. We signed it in 2009, but it doesn't come into force until ratification, and the president -- no president can ratify a treaty without the consent of the Senate. So we feel really strongly that our US Senate needs to do its job, that our Senate needs to enable us as Americans not only to be able to assist disabled people and governments around the world to learn about the good work that we've been doing, but it's equally important that disabled people have the same opportunities to travel, study and work abroad as anyone else in our country. And as long as many countries don't have the same laws as we do and don't enforce them if they have them, opportunities for disabled people are more limited.
Tako da ono što vidimo je nešto što se zove Sporazum za prava ljudi sa invaliditetom. To je sporazum koji je usvojen 2006. godine. Sada slavi svoju desetogodišnjicu. Više od 65 zemalja se priključilo ovom sporazumu. To je prvi internacionalni sporazum za ljudska prava koji se u potpunosti fokusira na ljude sa invaliditetom. Ali žao mi je da kažem da je naš američki Senat propustio da kaže našem presedniku da i mi treba da potvrdimo ovaj sporazum. Potpisali smo ga 2009. godine, ali ne stupa na snagu dok se ne ratifikuje, i presednik... nijedan presednik ne može da potvrdi sporazum bez odobrenja Senata. Tako da smo mi čvrstog mišljenja da naš Senat treba da uradi svoj posao, da naš Senat treba da omogući nama amerikancima, ne samo da možemo da pomognemo ljudima sa invaliditetom i vladama u svetu da nauče o dobrim stvarima koje mi radimo, već je podjednako važno da ljudi sa invaliditetom imaju iste prilike da putuju, uče i rade u inostranstvu kao i bilo ko drugi u našoj zemlji. I sve dok mnoge zemlje nemaju iste zakone kao i mi i oni ne budu primenjeni, čak i ako ih imaju, prilike za osobe sa invaliditetom su ograničene.
When I travel abroad, I am always meeting with disabled women, and those women tell me stories about how they experience violence and rape and how in many cases these forms of violence occur from family members and people that they know, who in fact may be working for them. And frequently these cases are not adjudicated. I meet disabled people who have been offered jobs by businesses because they live in a country where there's a quota system, and in order to avoid a fine, they will hire you and then tell you, "You don't need to come to work because we really don't need you in the facility." I have visited institutions where the stench of urine is so strong that before you open the door of your vehicle, you're kind of pushed back, and then gone into those institutions where people should be living in the community with appropriate supports and seen people almost naked, people who are chemically drugged and people who are living lives of despair. These are some of the things that the US needs to be doing more to correct. We know discrimination when we see it, and we need to be fighting it together.
Kada putujem u inostranstvo, uvek se srećem sa ženama sa invaliditetom, i te žene mi pričaju priče o tome kako preživljavaju nasilje i silovanje i kako u mnogim slučajevima ovi oblici nasilja se javljaju među članovima porodice i ljudima koje poznaju, koji u stvari možda rade za njih. I često ovi slučajevi nisu osuđeni. Srećem ljude sa invaliditetom kojima su nuđeni poslovi od strane firmi zato što žive u zemlji gde postoji sistem kvote, i da bi izbegli kaznu, oni će vas zaposliti a onda vam reći, „Ne moraš da dolaziš na posao zato što nam nisi zaista potreban u objektu.“ Posetila sam institucije gde je smrad urina toliko jak da pre nego što otvoriš vrata vozila, na neki način si odgurnut, a onda sam išla u te institucije gde bi ljudi trebalo da žive u zajednici, sa odgovarajućom podrškom, i videla te ljude skoro gole, ljude koji su hemijski tretirani i ljude koji žive očajne živote. Postoje neke stvari koje je potrebno da Amerika uradi da bi ispravila to. Znamo dobro šta je diskriminacija, i potrebno je da se borimo protiv nje zajedno.
So what is it that we can be doing together? I encourage you all to recognize that disability is a family you can join at any point in your life. I'd like to see by a show of hands how many of you have ever broken a bone? And then, when you leave today, I'd like you to maybe write a couple of sentences about what that period of time has been like for you, because frequently I hear from people, "You know, I couldn't do this, I couldn't do that. People talked to me differently. They acted differently towards me." And that's what I see and other disabled people see in flashing letters.
Pa šta je to što bismo mogli da uradimo zajedno? Podstičem vas da shvatite da je invaliditet porodica kojoj se možete priključiti svakog trenutka u životu. Želela bih da podignete ruku svi vi koji ste nekad polomili kost. A onda, kada odete odavde danas, želela bih da napišete nekoliko rečenica o tome kako je izgledao taj period za vas, zato što često čujem od ljudi, „Znaš, nisam mogao ovo, nisam mogla ono. Ljudi su razgovarali sa mnom drugačije. Ponašali su se prema meni dugačije.“ I to je ono što ja vidim i ono što ostali ljudi sa invaliditetom vide u dirljivim pismima.
But we -- you in this room, people listening and watching this TED Talk -- together we can make a difference. Together we can speak up for justice. Together we can help change the world.
Ali mi... vi u ovoj prostoriji, ljudi koji slušaju i gledaju ovaj TED govor... mi zajedno možemo da promenimo stvari. Zajedno možemo da podignemo svoj glas protiv nepravde. Zajedno možemo da pomognemo da promenimo svet.
Thank you. I have to go catch my bus.
Hvala vam. Moram da idem da uhvatim autobus.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)