Letter to the editor, the Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1996, concerning a column by Charles Krauthammer, who is paraplegic:

As a woman sculptor who has a disability and uses a wheelchair, I would like to respond to Charles Krauthammer's commentary headlined "Defining the image of FDR" (Op-Ed, June 17).

Whether Krauthammer is disabled or non-disabled, his usage of able-ist (disability prejudice) descriptors such as "afflicted" and "wheelchair-bound" may reflect his own fear and negative attitude toward disability.

Krauthammer questioned the portrayal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his wheelchair by saying, "Does it justify violating the self-image, the pride, the intentions of the man whom we are ostensibly honoring?" He further suggests that any chair but a wheelchair for FDR is acceptable. But a person uses a wheelchair for mobility purposes, similar to a person who uses an automobile. The FDR memorial sculpture wheelchair controversy illuminates how deeply societal disability stereotypes are symbolically embedded within the wheelchair.

Differences such as gender, race, ethnicity or disability are not value judgements. These differences are integral aspects of one's identity and experience of the world, and do not need to be overcome, hidden or silenced. An FDR portrayed without his wheelchair in his memorial sculpture will justifiably reflect historical and contemporary societal ableism.

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