Excerpt from FDR’s “An Address On Rehabilitation Of The Mentally and Physically Handicapped” https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=2148&&page=1
Excerpt from FDR’s “An Address On Rehabilitation Of The Mentally and Physically Handicapped” https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=2148&&page=1
Excerpt from FDR’s “An Address On Rehabilitation Of The Mentally and Physically Handicapped” https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=2148&&page=1
The excerpts above are from a speech President Roosevelt made after returning from a trip to New York where he visited schools and hospitals. In this speech, President Roosevelt talks about his excitement in the strides in the mentality of the public opinion over the past half century. He talks about how he was struck by the possibility of people who were once considered mentally deranged and ill to recover and be active participants within society. In one excerpt above, he refers to his own learning experience, where he connects deafness with dumbness and is corrected by the superintendent of the school. Roosevelt then goes on to reflect about how getting people with disabilities who were once secluded and treated as prisoners back into “normal”, as FDR says, society. His concluding paragraph relates back to the economy and how this population of people with disabilities lacking jobs is therefore dragging down the U.S.’s economy. Concluding his speech in this fashion makes it clear that the real reason he was so pleased to see how capable people with disabilities were during his visit to New York is because they can help better the U.S.’s economy, not because they are capable and it is the morally correct thing to be doing.