The following comes to us via http://www.InclusionDaily.com/
Disability Rights Pioneer Fred Fay Dies At Age 66
(Concord Patch)
August 22, 2011
CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS– [Excerpt] Twenty years ago I learned to refuse to play Scrabble with Fred Fay.
Fred knew all the two-letter words and was shameless about using them. Fred would clean the clock of anyone who took him on. And he did this while lying on his motorized wheel-bed, talking and smiling malevolently through a mirror tilted so he could see you and the board. He was a relentless competitor and that spirit led him to become one of the prime movers in the disability rights movement in the United States.
From the White House to national organizations for people with disabilities, he received praise, honors and esteem.
Fred died Saturday morning at the Main Street home he shared for 30 years with his beloved Trish Irons. And although he lived below the radar in Concord, he was a super star in the disability community throughout the United States.
An accomplished gymnast as a youth, Fred fell from a trapeze when he was 16 and lost the use of his legs. After a rough period of adjustment he built up muscles in his arms so that he could fold up his wheelchair, get into a car and drive. At home in D.C. Fred found “every single curb was like a Berlin Wall telling me that I was not welcome to travel farther than a block.”
Entire article:
Disability Policy Advocate Remembered
http://concord.patch.com/articles/disability-policy-advocate-remembered
Planet of the Blind 