11 April 2008
The American President Who Used a Wheelchair
By Phyllis McIntosh
Phyllis McIntosh is a Maryland-based writer who frequently contributes to Department of State publications.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who was elected four times as president of the United States, serving from 1933-1945—some of the most turbulent years in U.S. history—was the very image of a strong leader. Hidden from the public was the fact that Roosevelt, a victim of polio, could not walk. He was almost never photographed in his wheelchair.
Although attitudes toward disabilities had changed dramatically by the time a memorial to FDR opened in Washington, D.C., in 1997, a statue of the former president, nevertheless, depicted him wearing a large cloak that all but obscured his wheelchair.
"We felt it would be unconscionable for school children for years to come to go through that memorial and have no sense that Roosevelt led this country through the Great Depression and to victory in World War II from his wheelchair," says Michael Deland, president of the National Organization on Disability.
Deland, with help from honorary chairman, former President George H.W. Bush, launched a campaign to raise funds for a second, more honest statue. They welcomed their first donation—$378.50 from a bake sale held by a group of New Jersey schoolchildren—and went on to secure $1.65 million more from private donors.
Dedicated in 2001, the second statue shows Roosevelt seated in the wheelchair that he designed and used every day. Installed at ground level, the sculpture is easily accessible. Children gravitate to it and clamber onto the lap of the bronze president.
People in wheelchairs can reach out and touch it and read the inscription on the wall behind, which is also printed in Braille.
"The constant refrain," Deland says, "is from older people with disabilities or from teachers or parents saying to kids, 'Look, Roosevelt led this country from this wheelchair. You can do anything you set out to do, disability or not.'"
