Independent Living and Disability Rights Past and Present, in Conversations with Dr. Scot Danforth, "An Independent Man: Ed Roberts and the Fight for Disability Rights" (UC Press)
October 27, 2026
10:00am - 10:50am
Zoom Only: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/388207496
Please join us for a second conversation with Dr. Scot Danforth of Chapman University. Dr. Danforth joined our series in April 2026 (recording here), and he is joining us again to discuss his new book, the independent living movement, and its relevance in political, social, and cultural conversations today. Find the book here: An Independent Man: Ed Roberts and the Fight for Disability Rights (University of California Press). We will once again have several copies of the book for some lucky Zoom attendees.
Dr. Scot Danforth is Professor of Education and Assistant Dean of Research, in Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. With over 90 publications and 13 books, he is a leading voice in the scholarship of disability and inclusive education.
From the Press page for An Independent Man:
The first biography of one of the founders of the disability rights movement, An Independent Man chronicles the life of an activist who reimagined the meaning of equality and inspired generations of reformers.
Before Jonas Salk's vaccine, polio was a social death sentence. The disabled were expected to disappear into their limitations, pitied by those around them. This might have been the story of Ed Roberts, paralyzed and consigned to sleep in an iron lung. But Roberts insisted on what all people deserve: a full life.
Scot Danforth deftly captures Roberts's adventurous personality and radical vision, chronicling his life from his student activist days at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s to his career highlights of establishing the pioneering Center for Independent Living and directing California's Department of Rehabilitation. By insisting that disabled persons are valuable members of society, and by translating his ideas into action, Roberts laid the ground for the Americans with Disabilities Act and the ongoing movement for equality.
Before Jonas Salk's vaccine, polio was a social death sentence. The disabled were expected to disappear into their limitations, pitied by those around them. This might have been the story of Ed Roberts, paralyzed and consigned to sleep in an iron lung. But Roberts insisted on what all people deserve: a full life.
Scot Danforth deftly captures Roberts's adventurous personality and radical vision, chronicling his life from his student activist days at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s to his career highlights of establishing the pioneering Center for Independent Living and directing California's Department of Rehabilitation. By insisting that disabled persons are valuable members of society, and by translating his ideas into action, Roberts laid the ground for the Americans with Disabilities Act and the ongoing movement for equality.