Mai Thor doesn’t equate every person she meets with their physical appearance. She thinks it’s important to find out who people truly are.
Transcript
Mai Thor: Any condition that our body can physically experience is a part of the human condition. For many people, that's just hard to understand.
Host: This is Keep Moving Forward.
George H.W. Bush: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.
Host: Exploring the legacy and promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mai Thor: My name is Mai Thor, and I acquired polio when I was five. When I see a person with a disability, I don't automatically think: oh, I wonder what happened that person? It just doesn’t occur to me to think that way. And I'm not saying that it's wrong for people to be curious, I'm just saying I don't equate every person that I meet with their physical-ness.
If you define my value by the way that I look and the way I get around, you're not seeing anything past your own nose. And I wish people would recognize that more; that it's not just about how we look on the outside, it's really about who we truly are as people. Because once we get beyond that, then everything's easy.
Host: Keep Moving Forward is supported by The Minnesota Council on Disability, The Minnesota Humanities Center and the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, online at Ampers.org.