‘We want to ride’: the 1978 protest that sparked the disability rights movement

Summary

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Up First from NPR

Episode: “We Want to Ride”: The 1978 Protest That Sparked the Disability Rights Movement

Date: July 26, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Up First’s “The Sunday Story” marks the 36th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), exploring its roots in the disability rights movement. Hosted by Ayesha Rascoe and reported by Joseph Shapiro (NPR) and Stephanie Wolf (Colorado Public Radio), the episode centers on the pioneering activism of the "Gang of 19" in Denver in 1978. Their sit-in protest catalyzed the national campaign for independent living and accessible transit, leading to broader disability rights. The story is anchored by voices from pioneering activists, legal advocates, and contemporary disability advocates like Nicky Bishop, whose lives reflect the legacy and ongoing struggles sparked by these historic protests.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Signing of the ADA (00:00–01:48)

• President George H.W. Bush’s role: On July 26, 1990, President Bush signed the ADA, ending widespread exclusion of disabled people from jobs, transit, public accommodations, and more.
  • Quote (00:53, President Bush):
    “Your triumph is that your bill will now be law and that this day belongs to you. And on behalf of our nation, thank you, very, very much.”
• ADA’s impact: Especially its guarantee of independent living—enabling disabled people to receive care at home and participate in their communities.

2. From Institutionalization to Independent Living (03:05–06:08)

• Personal story: Nicky Bishop:
  • Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 2 at age five.
  • Grew up post-ADA and now leads a full life as a licensed clinical social worker, mother, and advocate—with daily assistance supported by Medicaid.
  • Without these changes, “I’d probably be in a nursing home today.” (05:52)
• Role of Medicaid: Essential for in-home care, while private insurance does not cover long-term attendant services.

3. The Gang of 19: Origin and Activism (06:08–16:48)

• Heritage House nursing home:
  • Poor conditions and neglect led to a desire for change.
  • Attorney John Holland describes it as “a cesspool... cockroaches in cereals... flies in people’s faces.” (07:01)
• Wade Blank’s leadership:
  • Presbyterian minister, civil rights advocate, and mentor to young disabled residents.
  • Inspired independent living and self-advocacy; founded the Atlantis Community to support transitioning residents.
• Barriers to community living:
  • No curb cuts, inaccessible buses.
  • Symbolism: “You can't say 'hire the handicapped' and then not have public transit be wheelchair accessible.” —Wade Blank (10:27)
• Protest sparks national movement:
  • Denver’s transit planned to buy 200+ inaccessible buses.
  • After losing a lawsuit, activists, led by Blank, enacted street-level civil disobedience on July 5, 1978—blocking buses with wheelchairs.
    • Quote (13:08, sign slogan):
      “Taxation without transportation.”
  • Police struggle: Unable to arrest wheelchair users due to inaccessible police infrastructure, they arrested attendants, prompting new legal strategies.
    • Lisa Wheeler (14:32): "Why are you arresting the able bodied person?”
    • John Holland (15:33): "You don't even deserve to have a civil rights movement, which pissed everybody off."
    • Ultimately, the judge affirmed the right of disabled protesters to be arrested, recognizing their protest as legitimate civil disobedience.
• Success and Legacy:
  • Denver agreed to install wheelchair lifts, becoming a leader in accessible transportation.
  • John Holland (16:17):
    “The right to be in the world, that's what the movement was about... The right sought was the right to be included.”
  • Bobby Simpson (16:43):
    “Yeah, it changed lives.”

4. Birth and Growth of ADAPT (17:59–20:45)

• ADAPT’s founding:
  • Gang of 19 members created ADAPT in 1983, a national grassroots group that used “in your face” direct action.
  • Chained themselves to buses/conventions, staged sit-ins, and pressured lawmakers for accessible public transit.
• Broadened agenda:
  • By the late 1980s, ADAPT lobbied for ADA passage and broader disability rights.

5. The Capitol Crawl and Federal Action (19:19–21:13)

• The Capitol Crawl, March 1990:
  • Dozens of activists crawled up the U.S. Capitol steps, visually dramatizing the barriers disabled Americans faced.
    • Wade Blank (19:44):
      “ADA will pass, paved the way for the emancipation of hundreds of millions throughout the world.”
  • Backed up by extensive lobbying and constituent engagement, the demonstration helped secure ADA’s passage.

6. Pushing Beyond the ADA: Community Living Rights (20:45–23:53)

• “Free Our People”:

  • ADAPT’s ongoing mission: Securing the right to live outside institutions by funding attendant care.

• The Olmstead Supreme Court Decision (1999):

  • Established the right for disabled people to receive care in the community, shifting state policies.

• Mounting threats: Post-2016 efforts to curtail Medicaid, limit home care funding, and reinterpret Olmstead have left the disabled community fearing regression. - Nicky Bishop (22:32): “We are talking about life and death, right? Not just, oh, some frivolous policy.” - Nicky Bishop (23:07): “Olmstead is so fundamentally important for the rights of individuals with disability... Without those programs, I wouldn’t be here.”

• Recent set-backs:

  • Colorado, facing budget pressures, reduced Medicaid support, forcing people like Bishop to rely on family for basic care.
    • “Dad’s helping me out with some medication management.” (23:44)
  • Key point: Home care is less expensive than institutionalization, but still at risk.

7. Today’s Challenges and Resilience (24:25–25:12)

• Rights under threat:
  • In 2026, instead of pushing for new advances, advocates are defending hard-won rights.
    • Nicky Bishop (24:37):
      “I'm devastated to watch all of this happening... At the same time, I also feel a sense of resiliency from my community and persons with disabilities in general. We are very adaptable.”
• Continued activism:
  • Bishop and others vow to continue protesting and public action to protect community living and disability rights.

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Notable Quotes

• President George H.W. Bush (00:53):
  “Your triumph is that your bill will now be law and that this day belongs to you.”
• John Holland (07:01):
  “It was a cesspool. I mean, they had cockroaches and cereals. Debbie Tracy, I had a photograph of her with flies in her face.”
• Wade Blank (10:27):
  “You can measure how a society views an oppressed group by how they treat them in public accommodations. And you can’t say, hire the handicap and then not have public transit be wheelchair accessible.”
• John Holland (16:17):
  “The right to be in the world, that's what the movement was about... The right sought was the right to be included.”
• Nicky Bishop (22:32):
  “I mean, we are talking about life and death, right? Not just, oh, you know, some frivolous policy.”
• Nicky Bishop (24:37):
  “I also feel a sense of resiliency from my community and persons with disabilities in general. We are very adaptable.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & ADA context: 00:00–03:05
• Nicky Bishop’s story / Medicaid: 04:04–06:08
• Gang of 19 origins: 06:08–09:49
• Civil disobedience & bus protest: 09:49–16:48
• ADAPT formation and tactics: 17:59–20:45
• Capitol Crawl & ADA passage: 19:19–21:13
• Olmstead decision & community living: 21:13–23:53
• Recent attacks on rights / Medicaid: 22:00–24:25
• Resilience & future activism: 24:25–25:12

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Memorable Moments

• The vivid recounting of the Gang of 19's tactics—blocking buses all night, the symbolism of “taxation without transportation,” and the inability of police to arrest wheelchair users due to inaccessibility—drives home the practical and symbolic effect of their activism.
• Bishop’s testimony on the life-changing difference post-ADA possibilities have made, and her trepidation at today’s rollbacks, underscores the lived stakes of these policies.
• The reflection that the right to be arrested for protest is itself central to civil rights—advocates demanded not just access, but full participation in public life and protest.

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Conclusion

This episode powerfully connects the past and present of disability rights, showing how a small group’s street-level activism in Denver shaped national policy and continues to influence lives today. Even as new threats to independent living and civil rights arise, the spirit of the Gang of 19 and successors like ADAPT endures—combining resilience, direct action, and advocacy to defend and advance inclusion.

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Transcript

[Wade Blank]

Aye.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Aye.

[Ayesha Rascoe]

I'm Ayesha Rascoe. This is the Sunday story from up first. Let's go back in time to this exact day 36 years ago. It's when President George H.W. bush picked up his pen and signed a landmark piece of legislation.

[Joseph Shapiro]

And welcome to every one of you out there in this splendid scene of hope spread across the South Lawn of the White House.

[Ayesha Rascoe]

The legislation was the Americans with Disabilities act, an immense civil rights law. Disabled people could no longer be excluded from jobs, public transit, restaurants, stores and hotels. As he put his name on the law, President Bush thanked the biggest stakeholders who were perhaps the loudest in advocating for the bill, the tens of millions of Americans with disabilities.

[Joseph Shapiro]

And to all of you, I just want to say your triumph is that your bill will now be law and that this day belongs to you. And on behalf of our nation, thank you very, very much.

[Ayesha Rascoe]

One major act of inclusion the law provided involved independence. The ADA opened the door to Americans with disabilities to live and receive care in their own homes, to live within their community rather than in a nursing home or institution. It's a hard fought right gained after years of activism. Today on The Sunday Story, NPR's Joseph Shapiro and Stephanie Wolf of Colorado Public Radio are going to share their reporting on this bedrock of disability rights in the US we'll be right back.

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[Ayesha Rascoe]

Learn [e-mail] we're back with the Sunday story and an episode about the disability rights movement in America. Now I'm going to hand it over to NPR's Joseph Shapiro and Colorado Public Radio's Stephanie Wolf.

[Joseph Shapiro]

I was on the south lawn of The White House 36 years ago today, as a reporter to cover the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. People came from all over the country with every kind of disability. It was a celebration. Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down. God bless you all. I've covered the disability rights movement for decades now. The ADA and all those protections won by the disability community, they're all tied to this right for independent living. And that's the idea that disabled people want the same lives as everyone else. To go to school, to get jobs, to live with family, and to be part of their community. They didn't want to live in institutions and nursing homes where before the ADA, people often lived if they needed daily medical and personal care. Independent living is about getting that care in their own homes.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And that's why we want to start our story by telling you about Nicky Bishop. Bishop has a neuromuscular condition called spinal muscular atrophy, type 2.

[Nicky Bishop]

I was diagnosed when I was about 5 years old, and basically the person just gets progressively weaker as they age.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Bishop's 39. She was just a kid when the Americans with Disabilities act was signed into law. So she grew up in a world where so much more was possible for her as a person with significant disabilities. She has a full life now. She's a licensed clinical social worker in the Denver area and a disability advocate. I've run into her at the Colorado State Capitol before as she lobbied in support of different disability rights bills.

[Nicky Bishop]

So I could walk until I was about nine years old, but always had sort of struggle walking and then just progressively got weaker as I aged to the point where I have really limited upper mobility, cannot walk at all.

[Narrator/Reporter]

So Bishop relies on attendants who come to her house to help her live this very full life. They help her get out of bed, get dressed, bathed, and ready for work. Because Bishop can't move her body on her own, she depends on AIDS about 23 hours a day. It's expensive care, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year if she had to pay for it herself. Private insurance, the kind you get through your job, doesn't pay for it, but Medicaid does. That's the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled. It allows Bishop to have not just her full time career, but also to be a parent to a nine year old.

[Nicky Bishop]

This is my son, Adrian.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Hi, nice to meet you. Without the disability civil rights movement, Bishop thinks she'd probably be in a nursing home today.

[Nicky Bishop]

Just the amount of opportunities that I've had, you know, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. But like with the Gang of 19 and you know, that generation of advocate that they paved the way for me so that I could be successful.

[Joseph Shapiro]

The Gang of 19, this nearly forgotten group of activists is a big reason Bishop is where she is today. In 1978 in Denver, this gang, really, it was just a small group of young people in wheelchairs carried out an extraordinary act of civil disobedience. It helped set in motion an era of activism that. That won rights, like getting Congress to pass the ada.

[Wade Blank]

We wanna write. We wanna write.

[John Holland]

We wanna.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It's a fierce title, the Gang of 19. But the group of young people met in a place where they had almost no power. A suburban Denver nursing home. And not a good one.

[John Holland]

No activities, nothing to do. Warehoused physical injuries, bed sores, a lot of bed sores.

[Joseph Shapiro]

This is Denver civil rights attorney John Holland talking to us about that nursing home, Heritage House.

[John Holland]

It was a cesspool. I mean, they had cockroaches and cereals. Debbie Tracy, I had a photograph of her with flies in her face. She couldn't move her arms, just covered in flies.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Heritage House was not a place where these young people could thrive after all. Holland would later sue that nursing home for. For mistreatment and neglect. But the nursing home would also prove to be a turning point in their lives. That's where they met a man named Wade Blank. And he would show them they were capable of extraordinary things. Blank, who died in 1993, wasn't disabled. He was a Presbyterian minister who turned to political action. Blank was a student in seminary in Chicago when he marched with Martin Luther King at Selma. He did civil rights work in big cities and he was a chaplain at Kent State. But after four students were shot during a protest against the US war in Southeast Asia, Blank said he felt burned out. He needed a change. He moved to Denver and he took a job at Heritage House, the nursing home on the wing with the young residents. He was horrified by conditions there. So was his colleague Barry Rosenberg.

[Wade Blank]

Most of the people who were there were not there because they wanted to be there, that there was no place for them.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The young residents of the nursing home received support through Medicaid. Back then, it only paid for long term medical and personal care inside nursing homes. Institutionalization of Americans with disabilities of all ages was common back then.

[Wade Blank]

We realized that some of it was a civil rights issue, you know, Wade

[Narrator/Reporter]

Blank, with the help of Rosenberg, began taking these young people out into the community. They went to rock concerts and on camping trips.

[Wade Blank]

I had this Volkswagen van and I took People everywhere.

[Joseph Shapiro]

It was a taste of freedom. And Blank kept pushing for more. He wanted the nursing home to feel more like a college dorm for these young residents. He got them the register to vote. He wanted them to make decisions for themselves, like what they wanted to eat and when they wanted to go to sleep. He wanted them to have more agency over their own lives. He challenged the way things were done. Blank had this idea, which some viewed as radical, that these young people should live in their own homes and get their care there. The nursing home eventually fired him.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That Same year, in 1975, Blank Co founded a Denver group to help find housing and provide other services, including attendant care for these young people who'd been stuck at the nursing home. They called it Atlantis community.

[Wade Blank]

Wade felt that there was people who were lost and were brilliant, people who lived and were undiscovered.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Blank convinced the city to lease public housing to residents leaving the nursing home. But once these young people in wheelchairs were living out in the community, they quickly learned getting around town was tough. Sidewalks lacked curb cuts, those sloped ramps down from the sidewalk to the roadway you see in most intersections today. So those with physical disabilities couldn't easily and safely get from one block to another. And even if they could, city buses weren't accessible.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Wade Blank understood that riding a bus was a symbol of American civil rights. Here's Blank speaking to that in an old interview with a TV news outlet.

[Wade Blank]

You can measure how a society views an oppressed group by how they treat them in public accommodations. And you can't say, hire the handicap and then not have public transit be wheelchair accessible.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Things came to a head when civil rights attorney John Holland learned that the Denver Metro Transit agency was going to purchase more than 200 new buses and

[John Holland]

they were not going to make them wheelchair accessible, although lifts had been invented.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Holland immediately called Wade Blank and I

[John Holland]

said, you hear about the buses? He said, I did. I said, well, how would you like to be a plaintiff?

[Joseph Shapiro]

They sued, but lost in court. Blank felt they needed a new tactic. He was a student of the civil rights movement and of civil disobedience. So in that summer of 1978, just days after they lost their court case, he asked the disabled people he'd met at the nursing home to take their fight to the streets of downtown Denver, to one of the busiest intersections in the city, at a bus stop near the state capitol building.

[Wade Blank]

We have a right to ride on the buses, so I think that probably it'd be a good idea to go out and board a few buses.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Blank directed One of them, a man named George Roberts, to get in line for the bus in his wheelchair.

[Wade Blank]

So on July 5, George Roberts sat patiently at the bus stop waiting for the next bus to come. When the doors opened, he said, can I get on?

[Joseph Shapiro]

This is blank. At a commemoration event for the protest, he recalled that since there was no wheelchair lift, the driver was confused.

[Wade Blank]

And when the bus driver closed the door, saying no to George, we gave a hand signal and all the other 18 moved into the streets and blocked that bus. I mean, it was incredibly easy as long as you had the will to do it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Brian McLeod is one of the last living disabled activists from this demonstration.

[Wade Blank]

Once the bus is stopped, you have somebody immediately go to the door of the bus.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A second person rolled their wheelchair in front of the bus, and then have

[Wade Blank]

a third person go to the side of the bus where the driver can't pull out and go on his way. So he's basically trapped. He knows he's screwed. He can't move anywhere.

[Joseph Shapiro]

19 people in wheelchairs surrounded the two city buses. They held signs that said things like taxation without transportation. And they chanted in the streets, we wanna ride.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They would become known as the Gang of 19. And they were demanding access to get onto the bus and ride.

[Wade Blank]

And we stayed in the streets all night until 10 o' clock the next day, July 6th. That was our shot around the world when the police came after the buses were occupied, the police came and they shouted and they got in people's face and no one budged.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This is Barry Rosenberg again. He came to the demonstration to help the protesters.

[Wade Blank]

No one spoke, no one talked back. They just sat and were quiet.

[Joseph Shapiro]

The gang of 19 had been taught how to do civil disobedience by Wade Blank. They knew to stand their ground and, and that created a problem for the police.

[Wade Blank]

Well, they weren't going to arrest anybody in a wheelchair. That, that was pretty obvious.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Bill Rome was a personal care attendant.

[Wade Blank]

Not only would the optics look bad, but the actual process of trying to get them off the street and getting them into wheelchair inaccessible vans to take to the police station, I don't, I just don't think that was on their itinerary.

[Joseph Shapiro]

The police could not figure out how to arrest people in wheelchairs. Buses weren't accessible, nor police vans, the jail or the courthouse. So instead they began detaining the aides assisting those in wheelchairs.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lisa Wheeler, one of those attendants, challenged the officers, why are you arresting the able bodied person?

[Joseph Shapiro]

This person, this person in the wheelchair has been here for longer than I have and it's, you know, it's their fight, arrest them. Why won't you do that?

[John Holland]

He said.

[Joseph Shapiro]

He told me I needed to be quiet and I'm going to be charged with resisting arrest. Then, you know, I got handcuffed. Wheeler and Rome were not disabled, nor were they protesting as attendants. Their role was to help the disabled protesters eat, take medicines, empty catheters. In other words, to ensure those people in wheelchairs were healthy and safe.

[John Holland]

I moved to dismiss the charges on the grounds of equal protection violation.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Attorney John Holland went to court to get the charges against the attendants dropped.

[John Holland]

What lesson were they teaching? The lesson was, you don't even deserve to have a civil rights movement, which pissed everybody off.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Holland argued that the disabled members of the Ganga 19 had been denied their civil right to to be arrested.

[John Holland]

The right to be arrested for protesting is an odd right, but it is a right. You have the right to be taken seriously, and you don't get that right if they don't.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The judge agreed. The Gang of 19 protesters won the right to be arrested and treated like any other protest group. And they achieved their biggest goal. The Denver Metro Transit Agency eventually agreed to pay for wheelchair lifts on the new fleet of buses disabled people could now get around. It made the city a nationally recognized leader in having accessible buses.

[John Holland]

The right to be in the world, that's what the movement was about. That is what the movement is about. Shunned, excluded, barred and barricaded. You know, the right sought was the right to be included.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Bobby Simpson, another surviving member, says it was important, and that's why he did

[Wade Blank]

kind of scared me a little bit.

[Narrator/Reporter]

You're proud of it now, though?

[Wade Blank]

Yeah, it changed lives.

[Ayesha Rascoe]

You're listening to the Sunday Story. We'll be right back.

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[Ayesha Rascoe]

story and reporting from Joseph Shapiro and Stephanie Wolf about 19 disabled young people. In 1983, they became founding members of a national grassroots advocacy group called adapt. At first their mission was to get wheelchair lifts on all public buses across the country, but eventually they started fighting for a wide range of disability rights.

[Narrator/Reporter]

ADAPT became known for its very in your face theatrical style of protesting. They'd go to public transit conventions and chain themselves to the building or buses or organize sit ins at government offices demanding to talk with officials and policymakers.

[Joseph Shapiro]

ADAPT members also began demonstrating for the Americans with Disabilities act, the ada, the new federal legislation to protect people with disabilities.

[Narrator/Reporter]

By the time Congress was debating the ada, it had been more than a decade since the gang of 19 had blocked the buses. ADAPT had grown its ranks and there were chapters around the country. So In March of 1990, ADAPT members caravanned from different parts of the U.S. to Washington, D.C. they organized a rally of hundreds near the U.S. capitol Building.

[Wade Blank]

Civil Rights Law for People with Disabilities

[Joseph Shapiro]

I was there that day in 1990 when about three dozen people came out of their wheelchairs and crawled up the 83 marble steps of the US Capitol. Each carried a scrolled paper to give the members of Congress with the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Like the Declaration of Independence, ADA Will

[Wade Blank]

Pass paved the way for the emancipation of hundreds of millions throughout the world.

[Joseph Shapiro]

The demonstration became known as the U.S. capitol Crawl, a visual protest of the barriers faced by people with disabilities. There was also effective behind the scenes lobbying from national disability groups. Every member of Congress got visits from constituents, parents of disabled kids, disabled veterans, disabled people explaining why they needed a civil rights law.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Soon after, Congress passed the ADA with large bipartisan majorities, it was a huge victory. Still, advocates felt the ADA was the floor, not the ceiling. I went to Denver's Central Library branch to look through its archives on ADAPT's history and found documents showing that after the ADA passed, ADAPT members still found plenty to protest about and get arrested over. It's why their slogan became Free our

[Joseph Shapiro]

people, Free our brothers, Free Air. One of adapt's big goals was to recreate what Wade Blank had done in Denver to get disabled people out of nursing homes and other institutions. But now, all over the country, that meant finding the funding for attendant care. An aide to help a disabled person get in and out of their wheelchair, out of bed to get dressed, make meals. That assistance was key to living in the community.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It's become the real undercurrent of what they advocate for, support for people to not get stuck in nursing homes.

[Joseph Shapiro]

Then in Georgia, two women with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities who lived in state hospitals sued to get out. Their case reached the U.S. supreme Court. And in 1999, in what's called the Olmstead decision, the high court ruled that disabled people who need long term care have a right to get it in the community. This was huge. It forced states to create services and provide funding to help disabled people live in their own homes, not in institutions.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But in the last year, disabled people say the Trump administration has put much of that progress and funding in jeopardy.

[Wade Blank]

A recently released Justice Department memo questions decades of protections for Americans with disabilities.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They point to cuts in Medicaid and new work requirements to even qualify for Medicaid.

[Joseph Shapiro]

And in June, the Justice Department issued a legal memo that suggests states no longer have that obligation to make sure disabled people can live in their own homes. That has set up a potential legal fight down the road. Now, many people in the disability community worry that they'll need to get their care in nursing homes.

[Nicky Bishop]

I mean, we are talking about life and death, right? Not just, oh, you know, some frivolous policy.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Nikki Bishop, the Denver area mother and licensed clinical social worker who has a disability and relies on nearly round the clock at home care, is worried all of this independence she's worked so hard to build is at risk. That's because if the federal government isn't acting as a watchdog, she's concerned states will start to chip away at programs that provide in home support services in order to save money and balance budgets.

[Nicky Bishop]

Olmstead is so fundamentally important for the rights of individuals with disability that it ultimately determines our survival in our community. And so without those programs, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be able to live.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Those cutbacks are already starting to happen in Colorado. In a tough budget year, the state legislature capped paid Medicaid hours for caregivers. Bishop still has professional care coming to her home most days a week. But her dad, Roy, has stepped in to fill the gaps.

[Nicky Bishop]

Yeah, my alarm went off right at 11, so dad's helping me out with some medication management.

[Joseph Shapiro]

It's getting harder. Still, Nicki Bishop shows what's possible for people with significant disabilities. She can work, she can be a mom, she can live in her community. And yes, care for someone with a disability can be expensive. But on average, it costs less to care for someone like Nicki Bishop in her own home than in a nursing home. So here we are on the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities act and disabled people fear the rights they won with that law are under attack.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Advocates I've spoken to, including Bishop, had hoped that by 2026 they'd be pushing for stronger and new protections versus affirming already existing ones.

[Nicky Bishop]

I'm devastated to watch all of this happening and to witness this after we've come so far over the last 50 years. At the same time, I also feel a sense of resiliency from my community and persons with disabilities in general. We are very adaptable. We have to constantly think on our feet, we have to constantly think outside of the box and how to solve complex problems on a daily basis at times for survival,

[Narrator/Reporter]

bishop says. As the disability rights movement faces these new challenges, she's looking back to the gang of 19 and is ready to take up the mantle, to protest, to fight, to be loud and to protect those hard won rights for disabled people to live in their communities like everybody else.

[Ayesha Rascoe]

That was NPR's Joseph Shapiro and Stephanie Wolf of Colorado Public Radio. This episode of the Sunday Story was produced by Ben Rapoport with help from Andrew Mambo. It was edited by Jenny Schmidt. Archival audio from the US Capitol Crawl is courtesy of documentary filmmaker Linda Latowski, engineering by Anlee Huang. The rest of the Sunday Story team includes Sharon Michihy, Justine Yan and Liana Simstrom. Our executive producer producer is Irene Noguchi. I'm Aisha Roscoe and up first, we'll be back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

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This message comes from MIDI Health CEO Joanna Strober shares the personal experience that led her to start a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause.

[Joanna Strober]

I was having anxiety, I had gained weight, I wasn't sleeping, and my primary care doctor never once said that perhaps I was in perimenopause and that all these things could be related to my hormones. So I had a really tough time for quite a while and a friend recommended that I try a concierge doctor. She prescribed hormones for me, a combination of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. And I felt very relieved that I had this care and I also had a lot of sadness that I had spent such a long period of time going through this and not not getting the right care. And so essentially what we really want to do at MIDI is democratize access to this type of care.

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MIDI Health Committed to helping women in midlife with perimenopause and menopause care. Accessible via telehealth visits at joinmidi. Com.