User:Charlie9637

I'm very active in the disability rights movement and have been for the past 40 years. I've concentrated most of my life in the Independent Living movement and was involved in starting the 2nd Independent Living Center (ILC) in the US; Boston Center for Independent Living and then went on to start my own as founder, president and CEO of the Northeast Independent Living Program, Inc. in 1980. I was a founder of the National Council on Independent Living in 1983 where I was very involved in the early stages of building a national coalition of support for the Americans with Disabilities Act and eventually its passage in 1990 and recently finished 8 years of public service to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. I am very knowledgeable about disability history, rights and youth empowerment. Would love to work with others on Wikipedia in this area.