[Music]
[Logo: Ampers, with tagline: Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities.]
[Photo: Mark Braun]
Mark Braun: When I first came here to the United States, my feet were totally upside down. So the doctors had to re-correct them so they were right side up. So think about walking on the top of your feet and that being the bottom of your feet, and the bottom of your feet being the top of your feet.
[Logo: Ampers, with taglines: Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities, and Keep Moving Forward.]
Host: This is Keep Moving Forward.
[Photo: President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Photo courtesy of the George Bush Presidential Library.]
George H.W. Bush: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.
[Logos: ADA 25: Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990-2015, and Disability Rights Are Civil Rights. Logos courtesy of the ADA National Network, www.adata.org.]
Host: Exploring the legacy and promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
[Photos: Mark Braun]
Mark Braun: My name is Mark Braun. I am a US Paralympic athlete with Team USA. I am a head program coach, and I am a motivational speaker.
I was born with spina bifida. You know, I don’t really look at my disability as a stumbling block. I don’t look at it as an obstacle. I look at it as, “You know what? This is who I am, and I’m going to take with it and run with it.”
I’ve been a four-time national champion in wheelchair basketball, a gold medalist in wheelchair basketball. But then I really found out that basketball wasn’t my thing, and so I was like, “Well, what is?” And so I was also doing track, and I was fast, and I like to go fast.
And so to do track, I loved it, because one, I went fast; two, I performed well. And I am the second fastest sprinter in the US.
[Logos: the Minnesota Council on Disability, the Minnesota Humanities Center, the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, and the Ampers radio station.]
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.