E092 – Interview with Tony Coelho – Part 1

Congressman Tony Coelho talks about his life with a disability, his journey of working for the People, and how he introduced the ADA. Thanks to Gatsby for being a sponsor of the show. Gatsby is a modern website framework that builds performance into every website by leveraging the latest web technologies. Create blazing fast, compelling apps and websites without needing to become a performance expert. Make sure you have a look at their site: https://www.gatsbyjs.org Transcript Nic: Welcome to the Accessibility Rules podcast. This is episode 92. I'm Nic Steenhout and I talk with people involved in one way or another with web accessibility. If you're interested in accessibility, hey this show's for you. To get today's transcript, head out to the podcast website, https://a11yrules.com. Thanks to Gatsby for sponsoring this episode. Gatsby is a modern website framework that builds performance into every website by leveraging the latest web technologies. Create blazing fast, compelling apps and websites without needing to become a performance expert. This week I'm speaking to Tony Coelho. Hey Tony, thanks for joining me for this conversation around accessibility. How are you? Tony: No problem. Look forward to talking. Nic: So I like to let guests introduce themselves. Brief intro, who would you say is Tony Coelho? Tony: Well, I'm a former member of Congress and for this podcast I was the author of the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, when I was in the Congress. Disability is my ministry and my passion. Nic: That's wonderful. So, that's big actually, the ADA. I'm Canadian, but I moved to the US in the mid nineties and I started working in Disability Rights at the time and everybody was really excited about all the changes. Obviously, I'd like to ask you how did that happen? How did you come to author and sponsor the ADA? Tony: I'll have to give you a little bit of my background in order to do it. But when I was 16, I was on Canal Bank in Central California. My parents' dairy farm, and the pick up tipped over into the canal, hit my head, came out of it, had a headache, but was safe and went back to milking cows and doing what you do. And a year later, I was in the barn milking, and next thing I knew I was in bed and I had just gone through a major passing out spell as I called it. And the doctor was called in and called my parents and I think what it was that but my parents didn't tell me, and I didn't know what the doctor had said. Tony: So, I then went to other doctors and basically again, in those days, I'm 77 so, in those days doctors didn't talk to the patient, they talked to whoever else was in the room, I guess. But they didn't know what it was. My parents told me that it was a lack of calcium. It was this, it was that, and so forth. So then, after that I then went to witch doctors, and the reason is, is that the doctors were telling my parents that I had epilepsy and in their culture, Portuguese culture, if you have epilepsy, it means that you're possessed by the devil. And something that was preached by the Catholic church. Tony: So, I then started going to witch doctors and after the third one I decided that I wasn't going there anymore. I told my parents I would not go there anymore. So, I continued having these passing out spells, not knowing that it was epilepsy. And then, when I graduated from high school, I went to college in Los Angeles, Loyola University, now Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. And I continued having my passing out spells and I was active in student government and so forth, and got good grades. Tony: And when I decided to ... what I was studying for, was to become a lawyer. And I decided in my senior year that I didn't want to because John Kennedy had just been assassinated and I decided, I was very impressed with him and followed him. And so when that happened, I decided I wanted to do something more public service. And