By Theo Braddy, Executive Director of NCIL
At last, I’m putting words to an experience that left a profound impact on me a few months ago. I wanted to share this sooner, but life has a way of making demands on your plans.
In early July, just before the NCIL Annual Conference, I had an experience I won’t soon forget.
I had the honor of joining Alison Barkoff, the former ACL Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging, and key officials from the Department of State, united with an awesome group of disability rights leaders. Together, we addressed the First Lady of Ukraine and her delegation.
Our mission was to offer our insights as Ukraine undertakes an enormous shift— from institutionalization to community- based support for people with disabilities.
Ukraine faces profound challenges: veterans returning home with life-altering disabilities and children carrying lifelong disabling conditions. And as I sat there, I couldn’t help but feel both grateful and clearheaded.
Yes, the U.S. has a long road ahead in fully realizing the rights of people with disabilities, but sitting across from that delegation, I felt an unmistakable sense of gratitude for how far we’ve come.
When it was my turn to speak, at that precious moment, I wanted to leave them with something they could carry home, something powerful and rooted in our own hard-earned lessons. I went over my allotted time — cutting my words, making space for what mattered most — and left them with this:
“How you see people with disabilities will determine how you treat them. If you see us as less valuable, if you pity us, if you view us as charity cases who only take from society without contributing, then you will never treat us as you treat yourselves. ”
Months later, I still wonder: did those words matter? Will Ukraine, even in the midst of this devastating war, emerge with a commitment to truly value its disabled veterans and children? Will they learn from our missteps? Our own history has shown us that the U.S. has often failed its returning veterans, a failure that sparked the very beginning of the Independent Living Movement.
It was veterans returning from World War II and Vietnam who demanded dignity and inclusion, facing barriers that should never have existed — barriers to employment, education, basic accessibility. These brave individuals, having sacrificed so much abroad, came back home and insisted on the same respect and freedom they had fought for. Their resilience gave rise to a movement rooted in autonomy, self- determination, and relentless advocacy.
Will Ukraine’s story follow a similar path? I can only hope. And I do hope.
You can read more of his story here.