"Where I'm from, there are a lot of hills and there is a lot of places I can't go. There are still buildings where I can't get in because they've got steps," he noted. "But overall, it's good. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act, we are being more accepted. Having a disability, people still look at you weird, but it's like, 'Alright. He's got a disability, but it's kind of okay now.'"

Normal life

Life for people with disabilities has improved greatly since Bobbi Wailes was stricken with polio as a 12-year-old, before the vaccine became available in the 1950s. In those days, schools were not wheelchair accessible and she had to be tutored at home three days a week. Adult polio victims often lived in institutions.

But Wailes was determined to have a normal life. After high school, she got a job in a hospital - one of the few workplaces with accessible bathrooms. She worked at the hospital for 30 years, mostly as an administrator. During that time, she and others fought to make the ADA a reality for the disabled.

"Let me tell you something, disability doesn't care if you're young, old, rich, poor, black, white, green or purple," she said. "Disabilities will always be with us, unfortunately. So it behooves all of us to make it a world that everybody can live in."

Getting personal

Matthew Sapolin, who is blind, is the Commissioner of the the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities