When Patty and I moved to Berkeley we became involved with the Disability Rights Movement. Patty first made use of the services of the Physically Disabled Students’ Program (PDSP) and later became a counselor for blind students. We hung out with many of the disabled gang. Patty worked the phones to prompt turnout for the key 1977 Section 504 sit-in in San Francisco. She did not want to sit-in with the demonstrators because we had Carolyn to take care of. Patty later became an investigator for the Office for Civil Rights.
I became faculty advisor for PDSP. I helped Mary Lou Breslin write a grant proposal to NSF on disabled in science. I ended up directing the project at the Lawrence Hall of Science. I worked on child abuse, special education, employment choices of the disabled, and wheelchair studies. With Berkeley Planning Associates I did an evaluation of independent living centers.
While in Washington I pursued contracts of interest to the Disability Movement. I won a Department of Labor contract on employment of the handicapped that many believed would be a pretext for limiting disability employment rights.
In 1985, its first year, QPC (Quality Planning Corporation) shared office space with DREDF (the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund).
Finally, for the Senate, I did a cost-benefit analysis of the ADA.