01/23/2026
Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Edward "Ed" Roberts, known as the "Father of the Independent Living Movement."
Born January 23, 1939, Ed was a pioneering leader of the disability rights movement. After contracting polio at age 14, Ed was paralyzed from the neck down except for a few fingers and toes. His career as an advocate began in high school, when administrators tried to deny him a diploma because he had not completed driver's and physical education.
After attending the College of San Mateo, Ed was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley, where he had to fight for the support needed to attend college from the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. After beginning attending school via telephone, Ed's mother, Zona, insisted that he spend time one campus once a week for a few hours. He credited Zona with teaching him by example how to advocate for himself and others.
While at Berkley, Roberts helped start the Physically Disabled Students Program (PDSP), the country's first student-led disability services program. Soon after, PDSP began to serve non-students in the Berkeley area and, in 1972, it became known as the Center for Independent Living (CIL). Ed became the organization's second executive director, helping grow CIL to provide accessibility tools and devices, interpreters, wheelchair repair, and more. The organization inspired the Independent Living Movement in the United States, and today there are more than 400 Centers for Independent Living, with The Independence Center being one of nine in Colorado.
In 1983, Ed, in collaboration with Judith Heumann and Joan Leon, founded the World Institute on Disability (WID), a think tank and policy research center dedicated to disability. WID would go on to promote the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as Ed spread his advocacy for people with all kinds of disabilities from the country to the rest of the world.
Ed and Zona's legacy lives on in each service we provide and every consumer we serve.
