E093 – Interview with Tony Coelho – Part 2

Congressman Tony Coelho tells us that people with disabilities must have the right to fail. Without failure you can't learn from the mistake. Without failure there's no growth. Without a right to fail, your growth is stunted. 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 93. 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. Nic: In this episode, I'm continuing my conversation with Tony Coelho. Last show was really awesome, fantastic conversation with Tony who tells us how he got to author the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. And spoke about all kinds of stuff from trips to the Vatican to getting stuff done for the rights of people with disabilities. We finished last week on the note that while we have rights, we also have responsibilities and I could not agree more. Anyway Tony, welcome back and thanks to you for being a guest on the show. Tony: Thank you, Nic. Enjoy it. Nic: Let me ask you this. What kind of barriers are you facing in terms of disability and accessibility, if any, at this point? Are you still struggling once in a while or are things all good and peachy? Tony Well, I still have seizures. I've had seizures for 60 years. I have medication that helps me control them, the severity of them, the amount of them. But I still have seizures. I'm very open about it, as you can tell. And I think it gives me an opportunity to educate people as to not only epilepsy but what you can do and attitude in regards to your disability. I think all of us with a disability have ability and the issue is for we ourselves to stress our ability and convince others of our ability. And so, as I go out to businesses and trying to get them to hire people with disabilities, I'm always addressing the fact that each and every one of us have abilities, no matter if we have a disability or not. And so it's important for people to look for our ability and give us an opportunity to fail. And I say that very directly. If I don't have the right to fail than I can never succeed. So I want a right to fail and if I get that right, I'll take advantage of it and I will succeed. Nic: That is actually, yeah, that's wonderful. I never really had heard that phrase that way, but I think it's super important here. If you're not going to fail, you can't learn from your mistake. You can't grow. And if you don't have the right to fail, then you're being stunted in your growth. That's really great. Tony Well, what goes on Nic, as you know, is that our loved ones have a tendency to protect us out of love, but protect us. You can't do that. You shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do that. And I tell parents all the time, give your child an opportunity to fail. You can't protect them. You've got to let them try to do what they want to do. And if they can't do it, that's fine. Kids without disabilities can't do everything, either. And also it's the same thing for you as a person with a disability. Tony Try to do something, find out what it is that you like that you can do. For example, with my epilepsy, I can't drive a fire engine. I can't drive a police car. I can't carry a gun. So all those