Susan Henderson
Susan Henderson is a notable advocate for the civil rights of people with disabilities, emphasizing the importance of independent living with dignity and respect. Born in Pleasanton, California, her early education was influenced by her parents' emphasis on academic achievement. Henderson's life took a pivotal turn in 1977 when she experienced a below-the-knee amputation, which shifted her perspective on disability. She completed her bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1981 and later earned an MBA.
In 1997, Henderson joined the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), where she became a significant voice in the fight for disability rights. Her work has included initiatives to improve access to education, healthcare, and housing for individuals with disabilities, as well as efforts to combat misinformation in media representations of disability. Henderson played a vital role in the creation of the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, a community center that serves as a model for accessibility. Additionally, her advocacy extended to international efforts in countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and Vietnam. Henderson retired in 2024, having dedicated decades to advancing the rights of people with disabilities.
Susan Henderson
Executive director, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
- Born: Date unknown
- Place of Birth: Pleasanton, California
- Education: University of California at Davis; California State University at Hayward
- Significance: Susan Henderson has been among the most prominent and articulate advocates for the civil rights of people with disabilities and has championed the right of people with disabilities to live independently with dignity and respect.
Background
Susan Henderson was born in Pleasanton, California, in the upper-middle-class suburbs of San Francisco. Her parents grew up in poverty during the Great Depression—they had to leave high school to help out their families. Henderson’s father became a master electrician and earned a comfortable living, and both of her parents stressed to their children the importance of education.
As a child, Henderson dreamed of traveling—she was fascinated by other cultures. She was a voracious reader and an accomplished student. In 1975, after graduating from high school, she enrolled at the University of California at Davis and began working toward a degree in anthropology. In the spring of 1977, she and a friend decided to take a quarter off from college and drive across the country in a VW bus. Before starting their trip, Henderson happened to drive past a protest in support of full civil rights for people with disabilities taking place at San Francisco’s Civic Center. Although, at the time, Henderson knew little of the movement, she remembered the passion and commitment of the speakers and the protestors.
Within months, in late 1977, Henderson’s life would change dramatically. Although she is reluctant to share particulars, she underwent a below-the-knee amputation of her left leg. She has explained that she did not initially think of herself as disabled—rather, she thought of herself as an amputee. Outfitted with a prosthetic device, she learned to accommodate that in her walking, and with great determination, she returned to school, receiving her bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1981.
Over the next several years, Henderson married and raised her children. She returned to school part-time and completed an MBA from nearby California State University at Hayward in 1986.
Advocate for the Civil Rights of People with Disabilities
At the same time, Henderson had been working at a small, private law firm running the office finances; however, she eventually grew weary of the work. In 1997, she happened to see an ad for an upper-level position with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), a civil rights and policy center focused on protecting and defending the rights of people with disabilities that is headquartered in Berkeley, California. She recalled the protest march she had witnessed in college and the disabled community’s long and very public struggle to get businesses and school systems to comply fully with Section 504 of the 1973 landmark federal Rehabilitation Act that had guaranteed full civil rights and equal treatment for people with both mental and physical disabilities. When she interviewed, she told no one about her own disability—not only was she concerned that this revelation could serve as an unfair advantage, but she also still did not want to define herself by her amputation.
After being hired for the position, over the next two decades, Henderson emerged as an important advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. DREDF directs the education of people with disabilities, their families, and lawyers involved with the hundreds of regulations designed to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities by guaranteeing them the chance to live independently and to earn a living. The organization fights workplace and housing discrimination while striving to guarantee full accessibility to all facilities. Henderson’s guiding philosophy is that for people with disabilities, self-pity and anger are counterproductive, and for businesses and schools, refusing to accommodate people with disabilities essentially illustrates ignorance.
Under Henderson’s guidance, DREDF expanded the scope of its mission, focusing on four broad initiatives: the need for strategies for enabling the adoption of disabled children and regulation to protect the treatment of disabled children within the foster care and welfare system (Henderson founded the Foster Youth Resources for Education initiative in 2004); the need to address stereotypes—intentional or indirect—and misinformation regarding disability disseminated in the media, including generally on the Internet and on social media (she spearheaded the Disability and Media Alliance Project in 2007); the need to guarantee full access for people with disabilities to all necessary health care; and the need for schools to accommodate students with disabilities from kindergarten and up.
Henderson quickly became a fixture in the Bay Area, reaching out to numerous community organizations to represent the rights of people with disabilities. For instance, she was an integral part in the thirteen-year-long project to build the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, a community resource center opened in 2010 that brought together seven disabled rights organizations. Named for a pioneering Bay Area advocate for civil rights for people with disabilities, the building was designed to serve as an architectural model that provided full access for people with disabilities and was also aesthetically appealing. In addition to her work in the San Francisco area, Henderson has directed major DREDF initiatives that champion the rights of people with disabilities in a variety of other developing countries where such rights were only beginning to gain ground, most notably Uganda, Kenya, and Vietnam. Henderson retired in 2024 after sixteen years as DREDF's executive director.
Impact
Growing up in the highly charged era of campaigns for civil rights for African Americans, women, and gay people, Henderson believed deeply in the ability for a society to change. As one of the preeminent voices for rights for people with disabilities in the generation following the major achievements of the movement of the 1980s, she has helped to underscore the need for people with disabilities to continue to press for full accessibility and for an end to discrimination in the face of new challenges from government downsizing and the expanded reach of communication technologies.
Bibliography
Fleischer, Doris Zames, and Frieda Zames. The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation. 2001. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2011. Print.
"Nicole Bohn Appointed as New Executive Director of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund." Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, 8 May 2024, dredf.org/nicole-bohn-appointed-as-new-executive-director-of-disability-rights-education-and-defense-fund/. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
Pelka, Fred. What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2012. Print.
Shakespeare, Tom. Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Shapiro, Joseph P. No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. New York: Times, 1994. Print.