Canadian disability rights activist dies

From the Toronto Star:

The doctors told her parents she would never amount to anything. Put her in an institution, they said, and forget the whole thing ever happened.

Talk about a misdiagnosis.

Disabled rights activist Mona Winberg, (pictured) born in Toronto with cerebral palsy in 1932, died Monday after a two-week battle with pneumonia. She was 76.

Despite problems walking, poor co-ordination, involuntary muscle movements, a severe hearing disability and a speech impediment – or perhaps because of all those things – Winberg was a tireless proponent of disabled rights throughout a career that spanned decades.

That career started when she turned 16 and joined an association for people with cerebral palsy. In the early '60s, she started writing for the newsletter of the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy. And in 1972, she was the first disabled person to become its president.

Winberg began speaking to audiences throughout the country, and lobbying for Wheel-Trans and improved accessibility in public buildings. By the early '80s, she was editing an international newspaper published by the OFCP and acting as the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Association's director-at-large.

"The problem with being handicapped is you always have to make the first overture, because people don't know how to react. They're nervous, fearful, apprehensive. They don't know if you're animal, mineral or vegetable," Winberg told the Star in a 1983 interview.

In 1986, Winberg was hired by the Toronto Sun after challenging the newspaper to explain why it didn't report on disabled issues, said nephew Sidney Troister. She wrote a weekly column until 1999.

Her work didn't go unnoticed. Winberg racked up a number of honours, including the Clancy and Fred Gardiner awards and induction to the Terry Fox Hall of Fame. In 2001, she was named to the Order of Canada.

Perhaps most significantly, "she lived independently until the very end," said niece Deena Baltman. "This was something that was incredibly important to her ... her view was that at most facilities out there, frankly, she would be put in a diaper and stuck in a corner."

In a statement, Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley hailed Winberg as a "constant source of inspiration."