(Photo courtesy of the Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University Archives)
Dr. Sylvia Walker
(1937-2004)
Disability rights activist and was a professor with the School of Education at Howard University.
She was Director of the Center for Disability and Socioeconomic Policy Studies and the Howard University Research and Training Center. She served as Vice-Chair of the President’s Committee’s on the Employment of People with Disabilities. She was a champion for disability rights and her research helped lead to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Dr. Walker was born in New York City as a blind African American woman, Walker experienced ableism in her early education and worked to combat this discrimination in her professional career. Walker founded the Center for the Study of Handicapped Children and Youth, now named the Howard University Center for Disability and Socioeconomic Policy Studies. During her time at Howard, Walker served as the chairman of the department of psychoeducational studies and ran the Howard University Research and Training Center (HURTC), focusing primarily on training low-income, disabled African American youth for future employment.
In 1995, Walker co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities along with Bob Dole and Justin Dart Jr. In that same year, President Bill Clinton appointed Ronald W. Drach and Walker as vice-chairs of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities after Walker had served on the subcommittee on employee disability concerns, starting in 1987.
Dr. Walker is noted as a trailblazer[8] within the disability rights movement for her work uplifting disabled people of color who had previously gone unaddressed
In 2000, Dr.Walker received the Keeper of the Flame Award from the NAACP in honor of her work with black disabled youth.
Dr. Sylvia Walker died on February 6, 2004, in New York City due to health complications.