FAREWELL TO FRANK BOWE
By Cheryl Heppner
8/23/07
Within minutes of arriving at the TDI conference, I learned that Dr.
Frank G. Bowe had died earlier in the day at the age of 60.
His death is a stunning blow for advocates of people with
disabilities.
Frank was at the forefront of many of our major pieces of disability
legislation.
Frank was one of my role models and I will miss his wise counsel. I
always felt a connection with him because we both became deaf at a
young age, had roots as journalists, and were drawn to the disability
rights movement. I met him for the first time 25 years ago. He was my
version of a rock star! Our paths have crossed many times since, and
during the past two years I worked with him on several advocacy
projects that included attempts to make broadband more widely
available and affordable, and the successful DVD captioning lawsuit by Russ
Boltz.
I searched the Internet for something that could begin to justice to
Frank, and finally settled on an entry about him in Wikipedia.
Here are excerpts:
“Dr. Bowe was the Dr. Mervin Livingston Schloss Distinguished
Professor for the Study of Disabilities at Hofstra University. As a disability
rights activist, author, and teacher, he has strung together a series
of firsts:
“Dr. Bowe was the first executive director (CEO) of the first
national cross-disability consumer advocacy organization, the American
Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD). The Coalition’s signature
achievement was securing the long-delayed implementation of Section
504, the world’s first civil-rights provision for persons with
disabilities. Bowe conceived and led the nationwide protest that led
to issuance of landmark regulations for Section 504 in 1977. A year
later, he wrote the first full-length text on social policy and disability,
Handicapping America (Harper & Row). In 1980, Dr. Bowe was the first
person with a disability to represent any nation in the planning of
the United Nations (UN) International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP-1981).
Today, many countries are represented in key UN committees by persons
who themselves are individuals with disabilities, including 14 who
are, as Bowe is, deaf.
“In the mid-1980s, he chaired the U.S. Congress Commission on
Education of the Deaf. COED made 52 recommendations for improving education and
rehabilitation, many of which have had long-lasting effects. What is
not well-known about that work is that he was, in 1986-1988, a highly
visible chairperson who was deaf and who appointed deaf persons as
COED staff director and chief counsel. COED issued a public draft of its
final report in January 1988. The example he and COED set was not
lost on the students at Gallaudet University across town when, in March
1988, they launched their famous Deaf President Now protest.
“Section 504 led, in 1990, to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
That same year, Dr. Bowe was the principal architect of the Television
Decoder Circuitry Act, which was sponsored in the Senate by Tom
Harkin (D-IA) and in the House by Ed Markey (D-MA). The act requires that TV
sets receive and display closed captions The 1996 Telecommunications
Act took it a step further, mandating that broadcast and cable
programs themselves be captioned. More recently, in 2005 and 2006, Bowe gave
invited testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee
on Energy and Commerce and conducted demonstrations of high-speed
broadband communications for both the House and the U.S. Senate.
“Dr. Bowe’s textbooks are in use at colleges and universities around
the country and in several other nations. Making Inclusion Work
(Prentice Hall) and Early Childhood Special Education (Thomson Delmar
Learning) are two examples. He is also author of Universal Design in
Education (Greenwood Publishing), of the encyclopedia entries on
deafness and disabilities in Scholastic’s New Book of Knowledge, and
of several hundred articles in professional journals in public policy,
special education, rehabilitation, and technology.
“In Disability in America 2006, a policy paper addressing health
care, employment, and entitlements, Bowe outlined disability policy goals
for 2006-2008. Disability advocates concerned about health insurance
coverage for individuals with disabilities who could work are excited
about the possibilities he suggests.”
Frank earned his doctorate at New York University, his master’s
degree at Gallaudet University, and bachelor’s degree at Western Maryland
College. He w as awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Gallaudet
University and he appeared in many Who’s Who publications. He was
selected as an Outstanding Scholatr of the 20th Century and received
a Distinguished Service Award from President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Frank always thought big picture. He wanted to change the world. He
had a vision for what it should become and the principles and work ethic
to keep pushing that vision. “America handicaps disabled people.” he
wrote. “And because that is true, we are handicapping America
itself.”
America has lost a lion but there is hope that the cubs inspired by
his work will grow stronger.
SOURCE: Northern Virginia Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC)
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