Congress
Written by Fred Hatfield
Then chief of staff to Congressman Coelho
“It is only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead”
- President John F Kennedy, San Luis Dam Groundbreaking, August 18, 1962
On April 18, 2024 the United States Department of Justice issued a final rule under the American With Disabilities Act (ADA) clarifying the obligations of state and local governments to make their websites and mobile applications accessible. In an age when artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we communicate with each other, this rule is life changing to the millions of Americans-more than 10 percent of the population-with disabilities of one kind or another.
What may have been missed in this important announcement is the role played by former House Majority Whip Tony Coelho who was born in that same town President Kennedy addressed and was 20 years old at the time of the presidential visit. On July 4, 1980, 18 years after President Kennedy's groundbreaking speech, that 20 year old was now Congressman Tony Coelho and he was aboard Air Force One bringing President Jimmy Carter to speak to that same California County.
Still heeding that call to service 62 years later, Tony had spent the past 13 years working on the enactment of that Department of Justice final rule. It was important to him because he had led the effort to extend civil rights to the disability community which Congress enacted in 1990.
It may seem surprising that a person who first learned of his own disability-epilepsy- in a time and place that may be best depicted by the movie American Graffiti is all of these years later trying to insure that the “digital era” includes and enables the disabled.
However, if you had had the opportunity back in the 1980’s to schedule and drive that young and ascending Congressman around the 15th Congressional District of California you would be witness to the beginnings of both an aspiring politician and a crusader for his constituents. You would have seen Tony do meeting after meeting for days on end with farmers, construction workers, students, etc. Then get up early the next morning (though usually not as early as when he used to milk cows on the family farm) and do it all over again. And if you looked really close at his schedule back then every couple of days you would see an entry like “Meet with Jessica Garza
(13 year old just told she has epilepsy, she’s not doing well).”
Tony Coelho’ family was representative of a Portuguese wave of immigrants to California in search of a new beginning in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley. It is a story told by John Steinbeck in the “Grapes of Wrath” and subsequently experienced by many ethnic groups over the years from the Japanese Nisei farmers to the more recently arriving Hmong community following the Laotian Civil War.
The San Joaquin Valley was seen as a land of opportunity and perhaps no one from there made more of that opportunity than Tony Coelho. He went from milking cows to being a national political leader and at the same time an advocate for people that didn’t have that kind of influence. That journey would include the first in his family to go to college and become Student Body President at Loyola Marymount University. Then, the first Portuguese-American in Congress followed shortly thereafter by being the first House Majority Whip to be elected by his peers.
If you zoom out and look at the Tony Coelho Story from 50,000 feet, it looks like all of those firsts and the hard work that they represented were leading to a higher calling. Indeed before being diagnosed with epilepsy, Tony had begun plans to enter the priesthood which did not go over well with his girlfriend at the time, and was ultimately curtailed by Catholic doctrine at the time.
Increasingly Tony’s life became intertwined with all of those people like the 13 year old girl. People trying to cope with everyday life who were held back because of a difficult and often visible disability. It wasn’t long before President Bill Clinton asked him to Chair the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. He also led and Chaired the Epilepsy Foundation of America. Of his work during this time and especially passage of the ADA, President George HW Bush said, “Tony’s efforts have truly enriched humanity and helped to make America the world leader for people with disabilities.”
These accomplishments show an undying passion and amazing perseverance. Tony has never given up the cause because he has never given up on a person. Today’s efforts include a NBCUniversal Tony Coelho media scholarship and The Coelho Center at Loyola Marymount University.
So given the recent DOJ announcement regarding digital access, I asked the Artificial
Intelligence machine what it made of Tony Coelho’s life. Quicker than I could write it down, it came back with this:
“Overall Tony Coelho’s life and career exemplify the power of personal experience and advocacy in driving positive change for marginalized communities.”
Not bad for a robot.