Like many of us, I woke up this morning to the news that Stephen Hawking, absolute genius, died at the age of seventy-six, over fifty years after he was expected to. For many people with impairments, living past their life expectancy is a feat in itself. I won’t insult anyone reading this by pretending that I fully understand the significance of Hawking’s work to our understanding of the universe, because I don’t. I’ve failed many a science test in my time – scientific matters, to me, is what Chinese is to most English-speaking people.  However he was an extraordinary man, an example of what the human mind is capable of.

For many, he is an example of ‘mind over matter’, of ‘triumph over adversity.’ To me, however, he didn’t achieve these things ‘in spite of his disability’ because to me, his disability wasn’t relevant. He simply achieved them.

When some people think of disability, they think of Hawking and what he’s achieved. However, Hawking’s genius was part of his own identity. I intend to read his book in the near future but I don’t expect to understand any of it (I am ridiculously bad at science).

I read online this morning that Hawking shares the same anniversary as Albert Einstein (freaky coincidence, no)? He also shares an anniversary with another man who made a much smaller but (in my eyes) equally important contribution to society.  And that man was Ed Roberts.

I’ve blogged about Ed Roberts before, and every year I remember him on his anniversary because he was a leader in the introduction of Independent Living around the world. He and his colleagues challenged the paternalistic model of disability, and fought to be recognised as a person capable of making their own decisions. Like Hawkins, his physical ability was severely restricted (the result of polio in Roberts’ case) but his ability to direct people and think independently was not. When I started working in the area of disability ten years ago, I was told to know the Ed Roberts story inside and out. I read articles, personal testimonies, interviews.

I was so in awe of him (and still am in many ways) that I put him on a pedestal. I aspired to be like him: ruthless and unflinching in the pursuit of equal rights for people with disabilities. He has rightly garnered a lot of respect from millions of activists across the world. Were it not for his insistence that he knew his own mind, that he wanted to be empowered rather than being a passive recipient of care, chances are that I and many others would be relegated to the back room of our parents’ houses, never having the opportunity to leave the house.

Or perhaps I’m being naïve. After all, although Ed is known as ‘the father of Independent Living,’ there were many other activists out there with the same mindset at the  time, a group of people who collectively became known as ‘The Rolling Quads.’ The Rolling Quads brought into existence the first Center for Independent Living in the University of California, Berkeley, which was a Personal Assistant Service directed by the disabled people themselves. This revolutionary act led to the establishment of hundreds of Centers for Independent Living across the world.

Ed Roberts and Stephen Hawking were both extraordinary people who, unfortunately, now exist only in history. As someone who is becoming increasingly preoccupied with disability politics, despite having convinced myself that the only thing I really want to do is write, I have found myself panicking over the last two years as I watch my esteemed peers slip into the next world. We thought Martin Naughton was invincible; then our faith was tested six months later (on my birthday in fact) when Donal Toolan passed away last April. In the last seven months I’ve seen the untimely demise of another two of my role models: Eugene Callan and John Doyle – both strong mouthpieces for  the Independent Living Movement.

I remember well each separate occasion that I met these four men for the first time, and what struck me about them was their sense of conviction. Chances are they weren’t entirely sure what they were doing – nobody really knows at the beginning (I know that now) – but they had the courage to articulate their thoughts and opinions, be they right or wrong, and soon other people started to find their own courage, their own voice.

We live in a different world now. Roberts, Hawking and even Martin Naughton and his peers paved the way in a world where there were no expectations of disabled people. The fight is not over yet. Ireland has ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities but not the Optional Protocol which enables people to report breaches of the convention to the UN. Our Personal Assistant service is becoming more medicalised by the day and less about what we need and more of a  tick-box exercise. We are reaching a critical point in disability politics where we’re either going to be free to make our own decisions, or the victims of discrimination and safeguarding forever.

We have the opportunity to be our own heroes.

Let’s take it.