Jean Vanier Quotes

I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me.

My best friend is disabled. There's nothing he hates more than being left out of the jokes, to be treated with kid gloves. That's the insult.

America's greatness depends on the ability of its citizens to make the most of their lives. Americans with disabilities are an enormous, often untapped reservoir of that potential.

People with disabilities are simply part of diverse communities in the U.S.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

We will not build a society that reflects who we are and that has opportunities for equality or justice if we don't make progress for all participants.

Let's continue to stand up for those who are vulnerable to being left out or marginalized.

If you really want change, you really want it to be inclusive, where everyone's included, otherwise you're just going to have more of the same in the future.

As much as I've been blessed to do, this is for me when I want to do what I really want to do as far as helping people. Obviously helping people with disabilities, I want - my desire is to in my lifetime be a very integral part of getting this country and the world completely accessible to everyone with any disability. There should be nowhere that we can't go, and there should be nothing that we can't do. Considering that we have the disability, whichever one it might be, we will be so on point with being able to do that we need little to no assistance.

The arrogance of the able-bodied is staggering. Yes, maybe we'd like to be able to get places quickly, and carry things in both hands but only because we have to keep up with the rest of you ... We would rather be just like us, and have that be all right.

It's just been so heartwarming to see my clothes on people in wheelchairs and people needing physical support.

A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.

My life goal is to see the world's one billion people with disabilities embraced and encouraged by the church.

My vision for Scotland is one in which we fight together for the values we are care about: equality, fairness and social justice. Those values are the same whether you live in Dumfries or Carlisle.

Do you know what social justice is? Do you know what social reform is? I didn't either, but reform and social justice are what I intend to do.

People didn't always see a person with a disability who had to use a ramp or elevator as people who have been given unnecessary privileges. But I run into that often now. People are saying, 'Why do we have to go to great expense for these people?'

Yooralla, like most disability service organisations, is full of good people who are passionate about the rights of people with disabilities.

You must make sure that the majority of the people are not marginalized.

I think it is important that you have people from all different vanguards, from all different walks of society and different viewpoints to be focused on the struggle for equality and democracy. We need as many champions for the cause and as many events as possible to help keep this in focus.

I have a strong sense that I have to educate people about disability.

I was recently appointed by President Obama to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. I am so excited that the President trusts me to advise him on things that are important to people with disabilities!

I use the term 'disabled people' quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.

Through the 'It's About Ability' campaign and with parents and other members of society, we have created a social family for children with disabilities.

But my message to people with or without a condition is the fact that you can still do anything you set your mind to. You just have to do it in a slightly different way than other people.

Social justice is what drives me; it's why I'm here.