Article February 6, 1978 ISSUE

The best help for the handicapped

DONNA NALLEY RYBURN

Our town recently built ramps into the curbs of streets in the business center to enable individuals using wheelchairs to move about the area easily and safely. Many communities, as well as national governments and public and private organizations, are taking steps to help handicapped people bridge their limitations and participate more fully in the usual activities of daily living. Laws forbidding discrimination against the handicapped, school programs aimed at integrating children with mental and physical disabilities into regular classrooms, captioned television features for deaf viewers, inventions that enable the blind to "see" electronically—these are a sample of the measures designed to help the handicapped lead more normal lives. This is welcome progress for the millions of people in the world who are deemed handicapped physically, mentally, or emotionally.

Such efforts stir compassionate hearts to consider the deeper issue—of not merely helping but healing the handicapped. But where do we start? So often a handicap seems final, the damage irreparable, the limitation irreversible. Yet it has been demonstrated that serious handicaps of long standing can be healed.

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