In 1952, after Ed Roberts contracted polio, the doctors told his family he’d probably spend the rest of his life as “a vegetable.” Later, Roberts joked, “If I’m a vegetable, I’m going to be an artichoke, prickly on the outside, with a big heart in the middle.” With a combination of big heart, sharp words, and ferocious commitment to equality, Roberts helped create the disability rights movement as we know it today.

Ed created the World Disability Movement – and led the battle for rights with an outrageously full life.