She fights for rights of disabled
Her parental instincts may have lured Martha Ziegler into the disabilities field, but her commitment to serving other parents has kept the 74-year-old active in the pursuit of education for children with special needs.
A former English teacher, Ziegler watched throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s as her autistic daughter, Mary Ann, struggled through "mediocre" Long Island private schools.
Ziegler recalled lackluster teachers, early dismissals, and very little individual attention.
At the time, children with special needs were not guaranteed a public education -- parents were responsible for placing them in private schools and bearing the financial load.
"It was private school or nothing," Ziegler said.
She refused to remain idle. After moving her family to Massachusetts, she began cochairing the coalition that lobbied for a bill that would be "a big leap forward," she said.
In 1972, the bill became the Massachusetts Public Education Law, Chapter 766, which gives all children up to age 22, regardless of disability, the right to a public education while placing responsibility on public schools to provide resources.
By 1975, a federal law that used the state law as a loose template was enacted, and Ziegler had lobbied for that move as well. In the 30 years since, Ziegler has established herself regionally and nationally in the special education field, primarily as the founder of the Federation for Children with Special Needs.
She recently left Massachusetts for a job working with the special-needs community in Harrisburg, Pa. Before leaving the state, Ziegler spoke with Globe correspondent Glenn Yoder:
Q: What have you noticed working in this field as a mother of an autistic daughter, particularly when working with other parents?
A: I realized that you get a lot of variation within the autism spectrum and, working with other parents, quickly I realized that the same thing is true of all the other categories. You can't talk about a kid with cerebral palsy and assume that all of the kids with cerebral palsy are the same -- they are not. Especially when it comes to educational needs, these labels are basically pretty meaningless.
Q: What major changes have you noticed in special education since you became active?
A: In the last 20 years, we've had a rapid increase in what's now called "inclusion," of kids truly being included in regular education classrooms. That's been a very important change. It certainly was significant for my daughter, and it's been significant for lots of kids. . . . My daughter greatly benefited. Unlike what people thought, she learned from her peers. It was always thought that autistic children didn't learn from their age peers, but that's all wrong -- they do. . . . [It carries over] because now that she's living in a community, there's no fear and very little prejudice. The people in the community have been around her and like her and have a much better idea of what to expect. So, others learn a lot from the experience, too.
Q: What kinds of changes were brought by the state law, Chapter 766?
A: I'll never forget one time we were lobbying for a budget increase and we all were wearing yellow pins with red 766 on them. I forgot I had mine on and I went into Walgreen's. The kid at the checkout counter looked up and said, "Oh yeah, I benefited from that law." Now, for a kid to say that, that alone represented a big change. We weren't directly working on stigma. But the law did actually minimize the stigma that had gone with every disability.
Q: In founding the Federation for Children with Special Needs, what was the group's goal?
A: We knew that parents up to then usually had to have bake sales and sell Christmas cards in order to get their kids educated -- to help pay for private schools. Also, we knew that they needed a whole new set of skills to participate in the assessment and educational planning for our children. So, we developed a number of different training projects and eventually trained parents to serve as what are called "lay advocates." They can represent parents in mediation and even formal hearings. They can't represent parents in court, but right up to court at a much lower cost.
Q: What advice would you give to parents with children entering the special-needs program for the first time?
A: Learn all you can about the law, the process, your child's disability, your child's needs and strengths. My year [at the Mental Health Services Program for Youth in Somerville] has taught me a lot about the importance of concentrating on the strengths of children and families, and my own daughter has taught me a good bit about that, too.
