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**************** Roger Williams  Community Access Award  ****************

The Roger Williams Community Access Award is the highest award, which recognizes a person with a disability whose advocacy efforts have made a positive impact on the community.

Roger Williams was from Rhode Island.  His 11th great grandfather founded the state of Rhode Island and initiated freedom of religion in the state.  The first synagogue and Baptist church in the United States is in Rhode Island.  Roger was proud of his heritage.  He was the first member of his family to leave the state in 400 years.

After getting a BA degree from Brown University, Roger went into the Air Force.  The physical training accelerated the onset of muscular dystrophy.

Roger came to Kansas to attend the University of Kansas to work on a Masters degree in geometry.  As he became a wheelchair user, Roger experienced the frustration of being excluded from buildings that were not accessible.  This led him to go to law school.

Virtually all of KU was inaccessible in the mid 1970s.  The University's attitude expressed to Roger was, if you have a disability go to Emporia State.  Roger chose go to the University of Kansas.

Right after law school in the mid 70s,  Roger filed suite against KU to bring about compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first civil rights law prohibiting disability based discrimination.  Roger's action stopped construction on Wescoe Hall until the University agreed to put in elevators and a ramped entrance.  Roger also helped KU obtain funding for the elevator in Bailey Hall, so people with disabilities would have the opportunity to earn teaching degrees.  

Roger was instrumental in establishing the Architectural Barriers Committee (ABC) at KU in 1978 when Green Hall was being constructed and again, there were problems with accessibility.  From that time to the present, the Architectural Barriers Committee has led KU in its systematic removal of architectural barriers in existing buildings.  The Architectural Barriers Committee also reviews all plans for new construction and alterations at KU to ensure total compliance with federal and state accessibility laws. 

Roger also drafted the ordinance for the City of Lawrence that requires curb ramps at all newly constructed intersections, and he successfully advocated with the City for the installation of curb ramps and accessible parking downtown.   

His ongoing work with the City can be illustrated by the fact that Roger often called the pay phone by the City Commission meeting room to relay messages to the City Commission during their meetings.  He would watch these meetings that were and still are broadcast live on TV, then call in a message or go down to City Hall in his lift van to comment on city issues involving accessibility.

In the midst of his advocacy activity, Roger had a long and esteemed career as a geologist, working at KU's Paleontological Institute in Lindley Hall as the Illustrations Editor of the Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology. The Treatise is a world-renowned encyclopedic work on invertebrate fossils used by people who work with fossils and is also used to aid in oil exploration.

Roger was also part of the group that started Independence, Inc. in 1979, and served on the board until 1991.  Roger died in 1993.

Roger Williams was the first leader of the disability rights movement in Lawrence, Kansas.  So we remember and honor him through the Roger Williams Community Access Award.

Roger Williams Community Access Award Recipients

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Roger Williams Jody Anderson Jean Hall Glen W White Michael R. Todd Bill Simons David Rosenthal Saunny Scott Jeanne Hetherington Brad Linnenkamp   Dot Nary WyLma Mortell