Berkeley disabled rights activist finds overdue spotlight in documentary ‘Hale’

“Oh, I know him!” he says. “He’s real Berkeley. I’ve seen him all my life.”

Zukas would be hard to miss — he’s zooming throughout Berkeley on any given day in his electric wheelchair, wearing the signature helmet that he’s had since the 1950s. As a child, Zukas was diagnosed with cerebral palsy; physical mobility is limited to his head, which he uses, with

a pointer attached to his helmet, to operate his chair and spell words out on a letter board.

But most don’t recognize Zukas for what he really is: an unsung pioneer of the disability rights movement that sprouted out of in the 1970s. Nor do people talk about the issues or cultural attitudes toward people with disabilities, the largest minority in the world, says San Francisco filmmaker Brad Bailey.

“Everyone is on some level affected or connected to it,” says Bailey, 43. “It’s universal.”

Bailey’s short film, “Hale,” which won best documentary of the Student Academy Awards (the Oscars for works from film schools), focuses on Zukas, 74, providing an overdue spotlight on a leader who helped changed the nature of living with disabilities.

There is a unique sort of stillness and slowness that comes from communicating with Zukas. He indicates his answers letter by letter — often witty responses that elicit a warm, expansive smile from him when the punch line lands. Bailey’s short film is partially constructed out of countless hours of gradual conversation with Zukas.

“My father’s disabled,” says Bailey, who grew up in Georgia. “When I was 15 years old, he was leaving to work one morning and was hit by a tractor trailer in his car. So we go from having a very vibrant, active 6-feet-6 father to someone who lived life very differently.”

Eventually Bailey came up to Zukas on the street and asked his name.

“I Googled him, and I was blown away,” Bailey says. “I didn’t realize that this man was literally responsible for everything that we have today, from ramps to curb cuts to the way we walk and exist in the world.”

Zukas, whose mother refused to institutionalize him, grew up in San Luis Obispo before attending UC Berkeley, where he studied mathematics and Russian. While in school, “Hale” recounts, he became a quietly major player, alongside such figures as Judith Heumann and Ed Roberts, of the disability rights movement.

Hale’s policy papers are in the UC Berkeley archives, Bailey says — “essentially papers he wrote about this disability issue or this policy angle that needed to be addressed.”

While students with disabilities at UC Berkeley were housed in a hospital at the time and underserved, Zukas co-founded the Center for Independent Living, a service and resource center geared toward fulfilled, autonomous existence for people with disabilities. In 1977, Zukas and others led a sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building and eventually traveled to Washington, D.C., to push for the signing of a section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that promised rights for people with disabilities.

As for Zukas’ own perception of his place in history?

A face in the crowd,” he spells out on his board. Next to Bailey, Zukas is quick to shake his head if he perceives hyperbole from Bailey, fact-checking him in self-effacement. But when Bailey professes his belief that Zukas has not been properly recognized, Zukas agrees, reiterating, “I have been overlooked.”

Zukas remains an active advocate for people with disabilities, fighting for equality on issues from physical access to education to fair employment. Beyond shining a light on Zukas’ role in landmark progress, “Hale” is a portrait of his daily life and work.

“I need something to occupy my time,” Zukas says simply.

The film opens with a look at Zukas’ morning routine, and eventually follows him as he travels on his own throughout Berkeley, weathering BART — which honored him for his work (including designing the BART elevator buttons) with a plaque at Berkeley’s Ashby Station — to attend a transit accessibility board meeting.

Bailey noticed early on how others avoided making eye contact with Zukas when around him. If people do acknowledge Zukas, they still may never come to realize the icon in the chair.

Yet at its showings at festivals and panel discussions, says Bailey (who became the first African American to win the documentary gold in the student awards), “Hale” has promoted dialogue about what work still needs to be done. As distribution and partnership possibilities for the film are being explored, Bailey only hopes for more of the same.

Asked about his own hopes for the film’s message, Zukas pauses, tipping his head up and thinking for a long moment. Then, he spells it out, letter by letter.

“That one can make a difference even if they are significantly disabled.”

Brandon Yu is a Bay Area freelance writer.

RELATED LINKS

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Watch Bailey’s acceptance speech at here