Franklin Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only president to have served more than two terms as president. He lead our country during 1930’s while we were experiencing the great depression and he helped us stay strong during World War II. It was not always well known, but he suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome that caused him to loose the ability to walk. This disease caused him to spend the later part of his life in a wheelchair.

While Roosevelt spent many years in his wheelchair and his entire presidency in it, he refused to let it limit him. There are few pictures of him in a wheelchair though, because he feared Americans would see it as a disability.

In 1997 the FDR Memorial opened including a very large statue of Roosevelt sitting in a chair. He is covered by a cloak and barely visible are two small wheels in the back of the chair. A year after its opening, the National Park Service agreed to add a second statue showing him sitting in a wheelchair. This was after numerous complaints by associations like the National Organization on Disability, who pointed out how it was a disgrace to hide the fact that he was in a wheelchair.

In 2001 the first statue ever to show a world leader sitting in a wheelchair was unveiled. It was dedicated by President Clinton and marks a very proud day for the many millions of Americans that use wheelchairs everyday.