Correction Appended

Sporting an orange hard hat over her silvery hair, Joan Leon dug her brand-new shovel into a soft mound of dirt to honor Ed Roberts, an old friend who championed rights for the disabled.

Surrounded by politicians and other disabled rights activists, Leon broke ground at a celebration of the construction of the Ed Roberts Campus, a facility that will provide novel amenities and services to the disabled with easy access to the nearby Ashby BART station.

With a $47.5 million budget, the campus would be large enough to satisfy Roberts, his friends said. They remember him as a visionary with limitless expectations in pursuing equal rights for the disabled.

"He always thought big," Leon said. "We looked at this (plan) and said, 'This is big enough for Ed.'"

The ceremony not only brought Roberts' friends together, but it also attracted influential politicians, including Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, State Assemblymember Loni Hancock, and Norman Mineta, who served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation during the George H.W. Bush administration.

Mineta said the campus is a trend-setter for the world because it will provide the disabled with unprecedented access to public transportation.

"This will be a multimodal center for transportation," he said. "It will be the first of its kind, and it will draw attention from the rest of the world."

The campus will house organizations, services and activities that will serve the disabled, as well as provide them with unprecedented amenities through its proximity to the BART station and its new technology.

The disabled-friendly amenities include specially designed signage and way-finding devices for the blind, wide helical ramps for wheelchair users, and hands-free sensors that control lighting and security systems.

Construction is expected to finish in fewer than two years.

In 1962, Roberts became the first severely disabled person to attend UC Berkeley. After a long battle with polio, Roberts died in 1995.

Although Roberts died in 1995, his wheelchair-bound friend Aydan Asoy said his legacy will endure.

"He'll live on through this building," Asoy said, her voice barely intelligible due to her disability. "I love him."

Tags: ED ROBERTS CAMPUS