Center for Independent Living

Disability rights activist Judy Heumann died March 4 at the age of 75. 

In an effort to provide aid to Berkeley community members unable to receive vaccine doses from mass vaccination sites, a mobile vaccine clinic was hosted last week at the Ed Roberts Campus, or ERC, for eligible groups to receive their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

UC Berkeley is known as the home of the disability rights movement due to a rich history of student activism and advocacy.

Illescas ended up in an apartment about 2 miles from campus that fit their needs, they said. They did not have their car at first, though, and had to bus every day to campus. They said the distance was hard to deal with but that it is more manageable than "having to climb a lot of flights of stairs."

UC Berkeley architecture and city and regional planning professor Raymond Lifchez was recognized Tuesday by the Center for Independent Living, or CIL, with the second annual Ed Roberts Day Award, which honors individuals who have made major contributions to the disability rights movement in the U.S. and internationally.

Michael Fuss, a campus alumnus and activist, died July 10 from cancer. Fuss was 72.

Roberts, who had post-polio quadriplegia, decided to attend UC Berkeley in 1962 despite the fact that the campus had no accommodations for people with severe disabilities. His advocacy opened the school to more students with disabilities and created the Physically Disabled Student’s Program and then the Center for Independent Living.

The city Zoning Adjustments Board approved a use permit Thursday for a proposed mixed-use building on Telegraph Avenue after an extensive period of public comment regarding the project’s accessibility and its role in the revitalization of the Telegraph Avenue neighborhood.

The campus has expanded accessibility in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and requirements imposed after lawsuits. Barriers for students with physical disabilities, however, can often lie less in building plans, which are picked over for potential inaccessibility, than in barriers of the moment.

After hours of public comment and discussion Thursday, Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board unanimously approved an environmental impact report for a proposed six-story building on Telegraph Avenue.