[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 38 (Monday, September 25, 2000)]
[Pages 2152-2155]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan

September 21, 2000

    Give her another hand. [Applause] Wasn't she great? Thank you, 
Karla.
    Well, good afternoon, everyone. I am delighted to be here at Mott 
Community College. And I want to begin by thanking Karla Hudson again 
for her sterling example, but even more for her commitment to helping 
other people build a better future for themselves.
    I also want to thank my longtime friend and now Cabinet member, 
Secretary Mineta, for his years and years of commitment to empowering 
people with disabilities. I thank my National Economic Adviser, Gene 
Sperling, who is a native of Michigan, for the work he did on the 
announcements I will make today. And Mayor Stanley, thank you, as 
always. Judy Brewer, thank you for your work.
    I also want to acknowledge Pamela Loving from the Career Alliance 
and Michael Zelley from the Disability Network for what they're doing. 
I'd like to thank Dr. Shaink, the board, and the faculty members and the 
students of Mott Community College for making us welcome here today.
    And I'd like to acknowledge a couple of other people who came with 
me today to be here--first, the remarkable president of Gallaudet 
University in Washington, DC, Dr. I. King Jordan, and a marathon 
runner--congratulations for being here--James Clark, vice president at 
NCR; Carl Augusto, the president of the American Foundation for the 
Blind; and from the administration, Judy Heumann, the Assistant 
Secretary for Special Education Rehab Services, and Jonathan Young from 
the White House. They're all around there. Thank you all very much for 
being here.
    I would also like to thank the Vice President in his absence for the 
work that he has done with me for 8 years to empower all Americans.
    Looking back, I think this is my fourth trip, Mayor, to Flint. I'm 
beginning to feel at home. I'm afraid if I come back, I'll get a tax 
bill, I've been here so often. [Laughter] When I first came here in 
1992, Mayor Stanley welcomed me. Now I'm about the leave the Presidency, 
and when I'm gone, he'll still be mayor. [Laughter] I want to know what 
the secret is. [Laughter]
    Let me say, as Secretary Mineta said, this is a very fortunate time 
for our country, and it happened because of a lot of people across 
America working together. Flint has worked hard, against tough odds, to 
bring this city back, to prepare for a new century. And you have made a 
great deal of progress. I am quite sure that the people whom I visited 
today who are involved with the Disability Network and the Career 
Alliance and the people at this community college have played a major 
role in the resurgence of this fine community.
    But we all know that not everyone has shared in the American 
economic renaissance. We all know there are people and places who have 
been left behind, including millions of Americans with significant 
disabilities who want to go to work but whose path is blocked and who 
could work and could contribute, not only to their own lives but to the 
rest of us, as well.
    The great labor priest George Higgins articulated a fundamental 
truth when he said, ``Work is an important way in which we exercise our 
humanity. In return, society offers us not only our daily bread but a 
sense that we, ourselves, are honored for the contributions we make.''

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    When I sought the Presidency in 1991 and 1992, my first objective 
was to give work back to the American people. One of the strongest 
supporters I had was your former Governor, who is here with me today, 
and my friend of many years, Jim Blanchard, and I thank him for coming. 
Not only here in communities in Michigan but in far away New Hampshire, 
Jim went with me in the snows to listen to people who had lost their 
livelihoods, who broke down over dinner, crying because they were afraid 
they'd never be able to send their kids to school.
    And we have, in large measure, succeeded. But we have not given 
every American the chance, first, to get an education, and second, to 
use their education to work and achieve the American dream. We have an 
obligation to do it, an obligation that requires us to keep expanding 
the circle of opportunity. And in this information age, when the pace of 
change increasingly accelerates at a breathtaking rate, we cannot 
achieve that goal if we leave any Americans stranded on the other side 
of the now famous digital divide.
    Now, for nearly 8 years now, the Vice President and I have worked to 
break down barriers that hold people back. One of the most important 
things we did was to fight hard in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to 
insist that people with disabilities have full access to telephone 
equipment and service that most people take for granted. And one of our 
Federal Communications Commissioners, Susan Ness, is here with me today. 
I thank her, and I thank all of those who helped us to fight for the 
rights of disabled Americans in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
    In 1998 we pushed through the Work Force Investment Act, requiring 
that any information technology the Federal Government buys be 
accessible to people with disabilities. And in 1999, I was very proud to 
sign the Work Incentives Improvement Act, which will enable Americans 
with disabilities to retain their Medicare or Medicaid coverage when 
they go to work and provide more choices for job training. This will 
give tens of thousands of Americans the opportunity to be in the work 
force.
    But breaking down barriers is not enough. People actually have to 
have the tools they need to take advantage of this remarkable moment of 
opportunity--especially the tools they need in cyberspace. There are 
truly amazing new possibilities, as I saw today on my tour.
    Through information technologies, a person with a disability, such 
as the great physicist Stephen Hawking, can continue to be one of the 
world's top astrophysicist and--and this is a big ``and,'' because he 
suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease and is the longest living person, as 
far as we know, in history with that disease--and I'm convinced that one 
of the reasons he is alive today, with the fire in his eyes and the 
passion burning in his heart, is that he can not only continue to learn; 
he can continue to communicate what he knows and what he thinks to the 
rest of the world, thanks to technology.
    Millions of other people with disabilities can also access and use 
the information superhighway if we build the necessary on ramps. For 
example, we're creating a national network of community technology 
centers so that all Americans, no matter where they live or what their 
incomes, have easy and affordable access to the Internet.
    I visited America's newest community technology center this 
afternoon, right here in Flint, a partnership between the Department of 
Education, Mott Community College, and the nonprofit Disability Network, 
focusing on empowering people with disabilities to access the Internet 
and learn computer skills. I was amazed by a lot of what I saw: 
technology that translates web pages aloud for people who are blind or 
visually impaired; provides captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing 
people; enables people with significant physical disabilities to control 
a computer through eye movement and brain waves. This technology has 
unbelievable potential.
    I have a friend in North Carolina, named Joe Martin, with Lou 
Gehrig's disease. Years ago, we worked together on education and the 
economy in the South. Joe Martin then was in great health. He was 
vigorous, energetic, charismatic, compelling, and effective. He's had 
Lou Gehrig's disease for some time now, and in spite of how great he was 
then, he is greater today in every way. Although he can't walk or talk 
or use his hands, his

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eyes provide a window on the world. With EyeGaze technology, he can look 
at a computer screen and type away just using his eyes. He E-mails 
people here in Flint. With another glance he can activate an electronic 
voice that reads his words aloud. This astounding technology has enabled 
him to keep his job as a banker, to talk with his wife and friends and, 
now, write an about-to-be-published compelling book about his life.
    Some of you may have heard of a young swimmer from South Africa, 
named Terence Parkin. Yesterday he won the silver medal in the mens' 
200-meter breast stroke, one of the best athletes in the world. He also 
happens to be deaf, and he can't hear the starting buzzer that used to 
begin all swimming races. Instead, he can now watch for a personal, 
yellow starting light, which flashes at his starting block at the same 
time the buzzer goes off. By installing the simplest of technology, a 
little light bulb, officials gave this determined and gifted athlete his 
shot at glory. He took it. Now he can celebrate the flash of sunlight 
off his silver medal, and aren't you glad he got the chance to race?
    These kinds of innovations are going to make a tremendous difference 
in people's lives, especially as we incorporate them into mainstream 
technology, something Judy emphasized. Here in Genesee County, employers 
can't find enough people to fill all the technical jobs. Many pay $20 an 
hour.
    Now, if we want to keep the rest of the economy growing, we have to 
make information technology more accessible. It's responsible for about 
30 percent of the economic growth we've enjoyed over the last 8 years. 
And we have to bring more people into the circle of opportunity to work 
in information fields. That means people with disabilities have to be 
able to enter the 21st century work force, not only for your own benefit 
but for the rest of America as well.
    Today I am honored to announce several major public and private 
commitments that will move us in the right direction. First, 45 chief 
executive officers of American high-tech companies have pledged to make 
their products more accessible to people with disabilities, training 
their employers to develop new accessible software, hardware, and 
services.
    Second, 25 of our Nation's leading research universities have 
committed to helping us provide equal access to information, including 
new course work for engineering majors and new tenure-track faculty 
positions to address these challenges. That's a big deal. Think about 
it: Major universities giving people tenure to teach how to provide 
equal access to all Americans without regard to disabilities, to have 
information-age technology. That's wonderful.
    Third--I'm trying to keep up with all of this. Third, I am pleased 
to announce that Flint's very own CS Mott Foundation--and I believe the 
president of the Foundation, Bill White, is here--will support these 
goals by funding a blue-ribbon task force, headed by the Disability 
Network, to figure out how to make this new technology more affordable. 
It's not enough to develop it if people can't afford it.
    Fourth, I'm directing my Cabinet to explore ways of enhancing 
Medicare and Medicaid to help people with disabilities pay for 
technologies to enable them to live and work independently in their 
communities. The Department of Education will provide grants totaling $4 
million to the Web Accessibility Initiative and the National Center for 
Accessible Media, to help to ensure that people with disabilities can 
tap into the World Wide Web and make the most of on-line learning.
    And finally, I am particularly proud to announce that AmeriCorps is 
awarding $9 million in grants to put 1,200 volunteers into schools and 
communities to teach students with disabilities and children from 
difficult backgrounds the skills they need to take advantage of the 
Internet.
    One project in North Carolina will provide computer training to 300 
students who are blind or visually impaired, showing them a whole new 
horizon of possibilities. And I know, of course, that AmeriCorps 
volunteers have been active in the disability community here in Flint, 
and I thank them for their work. And thanks for wearing your T-shirt 
today. You look good. Thank you.
    I've got to get in a little plug for AmeriCorps now. Our legislation 
reauthorizing AmeriCorps is now pending in the Congress. I have now 
received a letter signed by 49 of the Nation's 50 Governors asking

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Congress to reauthorize AmeriCorps and other community programs 
administered by the Corporation for National Service, including the new 
E-Corps program to bridge the digital divide. I hope Congress will take 
a look at what you've done here and reauthorize AmeriCorps.
    Let me just make two points in closing. Once more, bridging the 
digital divide is not just the morally right thing to do; it is the 
smart thing to do. I remember a decade ago when people were debating the 
Americans with Disabilities Act, critics said it would be too expensive 
to make public facilities available to put in curb cuts, handrails, to 
put those signs in braille up. They were wrong. Since we've torn down 
those barriers, more than a million Americans with disabilities have 
entered the work force, and we have had the strongest economy America 
has ever known. It is good to help people live their dreams.
    And if we build new onramps to the information superhighway, people 
with disabilities will help us build an even stronger America and, I 
might add, share in the promise of the declaration of true independence.
    The second thing I'd like to say is, this is about way more than 
economics. It's important to be able to earn a living, and I want all of 
you to contribute to America's economic welfare. But it's about more 
than economics. A century ago, visionaries here in Flint harnessed the 
potential of new technology to build the world's largest auto company. 
Their success gave Americans a mobility and freedom that reshaped the 
entire economic and physical landscape of our Nation.
    Today, at the dawn of the information age, we have the potential to 
give millions of Americans even greater freedom in cyberspace. As I 
said, it's about more than economics. You know, when I was driving from 
my last stop here, there were police along the way at intersections, 
making sure that no children got in the way of the motorcade or no cars 
went through the stop sign. One of those police officers was in a 
wheelchair.
    One of my speechwriters has one disabled arm and one prostheses. He 
writes a heck of a speech. It's nice that he's got a job, but it's more 
important that the feelings of his heart can be expressed. One of the 
things I've learned in nearly 30 years in public life and a few years 
before that, just sort of ambling around the world, is that everybody's 
got a story; everybody's got dreams; everybody's afraid sometimes and 
brave sometimes. And in the end, when you strip it all away, there's not 
a great deal of difference in the relative significance of our stories. 
If you put all the people in the world end to end, with the person with 
the lowest IQ on one end and the highest IQ on the other, you couldn't 
stick a straw between any two people.
    The whole premise of America is that we are inherently, in a 
fundamental way, equal, though unique. People carry different burdens in 
life, and everybody, even the most blessed, carry a few. God puts bigger 
burdens on some than others, but everybody should have the chance to 
have their story. In the end, in the not completely knowable terrain of 
the human heart is the real argument for all these efforts.
    So I ask you, I'll do everything I can in the time remaining. For 
the rest of my life I'll be grateful that I happened to be President at 
this moment of true revolution in human ability. But we have to keep 
working and never forget the economics is important, but the dreams 
matter more.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 3:15 p.m. in the Ballinger Field House. In 
his remarks, he referred to Karla Hudson, rehabilitation counselor, 
Michigan Commission for the Blind, who introduced the President; Mayor 
Woodrow Stanley of Flint; Judy Brewer, director, Web Accessibility 
Initiative; Pamela Loving, president and chief executive officer, Career 
Alliance; Michael Zelley, executive director, Disability Network; and 
Richard Shaink, president, Mott Community College.