The Ocean State Center for Independent Living (OSCIL) headed to the Crowne Plaza Friday for their annual Independent Living Conference-  entitled “The Past, Present and Future of Independent Living.”

OSCIL secured a national name in disability advocacy, welcoming their keynote speaker Sandra Swift Parrino, who was instrumental in the writing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), to Rhode Island.

Swift Parrino, CEO of policy organization The Western Strategy Group, was the chair of the National Council on Disability (NCD) from 1981 through 1993.

At first, Swift Parrino was unsure about whether to take the chairmanship of the NCD when approached to do so, so she sought advice from her brother, Bob Swift, as to whether to take the role or not.

“I would say take it, but there’s a caveat,” Swift Parrino recounted her brother advising her. “Pick one thing you want to do- not two, not five, not ten- pick one thing you want to do, and do it. And the ADA became the only thing I was focused on.”

Getting the ADA passed, though, was a journey that had many twists and turns. Throughout the process of writing the bill and preparing it to get through Congress, Swift Parrino noted that the support and advice of then-Senator Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.) was integral in keeping the bill intact.

“He was just a very special man,” Swift Parrino said. “Without everything that Lowell Weicker did for the council, we would never have had an ADA. We would never have been able to do it. He tilled the soil, and made it possible.”

Swift Parrino would soon find a sponsor in the House of Representatives in Tony Coelho (D-Calif.). Coelho was recommended by Weicker, and the issue of disability rights was a personal one for Coelho, who dealt with epilepsy.

Though Weicker lost reelection in 1988, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would step in as the bill’s main sponsor. Harkin also considered the cause close to his heart, as his brother was deaf.

The bill would pass the Senate by a 76-8 vote, before passing the House with a unanimous voice vote.

Swift Parrino said, though, that there were more things she wishes she would have been able to get through Congress, such as making an administration on disability similar to the Small Business Administration and a Minorities with Disabilities program, which had been set up by another member of the NCD.

“I’m always asked- what did you leave on the table?” Swift Parrino said. “And I’m adding one more thing now, and that is the homeless- I think it’s shocking in this country that there are so many homeless people and I am told that a lot of them have disabilities… That’s something that has to really be looked at.”

Swift Parrino also recounted stories of the day the bill was signed- in the photo of George H.W. Bush signing the bill into law she can be seen standing behind his desk.

On that day, Swift Parrino remembered that Bush didn’t have enough ceremonial pens for the four people invited to the ceremonial signing.

“He starts signing his name, G-E-O, and he took a pen, gave it to me, then wrote more, R-G-E, gave one to Dustin [Dart, a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission], then gave one to Evan [Kent, another member of the EEOC],” Swift Parrino said. “And then he looked down. And he says to us ‘I only got three pens. They didn’t give me four.’ So we’re sitting there, we start laughing, he starts laughing, and people are saying ‘What’s going on up there?’”

OSCIL also presented recipients of their Catherine T. Murray Memorial Scholarship, which is given annually to Rhode Islanders seeking higher education that have a “significant disability”, according to OSCIL’s website.

This year’s winners were Max Holroyd, Taylor Roberts, Ryan Lukowicz, Connor O’Neal and Christopher Senice. Each winner also received a congratulatory certificate from Congressman Gabe Amo.