How many Emily Hillmans are there out there?

Iowa State University held this year’s Disability Awareness Summit for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) and Disability History Month at Reiman Gardens on Thursday. The keynote speaker was Sen. Tom Harkin.

Harkin has been an advocate for those with disabilities throughout his career. He served in Congress for 40 years, introduced the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into the Senate and the ADA Amendments Bill to ensure individuals with disabilities had protection in legislation.

Harkin spoke about a woman with disabilities named Emily Hillman. Hillman is from Independence, Iowa. She was, as many people with disabilities do, working a minimum wage job and hated it. 

So she turned to her parents who helped her go to school in Minneapolis to pursue her dream of running a coffee shop. She worked hard, and with some assistance, she opened Em’s Coffee Shop in Independence, Iowa. 

According to Harkin, today it is the hangout spot of Independence. She employs four people at her coffee shop, three of whom have disabilities. 

Harkin heard her story and invited her to come to meet former-President Barack Obama. 

“The president and I walked in the room, and you’d think he was a long lost friend of hers,” said Harkin. “She goes ‘Mr. President, you’ve got to come to my coffee shop. What kind of coffee do you like anyway?’ How many more Emily Hillmans are there? People that if given the chance, the opportunity, just a little bit of a boost and be treated just like anybody else — my god there must be billions of them,” he said. 

Harkin highlighted his personal experience with the effects of disabilities during his childhood growing up with a brother who was deaf.

“When he was a young man, he was taken away from his home,” said Harkin. “He was taken half way across the state of Iowa to Council Bluffs to the Iowa School for the Deaf, or as they called it back then, The Iowa School for the Deaf and Dumb. I still remember what my brother said to me — I’ll never forget — ‘I may be deaf, but I’m not dumb.'”

His brother, Frank, worked in a bakery for years until a man came in and asked him if he would like to work for him at his parts factory. Harkin said his brother recieved an expensive golden watch from his boss ten years later, because he never missed a day of work. He worked hard, had the highest productivity and made the fewest mistakes.

Harkin touched on his nephew Kelly, who served in the armed forces. Unfortunately, he was in a terrible accident which resulted in his neck breaking, causing him to be severely paraplegic. 

After rehabilitation, he decided to go to college at Iowa State.

After his speech, Kerry Dixon, capital project manager at Iowa State, spoke up saying that he shouldn’t have retired. 

“Well I quite think 40 years is enough,” Harkin said.

Afterward, Dixon spoke highly of the summit, and of Senator Tom Harkin. 

“It was a great day. Senator Harkin is an inspiration. We would not have the accessibility we have today without his leadership,” said Dixon.

The 2018 Disability Awareness Summit will be held at the University of Northern Iowa on Oct. 31.