From taking her stand as a six-year-old poster child for polio, to publishing a national magazine devoted to disability issues, Cyndi Jones, Revelle ’74, has spent her life fighting for the rights of people with disabilities.
Many who devote their lives to social justice can point to a definitive moment when the need to stand up to inequality became saliently apparent. Not so many can say they experienced such a moment at the age of six, but for Cyndi Jones, Revelle ’74, a first-grade classroom would prove to be her first touch with the harsh reality of discrimination.
Jones contracted infantile paralysis, or polio, at the age of two. As a young girl in St. Louis, Mo., she was selected to be the March of Dimes poster child in the region. Jones remembers the excitement of being the young girl on crutches waving from parade floats and featured on local billboards. Throughout the 1950s, hers was the smiling face meant to open people’s eyes to polio. Yet when the organization’s mission moved from polio fundraising to vaccination, just the reverse occurred—Jones’ eyes were opened to the prevailing attitudes that she and other people with disabilities faced.