This is an excerpt from the book, Mother of Courage, an inspirational true story about Margaret Chanin, who despite the loss of both arms earned her dental degree, married and raised two boys, taught preventive dentistry for more than 20 years, and became nationally known for her advocacy of people with disabilities. Her journey through physical challenges and adversity is a testament to the power of determination, resilience, and faith.

Photo: Margaret Chanin, 1984

In January 1970, the Nashville chapter of Pilot Club International, a civic service club for professional and executive businesswomen, nominated Margaret Chanin for “Handicapped Professional Woman of the Year,” a national contest co-sponsored by the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped.

In her application for the award, Margaret Chanin noted that Texas state officials denied her request for financial support to return to dental school after her 1941 accident because “training an armless dentist could not be justified.” Her experience, she wrote, “focuses attention on the fact that creative thinking in the area of training the handicapped is a must.”

That spring, Margaret Chanin was selected from 17 finalists to receive the award. She was honored in July, during Pilot Club International’s annual convention in Miami Beach. The award included an invitation to attend the annual meeting of the committee now known as the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities in Washington, D.C., the following April.

Despite the prevalent terminology of the day, Margaret Chanin never considered herself to be “handicapped.” Today the preferred term is “disability.”

Handicap was a horse racing term. In the early 1900s, the umpire would put stones on a fast horse as a “handicap” to slow it down, so the other horses had a chance to win the race. In the competitive, social evolutionist worldview that was prevalent at the time, people with a limp or who were missing an arm carried burdens, or handicaps, that made it difficult for them to compete in the “race” of life.

Disability advocacy reframed this thinking. Disability, on the other hand, refers to a difficulty or impairment that hinders one’s full participation in society. On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two terms. But it’s all in the way the word is used.

It’s important not to refer to a person as “disabled.” Rather, he or she has a disability, a limitation that only becomes apparent against the restrictions and expectations imposed by an “able” society – steps instead of ramps, cars that require hands to drive, or jobs that exclude anyone who is “different.”

Encouraging others to view disability in this way was Margaret Chanin’s calling. She refused to be defined by her limitations. She broke barriers. Time and again she confounded society’s expectations. That is why she was such an inspiration. She was an exemplar of empowerment and overcoming adversity. That is why people loved her.