Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer

Ruth Christine Sienkiewicz-Mercer (September 23, 1950 – August 8, 1998) was an American author, quadriplegic, and disability rights activist best known for her autobiography I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes, co-authored with Steven B. Kaplan.

Biography Ruth Christine Sienkiewicz-Mercer was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, on September 23, 1950. She was a healthy baby, but had a severe bout of encephalitis at the age of five weeks. At thirteen months, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy resulting from the encephalitis.

She lived mostly with her family until age eleven, with some brief stays in rehabilitation centers invariably terminated by her family's poor financial situation. As she approached her teens, it became increasingly difficult for her mother and family to care for her. Her parents decided to send her to the Belchertown State School, an institution for the people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. There, like many of the institution's patients, she was mistreated.

In 1973, the massive building housing the mental wards was renovated, and she was moved to a small temporary building with nineteen other patients. The attendants there were friendly and the atmosphere far less oppressive than the wards; the patients were given greater liberty, to the extent that some were allowed to drink alcohol.

After her departure from Belchertown, she became a disability rights activist, giving speeches with the aid of an assistant and later a speech synthesizer in cities across America. Her efforts may have contributed to the closure of Belchertown State School in 1992.

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