Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr., one of the world's most highly respected pioneers for the rights and opportunities of people with disabilities, died Tuesday, April 13, 2004. He was 91.

Dr. Viscardi broke down barriers imposed by his own physical challenges, and built his career on the conviction that "there really are no disabled people, only people with varying degrees of ability."

Dr. Viscardi's bold vision transformed the way employers, educators and policy-makers viewed disabilities, laying the groundwork for landmark legislation mandating the integration of people with disabilities into everyday life.

He was the founder of Abilities, Inc., which has grown into the internationally acclaimed National Center for Disability Services, a multi-faceted not-for-profit agency in Albertson.

Among other contributions to public life, he served as an advisor on disability issues to every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Jimmy Carter.

Eleanor Roosevelt, in her introduction to one of Dr. Viscardi's books, wrote that his accomplishments reflect "a personal story of courage and determination, dignity and human rights."

Known to many as Hank, Dr. Viscardi was born with underdeveloped legs and spent the first six years of his life in the Hospital for Deformities and Joint Diseases in Manhattan. His schoolmates jeered at him with "ape-man" taunts as he walked on his stumps, wearing shoes that resembled boxing gloves. Upon receiving his first set of artificial limbs, at the age of 27, he looked the doctor in the eye and thanked him. The doctor's response stunned him: "I don't want to be thanked. I'll tell you what you can do, though. Someday maybe you'll have the chance to bring a new life to another boy. If you can help somebody else, that's all I'll ever ask."

Inspired by this challenge, Dr. Viscardi embarked on his lifelong mission to empower people with disabilities to lead self-sufficient, productive lives.

At Eleanor Roosevelt's urging, Dr. Viscardi left a successful private-sector career in 1952 to establish Abilities, Inc., a manufacturing enterprise staffed largely by injured World War II veterans, in a former warehouse in West Hempstead.

At a time when people with disabilities were all but excluded from the workforce, Abilities, Inc. was a revolutionary concept that demonstrated that people with disabilities could-and should-be productive contributors to society. Within a few years, Abilities, Inc. was winning contracts from such defense industry giants as Grumman, General Electric and IBM, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.

Dr. Viscardi's vision extended beyond the employment of people with disabilities. It also encompassed education and research. In the early 1960s, he moved his enterprise to a larger facility in Albertson, where he established the Human Resources Center. New adult vocational training programs and a research center expanded into the Career and Employment Institute (CEI) and the Research and Training Institute (RTI), and Abilities, Inc. entered the international spotlight. To better reflect the scope and impact of its work, the organization was renamed the National Center for Disability Services in 1991.

In 1962, after a long, arduous process, Dr. Viscardi turned another of his dreams into reality by gaining a charter from the New York State Department of Education to establish the Human Resources School on the Albertson campus. Upon Dr. Viscardi's retirement in 1981, the school, which had become one of the nation's leading K-12 educational institutions for children with severe physical and medical disabilities, was renamed the Henry Viscardi School.

Dr. Viscardi's contributions to education were recognized around the world. Universities in England, Japan, Korea and Canada awarded him honorary doctoral degrees in law, education, science, humane letters and literature. In 1975, he received the New York State Board of Regents' James E. Allen Jr. Memorial Award.

Professional organizations lauded Dr. Viscardi for his revolutionary influence on the business world's approach to employing people with disabilities.

In 1957, he was the first-ever non-medical recipient of the American Medical Association's Outstanding Service Citation, which had been given only four times since the AMA's founding over 100 years earlier. The National Rehabilitation Association presented Dr. Viscardi with its highest honor, the President's Medal, and the Freedom Foundation of Valley Forge awarded him the American Exemplar Medal. In 1983 the Horatio Alger Association named him to its list of Distinguished Americans, and he was the 1992 winner of the Andrus Award for Community Service from the American Association of Retired Persons.

Dr. Viscardi was the author of numerous articles and eight books. His book, A Letter to Jimmy, received the Niernberger Trichter Literary Award in Bonn, Germany. In addition to his Presidential appointments, he served as chairman of the Committee on the Handicapped under New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and he was on the faculty of Clinical Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at New York University's School of Medicine.

At the time of his death, Dr. Viscardi was a resident of Kings Point. He is survived by his wife, Lucile, four daughters, sons-in-law, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Donations may be made in his name to the Henry Viscardi School, 201 IU Willets Road, Albertson, NY 11507.