SCRANTON, Pa. -- Famous physicist Stephen Hawking passed away this week at the age of 76.
He's being remembered for his contributions to science, but some in our area are remembering him as an inspiration to people living with a disability.
Stephen Hawking is thought to be one of the most gifted scientists of his generation. It's the fact that he's remembered as that first and then as a man with a physical disability, that many people who live with the same ailments he had are inspired by him.
Keith Williams has used a motorized wheelchair for most of his life. The first person he remembers seeing on television who moved around like him was Stephen Hawking.
Hawking lived most of his life with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease. It severely limited his movement and speech, but never his accomplishments.
"You can't measure the impact... of somebody younger with a disability to see someone in the media with a disability. It could be anything from movies to TV, you know, to music. Seeing somebody make significant accomplishments, they can say, `that could be me sometime,'" Williams said.
Hawking was as much a cultural icon as he was a physicist.
That kind of visibility is invaluable, said Williams, who advocates for other people with disabilities at the Center for Independent Living in Scranton.
Hawking was on the cutting edge of science and how to use technology to help him communicate.
Williams said Hawking paved the way for people like Corey Felski of Clarks Summit, an employee of Center for Independent Living. Felski uses an Ipad attached to his chair to help him communicate and connect to the world.
"He {Hawking} educated people in the world about physics, and the whole idea of space and the continuum, and all that. But, at the same time, through the everyday use of that device, the power chair, he educated the world about the accomplishments that people with disabilities can make," Williams added.