Interview with a Historical Figure

If we could interview any historical figure, we would be fascinated to learn more about the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

He was the longest-serving president, the only one to have been elected four times. He led the country through some of its most challenging and difficult chapters, from the Great Depression to World War Two. He introduced sweeping economic reforms to provide relief to a struggling country, and reached out to the American public directly through his radio broadcast “Fireside Chats.” 

He was a force to be reckoned with. And he did it all with a disability that was hidden in plain sight. In 1921, at the age of 39, he contracted what is believed to have been polio, a disease that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Reliant on family members, care-givers, and a very uncomfortable wheelchair, FDR’s disability was largely hidden from the American public.

FDR’s wheelchair. Photograph taken in his Hyde Park home, April 2026. 

Of the thousands of photographs of FDR contained in his archives, only a handful depict his wheelchair or disability at all. For public appearances, he wore miserable leg braces that propped him up and relied on ample assistance from caregivers. 

Not one to let this stop him, he continued with his political ambitions, bearing the pain of the leg braces as he led the American people through more than twelve tumultuous years. 

In a recent tour of his Hudson River Valley Home in New York, my tour guide mentioned that FDR is a challenging historical figure to study because he left no memoirs or autobiography. We have very little insights into how he thought, or what led FDR to make some of the decisions he made. 

Much of his life was hidden from public view, in spite of how public a figure he was. 

If I could sit down with him, I would love to learn more about how he managed his daily life. If he saw his wheelchair as imprisoning or empowering. If he felt that the social prejudices of his time surrounding disability were insurmountable. How the prejudices of his time compare to the prejudices of our time. I’d love to know what he thinks of the American with Disabilities Act, and what thoughts he might have about making our world more accessible. I’d love to know what he’d think of all the innovation in the disability tech space that has taken place over the past 100 or so years since he first became paralyzed. I’d like to know the answers to these questions because it is so relevant to my own career, which has focused heavily on making the world more accessible to individuals with mobility challenges. 

Beyond this narrow scope, I’d also love to learn more about how he made the decisions he made with regard to public policy, international relations, and economic affairs. 

His life was dynamic and fascinating, and one that leaves as many questions unanswered as answered.