Disability awareness activist to speak here

Actor, athlete, aviator, and activist Henry Holden will speak April 25 at Mississippi State as part of the university's Disability Awareness Day observance.

"The Misconceptions Continue: How the Media Represents People with Disabilities" will be the topic of his 7 p.m. public program in Simrall Hall auditorium. The presentation will be accompanied by a slide-show illustrating his belief that media images mold and distort public impressions of persons with various handicaps.

Disability Awareness Day is sponsored each spring by the Division of Student Affairs' Office of Student Support Services.

Holden, who contracted polio when he was 4 years old, wears leg braces and uses crutches to walk. In the 1980s, he began challenging college students and other audiences both to re-examine their attitudes towards the disabled and to consider the subtle and not-so-subtle sources of those opinions.

Despite his personal challenges, Holden successfully pursued a dream of acting and has appeared on several television shows.

He also is the producer of "Look Who's Laughing," an award-winning documentary on six comedians with disabilities.

He also lists a variety of athletic achievements, among them downhill skiing and scuba diving.

For more information, telephone Julie Berry at 325-3335.