Able Planet helps hearing impaired crack sound barrier

FORT COLLINS — Nationally acclaimed disability champion Jo Waldron was born deaf but not disabled.

It was a condition she overcame through lip reading, but Waldron knew she couldn’t stand by and watch other deaf and hearing-impaired children be left in their silent worlds and out of the mainstream of life.

So Waldron became an activist for the disabled, receiving for her efforts on their behalf the President’s Trophy from President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and the title “Disabled American for the Nation.”

Since then she’s worked with successive presidential administrations and Congressional commissions, helping to create the Americans with Disabilities Act…