Former Hofstra professor, activist dies

Frank Bowe, a celebrated Hofstra professor and activist who championed for the rights of the disabled and helped draft the legislation that led to the Americans With Disabilities Act, died Aug. 21 of cancer. He was 60 years old.

Bowe, who was deaf, served as the executive director of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities from 1976 to 1981. In 1977, he helped direct a nationwide sit-in that pushed legislators to implement Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, the world's first civil-rights provision for the disabled. Section 504 was the forerunner of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. read more