I had a friend who accompanied her dad, who had MS, on overseas trips he took to present papers in toxicology, a field in which he was renowned. She commented on how some other cultures did not have a concept of equity for handicapped people. Once she and her dad got to the meetings, he was treated like a celebrity, but moving around other places in public, it was like his being there was inappropriate. There are still a lot of primitive concepts about handicaps being a family and community disgrace. Tell that to Stephen Hawking.