Ida May Flagler Daly, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, developed muscular dystrophy at age three. While this progressive disease weakened her muscles and confined her to a wheelchair in her thirties, it challenged her to become a tireless advocate for people with disabilities. In the 1950s, she worked with the Seattle Parks Department to found and run the Handicapped Center, which provided arts, crafts and social activities.
Daly was also instrumental in the design of Center Park, the first apartment complex in the nation built solely for residents with physical disabilities. In 1977, she founded and ran Creative Activities for the Physically Disabled and actively advocated for improvements like bus lifts and curb cuts for wheelchairs. Daly received numerous local, state, and national awards for her work.
In this image, Ida Daly sits in her office at the Handicapped Center with her sister, Hazel Flagler Begeman (standing). Daly holds a stick in her mouth to type. Together they wrote Daly’s autobiography, “Adventures in a Wheelchair”.
Caption information source: “Adventure Looks Beyond a Body”, by Sue Lockett, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 5, 1973, pages D1 and D7. Caption information source: “Implementing the ADA in Seattle”, Seattle Municipal Archives, www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries/implementing-the-ada-in-Seattle. Retrieved March 20, 2026.
