About The ELA Foundation, Inc.
 
The vision of the Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation, Inc. (ELA) is to change the face of disability on the planet.
 
In order to accomplish this vision, ELA’s mission is to promote, through scholarships, the presence of women with disabilities of higher education.
 
To quote its founder, “Total inclusion of people with disabilities in every aspect of society can and will happen as all of us embrace this vision together. Anything less than this is just not acceptable.”
 
 
About Margaret A. Staton
Founder and President
 
Having been disabled by a spinal cord tumor when she was two, Margaret has a first hand knowledge of the needs and opportunities (or the lack thereof) offered to a woman with a disability.
 
Margaret Staton grew up in Atlanta Georgia, the youngest of four children. Having the same values of independence, self-reliance, perseverance (stubbornness!) found in her Grandmother, Margaret used a wheelchair as well as walked with braces and crutches. An avid sports fan, she was a swimmer and wheelchair athlete and she followed ice- skating championships and football teams. These are activities she does to this day. From an early age, Margaret became an advocate for accessibility for people with disabilities.
 
After attaining her undergraduate degree in psychology from Georgia State, she planned an advanced degree in occupational therapy. She ended up with a M.Ed. in counseling because of lack of accessible facilities at the Medical College of Georgia. In the 70's, she became the Executive Secretary for the White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals. She got wheelchair sports on the agenda and worked to enlarge the positive public perception of people with disabilities. She became active on several local and national boards as she continued to train people about accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  In 1994, she founded the ELA Foundation and continued her work to improve policies and promote full inclusion of people with disabilities.
 
The first grant made by the Foundation sent a woman with a disability to the Beijing Women's Conference in 1995. (For more information about the programs we have funded please refer to the “Grants” portion of this website.)
 
Margaret continues to be an advocate, believing that this is the time to “Change the Face of Disability on the Planet.” She is actively associated with and supports national organizations such as the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the  
 
Her dedication to this ideal is reflected in her life, and in the belief that no one living in this century should have to live through the prejudicial discrimination and exclusion that she and her peers had to endure in the past. It is just not acceptable anymore … and that is why the ELA Foundation exists!

About Ethel Louise Armstrong
and her Granddaughter, Margaret Staton
 
Ethel Louise Armstrong (1875-1957) was a powerful and influential woman who overcame adversity and the constraints of her day. Ethel, the eldest of four daughters, grew up in Montreal. She wanted to be a doctor, but at that time McGill University didn't accept women into medical school. The Université de Montreal did, but due to her father's objections, she was not able to attend classes there. Forced to abandon her dream of studying medicine, she chose instead to study arts at McGill. She graduated in 1895 – graduating as president of her class and class valedictorian - with a bachelor’s degree. She was the first one in her family to graduate from college.
 
After graduation she married John Botterell, a grain and stockbroker in Winnipeg. It wasn't socially acceptable for married women of Armstrong's social position to work for wages in those days, so she did a lot of volunteer work, especially in the children's hospital. When her husband died suddenly in 1923, she was left at age 48 with four children to raise. She opened her house to boarders, and her eldest son dropped out of McGill to support the family. She later managed to put two children through the university. Ethel Louise Armstrong epitomized the values of independence, self-reliance, perseverance, dignity, and caring with a sense of humor as she forged new territory for herself and her family. It is with these same values that the ELA Foundation serves people with disabilities while honoring her memory.
 
One of Ethel’s sons became a physician, who treated spinal cord injuries in Great Britain during World War II and started the first spinal cord injury clinic in Canada. Her son, (Margaret’s uncle) was a neurosurgeon at this clinic, and it was here that Margaret Staton went for surgery and rehabilitation after a tumor was found on her spine at the age of two.