For decades, Dr. Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous has stood at the center of Greece’s long journey toward disability inclusion. Blind since the age of three, she became the first blind student admitted to Pierce Junior High School at the American College of Greece, later earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, served in the Hellenic Parliament, and helped advance disability rights and accessibility policy in her country.
Yet Bernidaki-Aldous believes the fight is far from over. Speaking to Greek Reporter during Disability Pride Month, she said Greece’s greatest challenge is no longer opening doors—it is making sure people with disabilities can fully participate once they are inside. Laws alone, she argues, are not enough. True inclusion must become part of everyday life.
Creating the conditions for inclusion
When Bernidaki-Aldous entered Pierce Junior High School, she did not perceive of herself as part of a wider historical change. She was young, and her immediate concern was practical: how to study, participate effectively, take exams, and succeed in a school that had never had a blind student before.
“I certainly did not have an adult person’s awareness of what it meant for the future,” she told Greek Reporter. “However, I was perfectly aware of the fact that I had to commit to a very persistent personal struggle to create terms of inclusion at the school.”
That struggle began with the basics. The school had no accessible textbooks ready for her. She had to organize volunteer readers to record class material on reel-to-reel tape recorders. For subjects such as Ancient Greek, Latin, and English, she needed material transcribed into Braille.
Written exams resulted in yet another challenge altogether. Her teachers did not know Braille, so Bernidaki-Aldous learned to type her answers on a regular typewriter so they could be accessible to her teachers. Furthermore, the classroom itself also needed to be modified. When teachers wrote something on the blackboard, she asked them to explain it orally. Her classmates had to learn how to coexist with a blind student in the same classroom while teachers had to learn how to include her in the learning process.
“I adjusted to many things and improvised,” she said. “And so I expected others to do the same.” For Bernidaki-Aldous, that experience reveals a central truth about inclusion: access does not begin and end with admission. A school may open its doors, but true inclusion requires books, teachers, exams, communication, expectations, and a willingness to adapt.
From a village on Crete to Athens
Bernidaki-Aldous’ path to Pierce began in Gonia, a village near Rethymno, Crete. As a child, she tried to attend the local elementary school, but at the time, Greek law did not allow blind children to register formally in regular schools. A local teacher, Stella Gaspari, however, allowed her to attend class for a year even though she could not officially enroll. Seeing her ability, the teacher believed she should be given access to education.
A relative from the United States, Christos Bernidakis, later returned to Crete and helped persuade her parents to send her to Athens to attend the School for the Blind. Her parents initially feared that doing so could mean admitting her to an asylum, but her relative, influenced by his experience in the United States, knew that blind people could study, work, and lead independent lives. And hence, that moment also introduced one of the recurring themes in her life—the connection between Greece and the Greek diaspora.
At the School for the Blind in Athens, another teacher, Kyriake Nicolaidou, recognized her ability and placed her directly in the second grade. Later on, Nicolaidou helped connect her with the American College of Greece. Bernidaki-Aldous eventually took the entrance examinations for Pierce and was admitted. Her path, she said, did not depend solely on the institutions but also on those who recognized her potential and chose to act on their beliefs.
“I have learned that institutional changes are necessary,” she said. “ But personal examples are very important and inspiring.”
The people who opened doors
Throughout the interview, Bernidaki-Aldous returned to the significance of teachers, mentors, and what she described as “enlightened” individuals. She spoke about the teacher in her hometown on Crete who allowed her into the classroom, the teacher at the School for the Blind who supported her, the president of the American College of Greece who helped make her admission possible, and the dean of students at Pierce who followed her progress throughout her six years at the school.
When Bernidaki-Aldous later considered applying to universities in the United States, she feared that others might discourage her. Instead, she was encouraged to follow her dreams. It is that encouragement that changed her life. She studied at the University of Rochester, where she earned degrees in Classics, History, and European History and then continued at Johns Hopkins University, completing her PhD in Classical Philology and Ancient History.
In 1997, Dr. Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous was honored by the Academy of Athens for her academic work in classical literature and her research on ancient Greek texts and culture.
Her journey took her from a small village on Crete to Athens and then from Pierce to Rochester and finally Johns Hopkins.
A blind professor in the university classroom
Bernidaki-Aldous later taught at Johns Hopkins University, Oberlin College, Creighton University, and Deree—The American College of Greece, where she became Professor of Classics and now holds the title of Professor Emerita. For her, teaching was more than an academic profession. It also provided students with a living example of inclusion.
“My teaching in regular classrooms gave, I think, also a living example of the fact that people with disability — blindness, in this particular case — can be part of normal everyday life,” she said.
Before today’s digital tools, teaching as a blind professor required extensive organization. Bernidaki-Aldous relied on readers and assistants to help her access academic materials and review student papers. At Deree, she helped establish a system through which students worked with her as assistants, supporting her teaching while gaining a meaningful educational experience themselves. She described herself as a strict but fair professor. Students who worked with her learned not only the course material but also how to collaborate professionally with a blind scholar.
Many of those students later gained admission to graduate programs abroad. In her recommendation letters, Bernidaki-Aldous highlighted both their academic achievements and their experience working with her as a blind professor. As she described it, the relationship was not one of charity. It was one of mutual education.
Blindness in a culture of light
One of the most striking parts of Bernidaki-Aldous’s interview with Greek Reporter was her reflection on the meaning of blindness in Ancient Greek culture. At Johns Hopkins, her doctoral dissertation focused on blindness in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus. That research was later used in her book Blindness in a Culture of Light: Especially the case of Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles.
The title captures what she views as a central paradox of Greek culture. Ancient Greek language and literature frequently associate light with life, knowledge, and existence, while darkness is linked to death and the underworld. Yet the same culture granted extraordinary authority to blind figures such as Homer, Tiresias, and Oedipus. “How can it be that in a culture where light is equal to life…the blind poet and the blind seer are assigned such high powers and respect?” she asked.
For Bernidaki-Aldous, this was not simply a scholarly question. Her own blindness shaped the way she approached ancient texts and explored their deeper human meaning. She explained that her work sought to resolve the paradox of “blindness in a culture of light.” In her view, Greek culture at its best does not define a person by a physical condition. Instead, it examines how human beings confront fate, limitation, dignity, suffering, and possibility.
“The important thing is not so much only the physical condition, but how best people deal with their fate,” she said.
Hellenism and the human condition
Bernidaki-Aldous connected her academic work to a broader understanding of Hellenism. For her, Greek culture is not merely a national inheritance. It is a human-centered tradition that speaks to communities in Greece, Cyprus, the United States, Canada, Australia, South America, and throughout the wider diaspora.
She described Hellenic culture as a tradition that placed the human being at the center of attention and brought “the light of knowledge” to the wider world. Her years in the United States have served to deepen her connection to the Greek diaspora. When she first arrived in Rochester as a young student, she reached out to the local Greek church. Later on, in Baltimore, she once again found support through the Greek community, including assistance in finding volunteer readers. For Bernidaki-Aldous, the diaspora was not an abstract idea but a part of the network of support that enabled her to continue her education and build her life.
Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous on disabilities, law, and parliament
Bernidaki-Aldous’ advocacy extended far beyond classrooms, universities, and personal example. It eventually reached the political sphere. She served as a State-wide member of the Hellenic Parliament and chaired the Special Interparty Committee on Disability Issues. The role carried deep personal significance for her because it was directly connected to her childhood experiences.
As a child growing up on Crete, she was able to attend a local classroom only because a teacher informally allowed her to do so. At the time, the law did not permit her to enroll as a blind student in a regular school. Decades later, she found herself in Parliament working to advance the rights of people with disabilities, including their right to education.
Bernidaki-Aldous spoke with pride about her parliamentary work on legislation requiring the state to provide education to children with disabilities, including blind children, in the same way it provides education to children without disabilities. During the interview, she referred to Law 3699 and described it as an important step toward recognizing the state’s responsibility to students with disabilities.
Her experience in Parliament showed her that legal recognition matters because it gives students, parents, and advocates a foundation from which to demand implementation. At the same time, it also showed her that a law does not automatically transform everyday life. “The law is there. Is it perfect? Is it implemented perfectly? No,” she said. “But being there gives the right to students, parents and interested politicians in the state to try to implement it better.”
Turning disability rights into practice
Bernidaki-Aldous later continued this work through her involvement with Greece’s National Accessibility Authority, and she contributed to proposals designed to improve equal access to higher education for students with disabilities. That work focused on transforming accessibility from a principle into a practical reality at the university level. It required attention to details that determine whether students with disabilities can fully participate: accessible materials, accessible exams, trained staff, clear procedures, and institutions that understand diversity and special needs.
For Bernidaki-Aldous, this is the central issue. A right established in law can open the door, but students and families still need institutions that understand how to apply legislation in everyday life in a practical way. Her own life gives that argument particular weight. She began by creating her own ways to study because the system had not been designed with her needs in mind. She then worked to ensure that future students would not have to depend solely on improvisation, goodwill, and exceptional individuals.
In that sense, her parliamentary and policy work was not a separate chapter from her educational journey. It was a continuation of it.
Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous on the gap between disability laws and daily life
Bernidaki-Aldous believes society has moved in the right direction through legislation, international frameworks, and greater awareness. Yet, in her view, the everyday practice of inclusion still requires significant progress. “The implementation of legislation and the actual practice of inclusion of people with disability in everyday life needs a lot of work,” she maintained.
Her examples are practical. A wheelchair user must be able to access hospitals, public buildings, and services. A deaf person who uses sign language must be able to communicate effectively. A blind person must receive verbal information when needed and should not be overlooked in public services or everyday social interactions.
Accessibility, she emphasized, is not a single, universal issue. It varies depending on the individual and the nature of the disability. For that reason, Bernidaki-Aldous cautions against symbolic inclusion—placing a person with a disability in an environment without providing the necessary support and considering the work complete.
Meaningful inclusion for people with disabilities in the workplace
For Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous, meaningful inclusion in employment means providing people with disabilities with genuine opportunities and the adjustments they need to succeed. She emphasized that different disabilities also require particular forms of support. A blind person, a deaf person, a wheelchair user, and an individual with autism or another neurological difference may each require distinct accommodations. “If we have adjusted well the working environment and placed the person correctly in it, then the person will perform excellently,” she said.
At the same time, Bernidaki-Aldous rejected the idea that others should determine what people with disabilities can or cannot do. “The decision should be of course up to the thinking person with disability,” she said. Her message is clear: meaningful inclusion requires both accessibility and respect for personal agency.
Why inclusion must begin early
When asked what true educational inclusion means today, Bernidaki-Aldous emphasized that it must begin early. Children without disabilities should encounter disability as a normal part of life from preschool or kindergarten onward, she explained. The earlier children understand that a classmate may be blind, deaf, autistic, a wheelchair user, or have another disability, the more naturally they will learn to coexist.
“The sooner the students and the human beings learn that disability is a reality of life, the better they will adapt to it,” she argued. Teachers must also receive training and ongoing professional development. Inclusion cannot depend solely on the courage of a child or the determination of a family. Schools must be prepared.
Bernidaki-Aldous warned that when students with disabilities enter regular classrooms but teachers lack the training needed to support them, inclusion remains incomplete. The solution, she asserted, is to make disability education a fundamental part of teacher preparation and continuing professional development.
“Without having to apologize”
During Disability Pride Month, Bernidaki-Aldous offered a message to young people with disabilities in Greece and the Greek diaspora that was both realistic and empowering. She acknowledged that disability creates specific circumstances that individuals must navigate. In that sense, disability may shape a person’s experience which might differ from that of others. However, that distinction should not become the primary label placed on them. “They should be part of life without having to apologize for being themselves,” she said.
She also emphasized the crucial role of families. Parents of children with disabilities should teach them from an early age that they belong in society. They should advocate for their place in schools and public life, while teachers and institutions must prepare to welcome them in meaningful ways.
Her message was not only for people with disabilities. It was also directed toward those without disabilities. Society, she argued, must learn to interact naturally with disability. Even today, some people avoid using words such as “blind” or “see” around blind people because they fear causing offense. Yet this discomfort, she suggested, often reflects society’s own unease rather than the feelings of blind people themselves.
“People have to be natural around people with disability,” she stated.
Eleftheria Bernidaki Aldous’ s life opened doors for people with disabilities
Bernidaki-Aldous’ life has traversed many worlds, from a village on Crete and the School for the Blind in Athens to Pierce and American universities and on to Greek academia, Parliament, and national accessibility policy. At every stage, the same themes emerge—education, perseverance, dignity, Hellenic culture, disability rights, and the belief that people should not be defined by what society assumes they cannot do.
Bernidaki-Aldous also emphasized that her journey was not hers alone. Her parents and family supported her from the beginning, while her husband, Eugene Ralph Aldous, and their three children stood by her throughout her academic work, public service, and advocacy for people with disabilities.
Her story is remarkable, but her message is not that people with disabilities must be extraordinary in order to belong. Rather, it is that society must make belonging ordinary. The work of inclusion, she told Greek Reporter, remains unfinished. Laws matter. Technology matters. Scholarships and institutions matter. Nonetheless, true inclusion is also highly dependent on teachers, families, employers, journalists, classmates, and citizens who are willing to transform everyday life.
For Eleftheria Bernidaki-Aldous, the goal is not to view people with disabilities as exceptions but to recognize them as complete human beings with the same rights to learning, employment, contributing to society, and freedom to living fully. As she put it, people with disabilities should be part of life—without having to apologize for it.
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