This paper discusses demands and challenges of being an educator with a disability and includes a review of the literature and an analysis of an interview with a leading educator with a disability. The paper opens with a discussion of the definitional issues and implications of the terms "handicap" and "disability." Literature on the role of the educator in today's society is reviewed, followed by a review of the challenges of being an educator with a disability. These challenges are organized around responses of a successful educator, Wendell J. Lewis, Section Administrator for the Disability Determination Services for the State of Kansas and an African-American with muscular dystrophy, to questions concerning the following themes: (1) family support; (2) least restrictive environment, integration, and inclusion; (3) lifespan challenges; (4) self-efficacy; and (5) federal legislation and advocacy. Ways to provide needed special resources or to restructure education positions are suggested. (Contains 35 references.) (DB)