Charlie Shoemaker/The Gazette Bethesda singer and songwriter Rob Guttenberg will hold a free concert at 6 p.m. Thursday at the FDR Memorial. Guttenberg will perform songs from his four-track CD "FDR in a Wheelchair" that will be released to commemorate the 15th anniversary signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Which may explain why, every once in awhile, he endures bold comments from strangers like, "Why are you parking here?" when someone spots him walking from a handicapped parking space to the grocery store.

"I have a brace on my leg that you can't see when I'm wearing pants, and I have terrible short term memory," Guttenberg said. "I lose keys, credit cards, wallets, my license...and will have less problems locating my car [with the designated parking tag]."

Guttenberg's cognitive and physical disabilities are the result of a brain hemorrhage he had in 1983.

"I was 29 years old at the time," said Guttenberg, now 50. "I spent years trying to get back to life again. In the process I learned how much discrimination there is against people with disabilities."

Since the hemorrhage, Guttenberg, who works as director of parenting education at the YMCA in Bethesda-Chevy Chase, has carved a niche for himself as an advocate for persons with disabilities.

A folk-singing, song-writing advocate, that is.

Music has been a part of Guttenberg's life since adolescence, but it's his latest musical ventures that offer insight and awareness about persons with disabilities.

Four of his songs, "Living Every Day," "Bomb in My Brain," "FDR in a Wheelchair" and "I Spent Three Years Looking for My Watch Today," have been compiled into a CD, "FDR in a Wheelchair," that will be used this fall to educate students.

"What I'm aiming at is trying to raise awareness about disabilities," said Guttenberg, who also plays guitar on the CD. "After each song there is a set of questions to get [the students] thinking. We are piloting it at the Barrie School in Silver Spring in October."

Barrie Head of School, Tim Trautman, said Guttenberg's message of awareness is an important one for students.

"I think that as an educational community we see it as part of our [duty]," Trautman said. "[Disabilities] are going to be an on-going thing in [students'] lives."

Barrie School administrators learned of Guttenberg after he contacted them with ideas for his curriculum.

"I liked what he had to say," said Trautman, of his meeting with Guttenberg. "I thought that his approach was thorough, responsible and out of it he was going to be doing something important."

The curriculum will be taught in the lower and middle schools, and eventually to upper school classrooms, Trautman said.

Guttenberg also hopes to bring the CD curriculum to Montgomery County Public Schools.

MCPS currently promotes disability awareness through Montgomery Exceptional Leaders, a program that allows high school students with disabilities the chance to visit elementary and middle school students to talk about awareness.

The four songs on Guttenberg's CD will also be the focus of a CD release performance on Thursday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The free concert is open to the public and will be held from 6-7 p.m. at the FDR Memorial.

The location has particular significance for Guttenberg.

After the memorial statue of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was revealed in 1997, Guttenberg was part of a group that challenged the government to show the president sitting in his wheelchair rather than covering up his legs and the chair with a cloth.

"We did a rally at [the] Capitol steps and I sang," Guttenberg said. "And now when you go down there, you see the original statue with a drape and you see [a statue with FDR in a wheelchair, too]. I feel proud to be a part of that moment."

Guttenberg called the CD a collaborative effort.

"I just wanted to do something [positive]," he said. "I got other people involved and it's been a lot of good people helping to bring it to fruition."

Like members of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology, who awarded Guttenberg a $5,000 grant to make the CD.

And Gantt Kushner, owner of Gizmo Recording Studio in Silver Spring, who donated studio time to Guttenberg.

"There's millions of people who have disabilities and it's important for people to stand up [to discrimination] even if you aren't disabled," said Kushner, who has known Guttenberg for about 12 years.

Since school-age children are learning how to relate to their peers for the first time, schools are ideal for learning about disabilities, Guttenberg said.

And awareness can be as simple as changing the way a person speaks.

"Language is important. Instead of saying, 'I work with disabled persons,' say, 'I work with persons with disabilities," Guttenberg said. "Our language is a precursor to our attitudes and what we say [reveals] the way we think about persons with disabilities."