20 Years After the ADA and Questions are Still Being Asked

A Editorial by Joel Sheffel
Executive Director WSANA.org

 It is now 20 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act

(ADA) has been passed and both as a individual with a disability as well as an advocate for individuals with a disability allow me to ask some questions.

1.   Do individuals with disabilities get treated with the same respect as those who do not have disabilities?

2.   Are those with disabilities among those who might get passed up by the busses which have been specifically made so one could use public transportation?

3.   If one does board a bus are Priority Seats not occupied by kids who think the seats are for them?

4.   Do first responders treat those with disabilities with respect the way they should?

5.   When meeting the general public are persons with disabilities considered part of the general public and not pitied or felt sorry for?

6.   Why when transportation companies have been given federal funds are there so many elevated and inter city train stations which are inaccessible to those who are in wheelchairs or scooters or find stairs so very hard to walk?

7.   Why are so many problems ending up in courts when federal and state laws are ignored?

If America is to become the great country it can be then high school and college youth need to be better trained and educated as far as proper behavior after leaving school and mixing with the general public on busses and even on the sidewalks.

Some words disapear

We do not today talk about the Edsel car or use many other words. We ask those who promote their business or create an ad to please consider cripple or handicap words that have gone the way of the Edsel car.

To see a ad that talks about a business whose product  is handicap accessible makes no sense, as long as it is accessible is does serve persons with a disability. To be asked what do you call a child who uses a wheel chair and has to have a person with him when mentioned that was a child with a disability seemed quite surprised.

Please take a minute and look at this chart.

PREFERRED TERMS

BELOW ARE THE  POLITE WAYS OF TALKING ABOUT A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY

Please use                                          Please do not use
____________                                                _______________________

Person with a disability                            Handicapped, crippled,

                                                                                  Disabled, victim.

                                                                                  Suffers a disability, lame,

                                                                                   deformed

He is intellectually and

devolpmentally disabled                          He’s retarded

He has autism, diabetes                           He’s Autistic, He’s diabetic

He has a learning disability                     He’s learning disabled

She has a physical disability                   She’s crippled

He’s short or a person

of short stature                                              He’s a dwarf (or midget)

She has an emotional disability              She’s emotionally     

                                                                                        disturbed 

He uses a wheelchair                               He’s wheelchair bound or
                                                                                wheelchair bound

                                                                                Confined  to a wheelchair 

She has a need for                                     she has a problem with

Accessible parking/bathrooms       handicapped   parking/bathrooms      

Person who is blind                                 The blind woman

Person with mental illness                     Crazy

Person who is deaf or person                Deaf and dumb, suffers a hearing

With a hearing loss                                     loss 

I’m a person, not a condition

By Joni Eareckson Tada, Special to CNN

July 26, 2010 7:45 p.m. EDT

Editor’s note: Joni Eareckson Tada is an author, disability advocate and the founder of Joni and Friends International Disability Center. Injured in a diving accident in 1967, she is one of the longest living quadriplegics on record.

(CNN) — As I sat on the White House lawn 20 years ago and watched President George H.W. Bush sign the Americans with Disabilities Act into law, I knew it was a grand day for disabled people. However, I also knew that we still had a long way to go.

Much like the civil rights legislation of the ’60s, I recognized that the president’s signature might change physical accommodations, but it would take more than that to change hearts and minds.

While I could now roll my wheelchair into buildings with ease, I still had a hard time getting people to look me in the eye and see me as a person rather than a condition. Even today, 20 years later, my wheelchair still makes people uncomfortable.

Why is that? For the most part, able-bodied, “healthy” people still fear disability. As a nation, we treat disabled people more equally and humanely than any country in the world. However, most Americans, when they encounter a disabled person, first think of themselves, “I hope that never happens to me.”

To me, that says we still have a long way to go toward recognizing people as people, no matter what they look, act, walk — or don’t walk — like.

As recently as 2008, Congress found it necessary to adopt an amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act in response to cases in which employers wrongly interpreted the original act and by doing so continued to act in a discriminatory manner.

The U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor reported that in 2004, plaintiffs lost 97 percent of ADA employment discrimination claims that went to trial. “People who are not hired or are fired because an employer mistakenly believes they cannot perform the job — or because the employer does not want ‘people like that’ in the workplace — have been denied protection from employment discrimination due to these court decisions,” the committee’s report stated.

Why is this still happening in what we like to feel is such an enlightened era? Unfortunately, many individuals’ discriminatory attitudes stem from childhood. Studies of preschoolers have shown that they will choose nondisabled playmates over those with disabilities.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this, and I am excited that both are things we can change. First, it starts at home. I don’t think most parents purposely instill discrimination in their children. I think it’s just that most young children are not exposed to anyone with disabilities and therefore lack the familiarity that makes them comfortable around someone different from them.

Parents need to look for opportunities to introduce their children to community members with disabilities, laying a foundation for inclusion, acceptance and friendship.

Secondly, I think we lack sufficient courses and training in the field of disability studies. Individuals involved in educating our young people — even those in preschool — need to know better how to teach students with disabilities, but even more so, how to instill a welcoming attitude toward those students in their classrooms.

I believe most of us recognize intellectually that we are all created equal, but we need to help children and young adults go deeper in understanding what disabled people contribute to society and how valuable they are as human beings, not just to God, but to all of us.

A case that illustrates this all too poignantly is one that is in the news right now — the case of Abbie Dorn, the young mother who suffered brain damage following the birth of her triplets four years ago. Abbie’s husband has divorced her and refused to allow her children to see her. How are these children going to grow up with a proper attitude toward disabilities?

Whether Abbie can speak or hug her children or not is immaterial. They would benefit from knowing and loving her.

This was our original intent with implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act 20 years ago, and it must remain our goal as a society that no one, no matter how disabling the condition, is discriminated against — not just in deed but also in word and attitude. To have real social change, we must have heart change.

I pray everyone will join with me in honoring this 20th anniversary by renewing our own personal commitment to check our attitudes, get over our own fear and discomfort, and befriend the person behind the disability in our own community, church, workplace, school or neighborhood.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joni Eareckson Tada.

The Dawn of a New Day

By Guest Blogger Jonathan Young, Chair, National Council on Disability

For many of us, there is a personal dimension to the history of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). My experience makes it possible for me to now write as the Chairman of the National Council on Disability (NCD), but in 1996, when I began my work on the history of the ADA, I was a doctoral candidate in American history specializing in 19th-century American intellectual and cultural history and writing a dissertation on the slavery debates. I was a person with a disability, having broken my neck in a high school wrestling match and living with partial paralysis. But I did not identify as a person with a disability, and I did not view myself as part of the disability community. To me, disability was the enemy. I wanted to pass for “normal” as best I could. I had internalized social stigma about disability.

In 1996 – ten years after my original spinal cord injury – I spiraled downward into depression and gave serious thought to dropping out of my Ph.D. program. Writing a history of the ADA on a contract with NCD was not the low-stress opportunity I was looking for, and when I decided to do the project I had substantial doubt about my ability to complete it. However, through writing the ADA’s history, my life was transformed.

I had only been vaguely aware of the ADA when it passed in 1990 – probably much like most of the 43 million people identified in the ADA’s findings who similarly lacked identity as a person with a disability and thus took little note of the ADA’s passage. However, researching the history of the ADA, and particularly interviewing many of the people who made the ADA’s enactment possible, made me rethink the meaning of disability and my own identity. I was riveted by the story of how the ADA came into existence and the gravity of the change wrought through it. My preconception that disability was a debilitating weakness, an enemy to be overcome, ran headlong into the life stories of disability rights advocates whose power and pride both individually and collectively laid the foundation for passage of the ADA.

By the time NCD released my completed history, Equality of Opportunity, on July 26, 1997, I had begun to view myself as a person with a disability and as part of the disability community. I had also emerged from a deep depression and regained my self-confidence – no doubt largely because my inability to embrace my identity as a person with a disability had contributed to my depression. In retrospect, the closing line of Equality of Opportunity – “The dawn of a new day” – was as much about the impact of the ADA on my life as the ADA itself. Identity as a person with a disability was liberating rather than stigmatizing. It gave my life new purpose and meaning.

This personal story is part and parcel of the ADA’s significance in our society. The ADA is a nondiscrimination law. But, much more than that, it is a clarion call for transforming attitudes about disability. The ADA proclaims that all people, including people with disabilities, should participate fully in all aspects of our communities and have opportunities to take risks, to succeed, and yes, to fail. Equality of opportunity means having a chance to live independently and become financially secure, but it is not a guarantee.

We celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the ADA well after civil rights provisions have been implemented in regulations, tested in court and even amended by the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008. We also celebrate amidst our nation’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Unemployment is high. People are losing their homes. Access to health care remains elusive. And that is before we begin talking about the individual experiences of millions of people with disabilities, for whom the economic downturn only compounds longstanding disparities in living, learning and earning.

Unfortunately, the challenges that we face together as a nation are compounded by partisan strife. Although vitriol is no stranger to the history of American politics, something is sorely missing today – the genuine and widespread willingness to set aside ideology to pursue pragmatic solutions that make critical differences in the lives of real people. The explosion in access to 24-hour Internet-based communications exacerbates this trend, even though information technologies and other technologies have provided new levels of access for people with disabilities.

Despite the fast-paced and daunting world we inhabit, tangible marks of the ADA’s success surround us -not just regarding the ADA’s specific nondiscrimination provisions but symbolically as well. The ADA is the disability community’s standard-bearer for the disability policy goals of equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency. Some of the ADA’s impact has been increasingly felt with the march of time as requirements for new and renovated construction create more livable communities and as physical and telecommunications infrastructures become more accessible and usable by more people with disabilities. In other cases, we see the symbolic victory of the ADA as people with disabilities assume prominent positions of leadership in government, business and our communities and as more children grow up embracing disability as a natural part of the human experience. But we also know that problems abound, and the hard work of delivering on the ADA’s promise still lies in front of us.

The ADA’s history also provides a sober reminder to the disability community about the challenges of, and need for cross-community collaboration. The ADA was a unique moment in disability history where diverse individuals and organizations rallied around a common cause. In doing so they showed the power of shared goals and coordinated action. Nevertheless, the years since the enactment of the ADA have restored in large measure the longer tradition of a splintered community with myriad – and sometimes competing -priorities. The disability community is anything but homogenous. It is difficult to find a common ground of policy issues that are equally viewed as priorities for different types of disabilities and for discreet policy areas. The ADA reminds us that there is a profound strength that comes in unity of numbers and purpose.

The legacy, the hope and the promise of the ADA endure, yet much more work must be done to transform law into life. Together, we can be the catalyst for our nation’s continued transformation.

The Dawn of a New Day

Countdown to the 20th Anniversary of the ADA: Day 3 – Happy 20th Birthday to the Americans with Disabilities Act!

By Guest Blogger Dick Thornburgh, Attorney General for President George H.W Bush The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) afforded me a unique opportunity to merge my personal and official agendas. As the proud parent of my son, Peter, who has both intellectual and physical disabilities, I had a personal interest in seeing this important advance in disability rights enacted into law. As Attorney General of the United States, I had also been assigned by President George H. W. Bush to be the point person for the administration’s efforts to secure passage of this groundbreaking law.

 None of us who were present for the signing of the ADA on July 26, 1990, will ever forget that day. Under a blazing summer sun, some 3,000 persons, with and without disabilities, gathered on the South Lawn of the White House and cheered and cheered as President Bush issued his stirring challenge “to let the shameful walls of exclusion finally come tumbling down.”

For those of us who had participated in the lengthy legislative process that produced the ADA, the day was especially meaningful. Democrats and Republicans alike, legislators and staff from both houses of Congress had labored long and hard in the effort to produce this critical civil rights legislation. Statements, speeches, hearings and arguments ensued over every detail of the proposed act. But most important of all was the constant pressure exerted on the legislative process by countless persons with disabilities themselves, supported by families, friends, caregivers and advocates. This was truly a grass roots effort that showed how success in the legislative process can indeed be gained by careful and informed lobbying based upon sound marshalling of the facts and arguments necessary to gain the attention of legislators.

 Since 1990, we have seen much progress made in furthering access to mainstream America for people with disabilities. We are reminded daily of progress by ramps and curb-cuts, dedicated parking spaces in shopping centers, brailed elevators and ATM machines and sign language interpreters at public meetings. More people with disabilities are living in their communities instead of being confined to isolated and impersonal institutions. On the other hand, progress has been slow in employment. Despite the provisions for equal access to employment and the requirement of “reasonable accommodation” in the workplace, there has been no net increase in the number of employed Americans with disabilities in the past twenty years. Clearly a disappointment.

 While activity in the courts has sometimes been of the “two steps forward, one step back” variety, careful monitoring of court decisions at odds with the intent of the ADA has produced curative legislative enactments to help restore its original intent.

 Meanwhile, Ginny’s and my son Peter lives in the community and, while greatly limited, he volunteers every day at the local food bank, is welcomed by his faith congregation and is supported by many programs and a circle of friends.

 But just as “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” such vigilance is doubly necessary to assure disability rights in these times of proposed cut-backs in government support for those with disabilities. We must assure that “those shameful walls of exclusion” which President Bush referred to at the signing of the ADA do not re-emerge under the guise of austerity programs at the state and federal level. The full and equal participation of Americans with disabilities in all aspects of life is not only good for people with disabilities, it is good for America. Moreover, it is the right thing to do.

 Happy 20th birthday to the Americans with Disabilities Act!

Posted by Diana Z. on Jul 23, 2010 1:20:34 PM in 100 Days to the ADA, Civil Rights

By Guest Blogger Yoshiko Dart 

It is quite overwhelming to be a part of something as significant as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). As I have said before, Justin and I were not crusaders. Rather we tried to be – we felt a mission to be – good human beings. I am honored to participate in this recognition of the work that was done by so many friends and colleagues; however, I am not much of a blogger. I would like to share with you Justin’s excellent writing on the ADA which was published by the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities in the Fall 1990 ADA Special Issue of “Worklife,” following the passage of the ADA. I hope that in reading them we remember the work that was done by so many and prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. I love you!  Justin continues to love you! ADA POWER!  POWER OF DISABILITY PRIDE!  POWER OF LOVE AND TRUTH!

 Lead on!
 Yoshiko Dart

ADA: Landmark Declaration of Equality
By Justin Dart

 President George Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, a landmark date in the evolution of human culture.

 Throughout all of reported history until recent decades, people perceived as having significant disabilities have been treated as sub-humans  At worst they were killed or left as beggar-outcasts to die, at best they were cared for through subsistence welfare, out of sight and mind in institutions and back rooms.

 With the development of modern medicine and social responsibility, millions of 20th Century humans are surviving previously fatal conditions and living on with significant disabilities. These individuals have a great potential to be happy, productive members of their communities. However, our best efforts to fulfill this potential have been consistently limited by a massive residue of prejudice and paternalism. Our society is still infected by an insidious, now almost subconscious assumption that people with disabilities are less than fully human, and therefore are not fully eligible for the opportunities, services and support systems which are available to other people as a matter of right. 

 More than two decades ago many of us in the disability community concluded that Americans with disabilities would never achieve full, productive citizenship until this nation made a firm statement of law protecting their civil rights. 

 The Americans with Disabilities Act is such a law. It establishes “a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability.” Taken in combination with previously existing disability rights law, it provides a sound legal framework for the practical implementation of the inalienable right of all people with disabilities to participate equally in the mainstream of society. It extends to people with disabilities the same protection of their rights that is already enjoyed by the members of all other minorities. 

 Most importantly, ADA is a landmark commandment of fundamental human morality. It is the world’s first declaration of equality for people with disabilities by any nation. It will proclaim to America and to the world that people with disabilities are fully human; that paternalistic, discriminatory, segregationist attitudes are no longer acceptable; and that henceforth people with disabilities must be accorded the same personal respect and the same social and economic opportunities as other people. 

 ADA opens the doors of opportunity for millions of isolated, dependent Americans to become employees, taxpayers and welcome participants in the life of their communities.  It prepares the way for the emancipation of more than half of a billion of the world’s most oppressed people.

 I am proud of America. I am proud of President Bush, Attorney General Thornburgh and Boyden Gray. I am proud of Senators Harkin, Hatch, Kennedy and Dole. I am proud of Congressmen Hoyer, Owens, Bartlett, Mineta, Fish, Brooks and all the great members of Congress who supported ADA. I am proud of former members Lowell Weicker and Tony Coelho.  I am proud of Bob Silberstein, Bill Roper, John Wodatch, Melissa Schulman, Bob Tate, Maureen West and all the great Congressional and Administrative staff who authored and fought for ADA. 

 I am proud of Pat Wright, Lex Frieden, Evan Kemp, Sandra Parrino, Paul Marchand, Wade Blank, Elizabeth Boggs, Liz Savage, Marca Bristo, Judy Heumann, Arlene Mayerson and the thousands of other patriots who have struggled for long, hard years in a wilderness of prejudice and paternalism for the victory of ADA. 

 Once again America has passed the torch of liberty and productivity to the world. 

 All who love justice must unite in action to protect our hard won ADA rights, and to ensure that they are implemented through strong regulations, and enforced in every community. 

 We of the disability community must communicate to America that full compliance with ADA can be profitable for all citizens, and we must join in cooperative action with government and the private sector to ensure that all will profit.

 But ADA is only the beginning. It is not a solution. Rather, it is an essential foundation on which solutions will be constructed. 

 We must undertake a courageous reallocation of our society’s resources from paternalism to independence and productivity. We must invest in a continuum of new and strengthened programs to liberate people with disabilities from dependency, and empower them to be equal and productive participants in the mainstream: Productivity-oriented education for all citizens. Economic, technological, independent living, vocational rehabilitation, transitional, personal assistance and community based supports for productivity and quality of life. Prevention. Affordable insurance and health care for all.  Incentives for productivity to replace disincentives. Accessible communications, transportation, housing, and completely new communities that are accessible as a whole.

 A large agenda? Certainly! But no larger than that which faced our patriot forefathers at the successful conclusion of the revolutionary war. 

 Like them, we have accomplished much. Like them, we have a profound responsibility to make a bold declaration of equality real in the lives of hundreds of millions of people in future generations. 

 I believe that we will unite to fulfill that responsibility. Because I believe in you, the patriots of ADA. And I believe in you, the patriots to be. 

 Together we have overcome. Together we shall overcome. 
Yoshiko Dart is the wife of Justin Dart and a renown advocate for disability and inclusion of all people. She has devoted a significant amount of time in encouraging the newest generation of disability leaders and supports the development of young people finding their voice in the disability movement. For more resources related to Justin Dart’s career and advocacy, visit http://www.ilru.org/html/about/Dart/dartindex.html.

 Posted by Diana Z. on Jul 25, 2010 4:55:46 AM in 100 Days to the ADA, Civil Rights

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