The entire country, it seems, was celebrating this past Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Former president, George H.W. Bush made history when he put into law what he described as “the world’s first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities.”
The official ADA definition of disabled is “any condition that impairs one or more major life activities.” A 2008 expansion of the law incorporates chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and epilepsy; other conditions included are mental illness, and retardation.
This valiant effort was supposed to end discrimination by employers who could no longer legally deny gainful employment to a qualified applicant due to his or her disability. Additionally, disabled people were to have access to, well, everywhere.
With handicapped ramps alongside sidewalks and handicapped parking spaces in place near entrances, and a variety of other things that would level the playing field, the American dream would now be accessible to a greater amount of the population.
Admittedly, great strides have been made. Certainly more places are easily accessible, and AC Transit’s website claim that 100 percent of their buses meet all ADA laws and stipulations to accommodate wheelchairs, the elderly, and other persons with special requirements.
Unfortunately, according to Suzanne Robitaille, a writer for healthfinders.gov, there is a gaping disparity between the financial and social realities of the 54 million or so Americans with disabilities, and those without.
The results of a survey conducted by the Kessler Foundation/National Organization on Disability show that the disabled still fall significantly behind, comparatively speaking, in employment, access to medical attention, and socializing.
“While education has improved considerably, joblessness has not. We as a nation must figure this out,” said Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability.
The EEOC presented some disturbing figures regarding employment of disabled Americans:
• In 1993: 15,274 charges of discrimination filed with EEOC, which obtained almost $16 million in relief for 1,851 people through its administrative process;
• 2009: 21,451 charges of discrimination filed, roughly a 30 percent increase. EEOC won $67 thousand + in relief for 3,238 people;
• From 1993 to 2009, ADA charges rose from 17.4% of all charges filed with the EEOC to 23 percent of all charges filed, as ADA charges became a greater part of the EEOC’s workload;
• During the same period, the EEOC filed 874 lawsuits claiming violations of the ADA, collecting somewhere in the neighborhood of $87 million for victims of disability discrimination.
Facts and figures notwithstanding, the more important aspect of the ADA is the human element.
“I don’t like the word ‘disabled,’” said Helen Dempsey, 34, of Sunnyvale, “but I don’t like to hear them use ‘other-abled” either,” she added. “In order for a thing to be disabled, doesn’t it first have to be able?”
“But, to answer your question, I was fourteen when Bush Senior signed that precious piece of paper, and it’s made all the difference in my world,” adding, “but not just for hot rollin’ mamas like me; my sister has a baby, and she gets around a lot easier with the ramps too, with that stroller,” she said.
The changes that the ADA has incurred are quite positive, but insufficient. The world is better than it was, but not as good as it can be.
For example, I know of a retail establishment that adheres to every law in the book regarding disabled customer access. There is a successful businessman who happens to be a little person, and is too small of stature to find a horizontal surface in the establishment on which to sign his credit slip; moreover, his lack of imposing verticality prevents the automatic door sensor from sensing him. With a little luck and a lot of work, maybe he won’t be left out of the mix.
President Barack Obama celebrated the ADA’s 20th anniversary on the same south lawn where Bush got the ball rolling, by putting his autograph on a new executive order that will hopefully pick up where the previous efforts left off.
It requires the federal personnel agency to develop guidelines for hiring people with disabilities, and the Justice Department is printing up new rules as a gentle reminder to the people doing any hiring, at state, or local government agencies, as well as the private sector, that there is a law in place, and they are fully expected to abide by it.
Effective 2012, new construction will have a more stringent set of rules to adhere to as well. Almost any kind of business a person can think of will have to be checking the rules for what is and is not acceptable, and they are currently working on a plan to insure that people with disabilities have better access to the World Wide Web.
As the crowd on the south lawn started to yell, that favorite mantra; “Yes, we can!”