Americans with disabilities. It is the 20th anniversary of the day the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), our civil rights law, was signed into
law by President George H. W. Bush. As I think about this day, I'd like to
reflect on what I feel the promise of the ADA has been and if that promise
has been fulfilled.
The ADA promised that I or anyone else with a disability could apply for a
job, and be treated equally to our non-disabled peers in all employment
decisions such as employment application, interviewing, hiring, firing and
promotion. It told employers, judge people with disabilities solely on
their qualifications to do a job, not on their disabilities. While I feel
that ADA has opened up a lot more work opportunities to people with
disabilities, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is stil
unacceptably high. For example, it's around 70% for people who are blind or
visually impaired. Clearly, much more needs to be done to educate and
assist employers, particularly small businesses, to hire more people with
disabilities.
Much of my advocacy work over the past 18 years has been in the area of
transportation. The ADA promised greater access to transit, and for those
people with disabilities who could not take public transit, improved
paratransit services. I believe that for the most part these promises have
been realized. I travel every day on the Chicago area commuter rail and L
systems, and feel much more confident since there are detectable warning
strips at the platform edges. I can rest assured knowing that stops wil be
announced so that I know when it's time to get off. Busses that stop
audibly announce which route they are, making independent travel much
easier. I rarely have problems accessing paratransit service.
While I rarely have difficulty with paratransit, I believe work still needs
to be done regarding that service. The ADA needs to recognize that people
with disabilities who live in areas where there isn't much in the way of
public transit need to be able to get around too, and they may not be able
to drive like their non-disabled friends and neighbors. Incentives need to
be put in place to expand paratransit type service to such areas. Also, I
believe that further clarification of how people are to be certified for
paratransit needs to be provided. I shouldn't have to go through filling
out a long application and being interviewed every four years to make sure
I'm stil eligible for paratransit. After all, I am blind and that's not
going to change. This holds true for many with permanent disabilities.
More focus needs to be put toward this issue.
The ADA promised that state and local Governments would be required to make
their programs and services more accessible. I believe they have, but I
also believe that many, myself included, haven't always asked for the things
we need. For example, I attend our local village board meetings fairly
frequently. I have never asked for an egenda in Braile, even though it's my
right to do so. I have participated in our village's biennial town meeting
and been provided with assistance in voting
Accessible voting in local, state and Federal elections has been the biggest
impact of ADA I've seen in state and local Government services. Gone
forever are the days when I would have to tell someone how I wantd to vote,
and trust that my ballot was marked as I requested. Now, I can do it all by
myself, how empowering.
The ADA promised that places of public accommodation would have to make
their services accessible to people with disabilities. My experience in
brick and mortar establishments is that they have. I very rarely have
problems receiving assistance in stores, restaurants, sports venues, and
other places of public accommodation. However, this promise as not been
completely fulfilled because of the advent of the World Wide Web. ADA's
protections need to be extended to cover entities that sel products or
provide services over the web. Southwest Airlines is a great example of a
company that was sued under ADA for lack of website access, found they
didn't have to do anything, but then made changes that make their website
very easy to use with screen reading software.
The ADA promised that telecommunications services would be more accessible
to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind. While in many
respects this has happened, it's protections need to be extended to help
combat access challenges faced by people with other disabilities.
So everyone, take a little time tomorrow, and think about all that has been
accomplished in the last 20 years since ADA was signed into law. Then,
let's roll our sleeves back up and get to work because more still needs to
be done.
