Here we are again, on the verge of celebrating another year of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In fact it's the twentieth anniversary of the ADA. Some of our readers with and without disabilities were not even born when the ADA passed; however, one thing is certain, there has been change. Some believe that this law, which covered access to telecommunications, employment, transportation and public accommodations has been highly effective in changing the face of America. The law provides for access to restaurants, movie theaters, phones, buses and trains. Others feel that the law is a toothless tiger and can only be fixed with everyone's participation. Here at ThisAbled, we wanted to see what some of our revered experts thought about the 20th Anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Here is what they said:
Lydia Fecteau
The ADA has been around for half my life, but has it changed my life? Yes and no. The ADA has brought accessibility to places into the public perception. We now see ramps and automatic doors in more places than ever before. However, we still rarely see the disabled depicted on television. We have very few, if any disabled in public office representing our rights. We're still a hidden minority which has not completely come out from under the shadow.
Yes, the ADA has given some physical differences to our landscape, but has changed mental landscape of America? I believe that is our task. As advocates for the rights of disabled, we need to change not just the physical landscape, but the ideological landscape. We need to come out of the shadows and bring the essence of the ADA to the public’s attention. We need to continue the fight. Yes, the ADA has changed a lot, but we must remember we still have a long ways to go.
Lydia Fecteau is an adjunct professor at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Atlantic Cape community college and is an advocate for disabled rights in her community.
Javier Robles
In 1983, when I became a quadriplegic, the ADA was non-existent. People with disabilities relied on laws like the 1973 Rehabilitation Act or their particular state law to "protect" their rights. However, enforcement was spotty and most laws lacked substance and teeth. Also, the Rehab Act only covered entities that received Federal Funding. So we protested for every ramp, power door and accessible store. The actual pain felt by schools, administrators and business owners was one associated with "shame". Although, some who made places accessible actually wanted to make a difference.
To me, the ADA has had positive outcomes in terms of transportation, public accommodations and telecommunications. However, these outcomes are not weaved throughout the whole of our Nation. Instead, they are an unfinished patchwork that frustrate those whom rely most on the promises yet to be delivered. You may notice that my initial list did not include employment. This is because it is here where this law has, in my opinion, failed. The ADA was not the Savior many thought it would be. Poverty continues to condemn many to sub-par living conditions, and at the end-of-the-day, it will not matter if you can "access" a business if you cannot purchase the product. Employment is key to the progress of people with disabilities, and moving forward must include employers as partners and government as allies.
President
ThisAbled, LLC
Erika Bogen
Before I was injured in a motor vehicle accident and became a paraplegic, I didn't ever think about whether or not things were "accesible" for ALL people. When going into a public restroom, I never checked to see if a power wheelchair or bariatric wheelchair would fit through the doorway, much less if a disabled person could get into the stall and shut the door for a little privacy.
I believe that the ADA has helped to make changes, but that it is not enforced as much as it could be. For example, during one of my first solo trips as Ms. Wheelchair America 2010, I arrived at my hotel and was ready to take a shower to freshen up before making my appearance. I went into the "accessible" bathroom, the door way was big enough, it was very spacious, and there were grab bars along the walls! But..in the shower, the shower head was up out of reach and the towels were on the top shelf of the bathroom. I still had to call for assistance in taking my shower, even in an "accessible" room. The point that I am trying to make is, that while these rooms are considered accessible, there are still always the "little" things that are not thought of by an able bodied person, just as in the example above.
So yes, the ADA has made life easier for those of us with disabilities, but there is still a lot of growing that needs to be done and people need to be aware of. That is why it is our job as advocates to speak out and bring situations like this to the attention of our government, public facilities and other public places.
Ms. Wheelchair America 2010
Multifold Ramp (12')
Scott Chesney
The ADA has opened so many doors for people with disabilities, yet there is still tremendous room for growth and expansion. Still, we focus on the positives and because of the ADA, I believe life, in general, is better for PWD. More of a "level playing field" has been created in all arenas and again, while there is still room for improvement, we must acknowledge that in the past 20 years, we have certainly progressed as a nation, built more awareness and sensitivity towards PWD, improved the accessibility issues, made in-roads to the employment issues, and most importantly, more people than ever before in the history of our great country are seeing the quality of their lives improve, yes, by their own choices, but also because of the ADA and its enforcement.
As for the next 20 years, the ADA's strength will only grow, not only because of how far we have come, but because as we live longer as a human beings, the more people will have to endure some type of disability.
Motivational Speaker
Norman Smith
Has the ADA a made a difference? I have asked this question of myself every five years for each milestone anniversary of the ADA, and each time I could not name a specific impact on my life. For sure, there is the increase in accessibility with buildings and transportation that impacts on everyone’s life, but that is the beauty of the ADA as it was intended. This anniversary, however, I can immediately think of two ways the ADA has had an impact. First, but not in priority order, I became a member of my county’s Community Emergency Response Team, and it was an opportunity that would not have occurred without the ADA being in effect. Second, and more importantly, I became a parent. Parenthood is an exciting a nerve-racking responsibility to go through for my wife and I, but it is a bit less nerve-racking knowing that the ADA protects our rights to be parents with disabilities and to enjoy all aspects of parenthood.
President New Jersey SILC
Deputy Director, Project Freedom
Dan Florio
There is no question that the world (not just America) has become much more accessible to people with disabilities in the twenty years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed. My gut feeling (I am by no means a professional historian), however, is that only a small part of these improvements can directly be attributable to the ADA.
As any traveler can attest, there are now, to a greater or lesser degree, universal design elements such as curb cuts and accessible public transportation visible in any major world city. While we disabled people (the preferred term in most of the world) are still subject to massive discrimination in all areas of our lives, we are no longer invisible in the way that we were in the recent past. Like all social revolutions, disability rights are a product of a probably indefinable combination of large global and local historical phenomena and the determination of activists who understand and care about the problems involved.
In terms of the specific effects of the ADA in this country, the most positive changes can be seen in a more accessible infrastructure, especially for transportation and larger public buildings. I believe that the employment provisions of the ADA, on the other hand are fatally flawed because the potential (even if unlikely) cost of accommodations borne by an employer perversely provides incentives for the employer to discriminate in the relatively risk-free spheres of hiring and promotion. A far better system can be seen in the United Kingdom, where the government shares the cost of accommodations with employers under a formula where the cost of any given employer is relatively minimal.
The biggest positive legacy of the ADA may be in how it helped to inspire other models of disability rights and services around the world. We in the States were the pioneers, and the rest of the world had the advantage to learn from the ADA’s successes and failures in shaping their own laws.
Dan Florio is a quadriplegic, lifelong wheelchair user, and a Staff Attorney at Legal Aid of NJ
Ethan Ellis
Twenty years after we passed the ADA, 80% of us are still poor, averaging incomes of less than $18,000 a year; the majority of us live in substandard housing and have been or still are limited to substandard educations; less than 15% of us work full-time all year and average around $12,000 for that work. In short, we are worse off than we were twenty years ago.
That was not my expectation when I sat on the Whitehouse lawn watching George H. W. Bush sign the ADA. However, that is the grim reality, not only for those of us with disabilities, but for women, people of color and all other poor Americans who have won their civil rights or inherited them as their birthright.
For all but a few of us, whom I call ‘escapees,’ civil rights have little meaning when not accompanied by economic and social rights. If you can’t pay for a hamburger, it doesn’t matter whether McDonald’s ramp meets code. Without adequate food and housing, effective medical care, as much education as you can benefit from and an income to meet your basic needs and enjoy community, you will be too busy keeping body and soul together to exercise the civil rights the ADA granted you.
President
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