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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > July > 24 > Entry
Guest column: Disabilities act still a work in progress
This commentary is written by Mark Willis, a writer and research coordinator at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. He is legally blind and writes about accessibility and disability at fairuselab.net.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Twenty years is significant, not because it’s a round number, but rather, because it represents a generation of experience gained since the law was passed.
Many of us who lobbied for the ADA believed at the time that it could take a generation or more, as it had with the Civil Rights Act before it, to fulfill the ADA’s promise of equal opportunity for Americans with disabilities.
I remember the day 20 years ago tomorrow, July 26, when I went to the White House to watch President George H. W. Bush sign the legislation. The event was held outside on the South Lawn, between the White House and the Ellipse. Everyone had to pass through metal detectors to enter. The Secret Service surely had a crash course in disability awareness, because it was the smoothest security check I ever had.
As I walked through the wrought-iron gate, I looked around and marveled, “Wow, they let me in here!” They let me in, and a thousand other people. We had every kind of disability in the human condition, and we used every kind of assistive device available at the time. I like to think we were the most diverse group of citizens ever gathered together at the White House.
The ADA signing ceremony was held outside, not because it was a beautiful summer day, but because the White House itself was not fully accessible. Many in our diverse group of citizens could not have entered the building. Long gone were the wooden ramps installed five decades earlier to accommodate President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair.
On its anniversary, pundits will debate what the ADA has accomplished since then. I am no pundit, but I still believe what I said in a TV interview after the signing ceremony. “The ADA will not end disability discrimination overnight. But in a nation governed by the rule of law, getting it in writing is the place to start.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act was an unfinished project at the moment it was signed into law, and it remains an unfinished project today. It depends on all of us, and the work we will do, to carry it to completion.
My own work has been greatly influenced by Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator and philosopher of liberation. He taught non-literate poor people how to read by first convincing them that, through the daily work they did with their hands, they had culture and made culture. He believed culture to be an unfinished project that he called “the struggle for human completion.”
Listen to that expansive phrase again. “The struggle for human completion.” That is a worldview large enough to include all of us, whether we have disabilities or not. That is a project in which all of us are engaged. That struggle makes us human.
In the years since the ADA became law, we’ve begun to talk about something called “the culture of disability.” I do not think that disability is a fully evolved culture in the same sense that we speak of Mayan culture or even deaf culture. But I do believe that the work of disability is a significant form of cultural production.
By “work of disability,” I mean the daily problem-solving involved in living with a disability — making adaptations and negotiating accommodations — according to principles set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The work of disability is creative work. It’s work that addresses the impairments of individuals, to be sure, but it’s also work that strives to make society more flexible and tolerant. Many of us, disabled and non-disabled, have significant experience with this work, but it seldom shows up on a job resume.
Recently I was invited to talk about the ADA with graduating students with disabilities at Wright State University. I told them, “As you venture forth in the world, you will have to negotiate with people who see the disability, not the person. Some will look at you and see one more hassle, one more problem added to their plate. When I look at you, I don’t see problems. I see problem-solvers.
“So go out there and get it done, this unfinished project called the struggle for human completion. Claim your rightful place in the public sphere. The Americans with Disabilities Act has got your back.”
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By fortressdayton
July 25, 2010 11:55 AM | Link to this
The original author of the ADA, a man confined to a wheelchair, lamented what the ADA has become. He said that, had he known what abuses of personal and property rights would take place in the name of the act, he would never have written the Act. How’s that for a commentary on the ADA? Society had a responsibility to TRY to accomodate its less-gifted citizens, but it is not obliged to do so. The ADA is a legal boondoggle used by attorneys to generate lucrative lawsuits. It needs to go away. Look around Dayton and see how this works out: every corner nearly has a sight-impaired plastic plate. How many sight impaired folks walk around Dayton? The cost is criminal. Braille buttons on drive-thru (!) ATMs. Gimme a break. Thye ADA has put more small restaurants out of business than the Mafia and the economy combined. Why does a mom and pop restaurant need a ramp and a handicapped accessible bathroom for EACH sex? Nonsense. Every welfare recipient seems to have a power chair now, so the problem is epidemic. I say, stop over-regulating in the private sector. If I don’t want to spend 200,000 to make my restaurant handicap-accessible, then that should be my decision. If you accomodate one, then you must, by rights accomodate all. Why do we get to bring assistance animals in food service establishments? What happened to hygiene? Oh, that’s right…the blind have more of a right to bring Fido in than I have a right to maintain food safety. BS!
By Max
July 25, 2010 11:56 AM | Link to this
Mr. Willis, well written and thanks for your personal insight. I have two takes on ADA as it was premised and how it has evolved. Since its passage 20 years ago American medicine has achieved many advances especially in the area of mobility recovery, prosthetics, etc. While that represents only a portion of disabilities it is worth noting that what was once a ‘permanent’ disability has been change somewhat. To the issue of where ADA stands today in terms of discrimination, I think there are some parallels with other forms of discrimination as well as considerable overlapping of offenders. I think you recall the public service announcements years ago which promoted hiring the handicapped. If memory serves me there was also a tax incentive for employers. However, I agree with your advice to students who will face these issues in the workplace. Technically, I guess I’m handicapped based on the parking spaces I’m allowed to use. Practically, I don’t think about it all that much and allow the work products speak for themselves. It is there, I think, which problems arise because of the biased perception that the handicapped cannot perform at levels of others. Well, perceptions are often creative defenses, aren’t they?
By momof2
July 26, 2010 10:03 AM | Link to this
fortressdayton, your comment is the most mean-spirited, hateful thing I have read in a long time. My husband is disabled - a quadraplegic, and works with the disabled concerning accessibility and independence issues. You have no idea what it is like living with a disability. Basically, you are saying the disabled have no right to go shopping, to go out to eat, to enjoy concerts or be independent. I can tell you, that despite the ADA my husband would have a difficult time living completely independently. I can not tell you the number of times we have not been able to get around stores or enter restaurants, or due to many things you do without a second thought. Here’s a newsflash for you -the disabled have money to spend and contribute to the economy. If it weren’t for the ADA, no business would make the necessary accomodations for people (yes, they are PEOPLE) with disablilities, because they wouldn’t want to spend the money, even if it gained them business. As for the lawsuits, that is how the law is set up, and it actually keeps business from becoming accessible because many people will not bother filing a lawsuit. I know my husband never would have before working in the job he has now. But the most insulting thing you said was referring to people with disabilities as “less-gifted”. How self-important you seem to think you are. I know many people with disabilities,and they are certainly not less-gifted. I would say your lack of compassion and intelligence would make you less-gifted.
By momof2
July 26, 2010 10:05 AM | Link to this
fortressdayton, your comment is the most mean-spirited, hateful thing I have read in a long time. My husband is disabled - a quadraplegic, and works with the disabled concerning accessibility and independence issues. You have no idea what it is like living with a disability. Basically, you are saying the disabled have no right to go shopping, to go out to eat, to enjoy concerts or be independent. I can tell you, that despite the ADA my husband would have a difficult time living completely independently. I can not tell you the number of times we have not been able to get around stores or enter restaurants, or due to many things you do without a second thought. Here’s a newsflash for you -the disabled have money to spend and contribute to the economy. If it weren’t for the ADA, no business would make the necessary accomodations for people (yes, they are PEOPLE) with disablilities, because they wouldn’t want to spend the money, even if it gained them business. As for the lawsuits, that is how the law is set up, and it actually keeps business from becoming accessible because many people will not bother filing a lawsuit. I know my husband never would have before working in the job he has now. But the most insulting thing you said was referring to people with disabilities as “less-gifted”. How self-important you seem to think you are. I know many people with disabilities,and they are certainly not less-gifted. I would say your lack of compassion and intelligence would make you less-gifted.
By Max
July 26, 2010 10:42 AM | Link to this
@Fortressdayton; I think you need some fact checking…..1.) Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was the chief sponsor of the ADA with bi-partisan support, 2.) Sen Harkin DOES NOT object to the ADA intent and ‘letter’ but does have concerns about court cases which have led to amendments being attached to the Act which raises, not lowers, the threshold of what constitutes a disability, 3.) The Act is NOT regulatory when viewed under existing guarantees by other Constitutional amendments at state and federal levels guaranteeing ‘equal access’ to schools, hospitals, government buildings, and public businesses. If you want to pick a fight with ‘regulatory trends’ this (ADA) might not be the one a wise, informed person would choose.——@Momof2; I, too, take exception with the phrase ‘less gifted.’ My fellow soldiers of the 101st ABN (Air Assault) Div. who spent 6+ months Afghanistan between Oct. 2001 and March 2002 and now have life-long handicaps (it was pre-Anaconda) might take Fortressdayton’s remarks in the same spirit as much as some of the irrational, Taliband verbage. Any culture is defined by how they treat and accomodate its young, its elderly, and its handicapped.
By Max
July 26, 2010 10:47 AM | Link to this
It is interesting that one who has sight objects that he can ‘see’ braille keypads at an ATM. Some are more blind than the sight impaired….
By fortressdayton
July 28, 2010 11:27 PM | Link to this
Well, so much for political correctness then…should i just say cripple or maimed? It wasn’t my intent to insult; I didn’t want to use those words above, especially since they are not all-encompassing. I stand by my comments about abusive lawsuits. There are amazing stories about the wonderful business firced to close because of activist handicapped persons who had nothing better to do than find businesses and building not accessible ENOUGH for them. if you file a lawsuit under ADA (pay attention!) the us government represents the plaintiff against (usually) small business owners. How is that for unfair? Mean-spirited? I respect your opinion, but my opinion doesn’t cost you money. And, no, it isn’t always about money, it’s about common sense: you cannot make the whole world accessible to everyone. It is a nice intention, but impossible. My so-called mean=spiritednees comes to a boil when I have to keep walking further and further back in the parking lot because the number of handicapped spaces seems to multiply. What really gets me is when a person with a blue sticker hops out of a F-350 (with Lift kit!) and still wants to maintain he needs special consideration. Obesity is not a disability, but obese plaintiffs are changing our world with demands for bigger toilets, airline seats and wider doors. I am not trying to be funny and it isn’t. I do believe in accomodation, but I do not believe in bankrupting an business because one mean-spirited disabled person feels his rights have been violated if he can’t take his wheelcvhair up to the balcony and eat dinner there, instead of on the main floor. (That happened in Denver and the business went bankrupt after fighting the lawsuit. The obese plaintiff chained herself to a parking meter in front of the defendant’s restaurant and claimed emotional distress- and won.) Is that the ADA you all are so proud of? And stop trying to use patriotism to win you argument, Max. I could just as easily -and offhandedly- ask about what we are doing for all the innocent old people and children maimed by our drones in Afghanistan. It isn’t relevant, and my patriotism isn’t relevant to this discussion either.
By fortressdayton
July 28, 2010 11:37 PM | Link to this
Sorry, I forgot to add this: please look at ADAabuse.com and then maybe you will see what is being done in the name of disabled individuals.
By momof2
July 29, 2010 3:36 PM | Link to this
So, you thought using the words less-gifted was somehow better than crippled? How about PEOPLE with disabilities. You seem to want to forget the people part. First, anytime there is money involved, fraud is present, whether with the ADA or other programs like social security, welfare, medicare, even in business. Filing fraudulant or frivolous lawsuits is wrong and undermines the intention of the ADA, but filing a lawsuit is the only way to get accessibility issues addressed. That is how the law is set up (as are all civil rights laws). Second, you complain about having to walk further to get to an establishment- be thankful you have that option. My husband does not, and we have experienced not being able to find a spot due to an inadequate number or lack of a van accessible spot, causing us to take up 2 spots just so he can get his lift out. Don’t think we haven’t gotten dirty looks and comments for that. Third, the requirements for acquiring a handicapped parking placard haven’t changed, and one needs a prescription from a doctor. The ADA has nothing to do with it. If someone has a sticker that doesn’t deserve it, blame that person’s doctor. Also, it is unlawful to use a sticker that has not been issued to you. The sticker goes to the person, not the vehicle. If you see someone using a sticker that is not issued to them, please call the police and report it. People with disabilities will thank you for it. Fraud is wrong, no matter who commits it, but blaming the ADA for someone who takes advantage of the law isn’t the answer. The ADA has allowed people with disabilities live more independent and full lives. Why would you criticize that?
By JJ
July 29, 2010 4:40 PM | Link to this
The problem with the ADA is the abuses of the system. Like making the California town put a wheel chair ramp to a life guard stand that is never occupied by anyone other than fully functioning life guards. Or the blind person who wanted to be a police dispatcher in Cincy. Some things just don’t make sense. Maybe we should have blind FAA employees too?