On July 26th, we mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This landmark legislation helped make the United States a more accessible and inclusive place for those with disabilities. Since its passage in 1990, this landmark legislation has helped increase access and opportunity for people with disabilities. However, while we have made great strides in the past 30 years, there is still much further to go before disabled people are truly equal in the United States.
The fight for equality did not start or end with the ADA. Disability Rights in the United States date back to the 1800s when mental institutions, ableism, and eugenics were all too common practice. At the same time, while we saw an unfortunate amount of ableism in the form of discrimination and eugenics, we also saw the creation of famous places and legislations that still exist today, such as the creation of the first school for disabled children in the western hemisphere, The American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817. During this period, we also saw The Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, admitting its first students in 1832. The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, which has since been renamed as Gallaudet College and then Gallaudet University, became the first college in the world established for people with disabilities. The fight for disability rights and equality started to hit the mainstream in the 1970s with the fight for the Rehabilitation Act.
Right in the middle of this, in 1975, The Education of All Handicapped Children Act was passed after years of fighting for the rights of all right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. Most notable court cases that helped this become law were Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia. These cases affirmed children with disabilities’ right to have access to education equal to children without disabilities and thus fell under the 14th amendment. However, while the Education For All Handicapped Children Act was incredible in terms of what it promised, it made promises that the government failed to keep.
In the years immediately following the passage of the Act, disabled students did gain greater access to more inclusive education. However, they did not receive all that the Act promised. There were problems with funding state and federal regulations conflicted with one another, and general confusion over who was in charge of implementing the policies laid out in the Act.
Before this law was passed, public schools had little to no obligation to provide children with disabilities with an appropriate education. This led to the majority of disabled children, especially those with the most severe disabilities, entirely kept out of public schools.
Those who did attend were primarily segregated from their non-disabled peers and more likely were essentially warehoused than receiving an education of value. This law changed a lot of that, guaranteeing children with disabilities the right to appropriate public school education in the least restrictive environment possible. While this was a significant step, it was not near enough with the lack of Section 504.
According to the ada.gov website, Section 504 states that “no qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall be excluded from, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that either receives Federal financial assistance or is conducted by any Executive agency or the United States Postal Service.” Each Federal agency has its own set of section 504 regulations that apply to its programs. Agencies that provide Federal financial assistance also have section 504 regulations covering entities that receive Federal aid. Requirements common to these regulations include reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities; program accessibility; effective communication with people who have hearing or vision disabilities; and accessible new construction and alterations. However, prior to regulations being put in place, it was not legally required.
In 1977, people were finally sick of waiting for President Carter to officially sign 504 into law and began to demand this change to happen. Instead of signing, the government assigned a task force to review the laws. In fear that the law would be rewritten or weakened, The American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD) insisted the laws be enacted as written by April 5th, 1977, or the coalition would take action. When this date came and went with no regulations put in place, the disabled community and allies across the country protested by sitting-in at federal offices of Health, Education, and Welfare (the agency responsible for the review).
The most famous of these sit-ins occurred in San Francisco at the Federal Building, lasting until April 28th, when the regulations were finally signed, unchanged. These historic events leading up to the bill’s signing were documented in the documentary Crip Camp on Netflix. The Rehabilitation Act paved the way and began to open doors for accessibility and equality for disabled people in the United States. However, this was only the beginning of disability rights. The fight for equality didn’t stop in the ’70s; it was only the beginning. This law paved the way for the Act that many know today, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, aka the ADA, was legislation signed into law on July 26th, 1990 by President George H. Bush and is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The Americans with Disabilities Act, while similar in some aspects to The Rehabilitation Act and Section 504, also has many differences, building upon and covering areas that 504 did not. The Americans With Disabilities Act adds to the strength of section 504 by extending it to private institutions, workplaces, and other institutions that were not covered previously. Additionally, it adds HIV and other contagious and noncontagious diseases as disabilities, while 504 mainly just covered physical and mental impairments. Also, The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to all entities that receive funding from federal, state, or privately owned establishments while 504 only covers entities receiving funding from the federal level.
The ADA that we know today didn’t just immediately show up and get passed without question. The ADA went through numerous drafts, revisions, negotiations, and amendments since the first version of the Act was proposed in 1988. The first draft of the Act as proposed by Senator Weicker and Representative Coelho in April 1988 in the 100th Congress.
During this time, the disability community began to educate people with disabilities about the ADA and gather evidence to support the need for broader anti-discrimination protections. The community-initiated a national campaign to write “discrimination diaries.”; asking people with disabilities to document daily instances of inaccessibility and discrimination to serve not only as testimonials of discrimination but also to raise awareness about the barriers to daily living that for far too long were just accepted as a part of daily life for a disabled person.
In September of 1988, a joint hearing was held before the Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy and the House Subcommittee on Select Education. Witnesses with a wide variety of disabilities and parents of disabled children testified in front of the committee about architectural and communication barriers and why stereotyping and prejudice were a problem. After the hearing, Senator Kennedy, Chair of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senator Harkin, Chair of the Subcommittee on Disability Policy, and Representative Owens of the House Subcommittee on Select Education, made a promise that a comprehensive disability civil rights bill would be a top priority for the next Congress. At the same time, both of the presidential candidates running, Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis, endorsed and promoted civil rights protections for those with disabilities. After President Bush came into office, the disabled community was determined to assure that President Bush would make good on his campaign promise.
In 1989, the ADA finally passed the Senate and was followed by the House in 1990. In 1991 the regulations were issued, and in 1992 the ADA began to be enforced finally. However, it was not until 1994 that all Titles of the ADA were entirely in effect and regulated. We have come so far as a nation from the days of institutions and eugenics. The disabled community today is freer now than it ever has been in history before. However, there is still so much more work to do.
While the disabled community has earned so many more freedoms and rights thanks to the activists’ tireless work in the disability rights movement of the ’70s and ’80s, our country is still not a perfect place for those with disabilities.
So where do we go from here, and how can abled allies help? We have so far we can go, despite the law being 30 years old. It is still not adequately enforced, and people still do not fully know what the law says and what their rights and responsibilities are. It starts with educating businesses on what they need to know about the law.
Certain parts of the law need to be less vague; for example, it states that buildings need to make necessary changes accessible unless it creates “undue hardship” on the business, but what is “undue hardship?” In 2020 it is still legal to pay people with disabilities below the minimum wage. We still cannot get married without risking losing our much-needed health care and other benefits. Also, despite receiving federal benefits, many schools and businesses are still not fully accessible and find excuses not to include those with disabilities. Our society has become too focused on turning disabled people into “inspiration porn” and talking about how able we are.
If we are portrayed as these powerful, inspirational beings that can do anything and can break down any barriers, then it becomes easy to ignore our struggles or hard to understand why we could need specific accommodations, and that is a problem. We have to start by changing people’s attitudes and ideas, or we won’t go anywhere.
Whether it is illegal to deny people a proper education or a job based on disability, it still happens. Until abled allies can break down those preconceived notions they have on what a disabled person is capable of and stop judging from just seeing a person before knowing what they are truly capable of, we will be stuck in the same spot. We need you to walk alongside us in this fight not to take over the conversation but also not ignore it. The famous motto is “nothing about us without us.” We want you to be a part of this fight, but we are the ultimate experts on what we need. We need to use your voices and privilege to speak up and help us fight to be truly free.
