|
Road to the ADA The history of the ADA did not begin on July 26, 1990 at the signing ceremony at the White House.
It did not begin in 1988 when the first ADA was introduced in Congress. The ADA story began a long time ago in cities and towns throughout the United States when people with disabilities began to challenge societal barriers that excluded them from their communities, and when parents of children with disabilities began to fight against the exclusion and segregation of their children. Like the African-Americans who sat in at segregated lunch counters and refused to move to the back of the bus, people with disabilities sat in federal buildings, obstructed the movement of inaccessible buses, and marched through the streets to protest injustice. And like the civil rights movements before it, the disability rights movement sought justice in the courts and in the halls of Congress. The ADA, as we know it today, went through numerous drafts, revisions, negotiations, and amendments since the first version was introduced in 1988. Spurred by a draft bill prepared by the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency whose members were appointed by President Reagan, Senator Weicker and Representative Coelho introduced the first version of the ADA in April 1988 in the 100th Congress. The disability community began to educate people with disabilities about the ADA and to gather evidence to support the need for broad anti-discrimination protections. A national campaign was initiated to write discrimination diaries. People with disabilities were asked to document daily instances of inaccessibility and discrimination. The diaries served not only as testimonials of discrimination, but also to raise consciousness about the barriers to daily living which were simply tolerated a part of life. Justin Dart, Chair of the Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of People with Disabilities, traversed the country holding public hearings which were attended by thousands of people with disabilities, friends, and families documenting the injustice of discrimination in the lives of people with disabilities. In September 1988, a joint hearing was held before a Senate Subcommittee. A room which seated over 700 people overflowed with persons with disabilities, parents and advocates. After the hearing, Senators Kennedy and Harkin and Representative Owens committed that a comprehensive disability civil rights bill would be a top priority for the next Congress. On May 9, 1989, the new ADA was introduced in the 101st Congress. From that moment, the disability community mobilized, organizing a multi-layered strategy for passage. Congress received boxes loaded with thousands of letters and pieces of testimony from people whose lives had been damaged or destroyed by discrimination. People with disabilities came from around the country to advocate for the Bill, explaining why each provision was necessary to address a very real barrier or form of discrimination. Individuals came in at their own expense, slept on floors by night and visited Congressional offices by day. On July 12, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a vote of 377-28. The next day, it passed the Senate on a vote of 91-6. Shortly thereafter, on July 26, 1990, the Act was signed by President George H. W. Bush on the South Lawn of the White House in front of over 3,000 disability advocates, the largest bill-signing ceremony that had ever taken place at the White House. The ADA is based on the basic presumption that people with disabilities want to work and are capable of working, want to be members of their communities and are capable of being members of their communities, and that exclusion and segregation cannot be tolerated. Accommodating a person with a disability is no longer a matter of charity but instead a basic issue of civil rights. Excerpted from Arlene Mayerson’s "A History of the ADA: A Movement Perspective" |
 |
  |
||
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |