The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is the leading national organization of people who are blind and visually impaired. Consisting of tens of thousands of members and more than 70 affiliates across the United States, ACB is dedicated to improving the quality of life, equality of opportunity and independence of all people who have visual impairments. Its members and affiliated organizations have a long history of commitment to the advancement of policies and legislation which will enhance accessibility and inclusion for all individuals who are blind and visually impaired.
ACB would like to thank Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ranking Member, and other distinguished members of the Committee and Subcommittee for offering this forum for an open discussion on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and its promise to end exclusion and inequality for the 20% of American citizens who live every day with disabilities.
On July 26, 1990, President George Herbert Bush signed into law the ADA and in a single pen stroke, America took on the responsibility to put an end to the crushing discrimination, oppression and inequality suffered by this country’s people with disabilities. To quote Justin Dart’s impassioned and eloquent testimony to a Senate subcommittee on government affairs several years ago: “The ADA is a landmark in the evolution of human beings, the first comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities in the history of the world. It is the emancipation proclamation for 49 million Americans with disabilities, and the symbol of dignity, respect and hope for almost a billion persons with disabilities around the world.”
Over the past sixteen years, the provisions of the statute have affected some very positive changes, addressing architectural, communication and transportation access, changing the American societal landscape. Sections of the ADA make it illegal to design or construct any new place of public accommodation or other commercial facility without making it readily accessible and usable by people with disabilities. Building codes now mandate accommodations like ramps and elevators for people with mobility impairments; accessible signage and accessible pedestrian signals for individuals with sensory impairments and service animals are seen and accepted in public. Because of telecommunications provisions in the ADA, there is now a nationwide relay service for people who are deaf and a requirement of closed captioning of the verbal content of all federally funded television public service announcements. Perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments of the ADA has been the significant changes in public transportation systems, creating requirements for access. Because of the ADA, people with disabilities are far more visible and integrated into society.
However, there have been a number of changes that have been significantly detrimental. Judicial rulings importing stringent and overly narrow rules regarding who meets the statutory definition of “disability” have overturned Congressional intent. As a result of a string of Supreme Court decisions and other cases, it has become difficult for individuals with certain health conditions to establish that they have a disability for purposes of the ADA. People with epilepsy, diabetes, psychiatric diagnoses, and other conditions that are controlled with medications or other disease management strategies are routinely dismissed as “not disabled enough” to warrant protection of the statute. The emphasis is erroneously placed on the qualification rather than on the discriminatory action. The consequence has been a system where employers prevail in nearly 95 percent of ADA employment cases decided by federal courts.
With such “judicial hostility” and the definition of disability dramatically contracted, millions of Americans who continue to experience such discrimination are barred from challenging these abuses in the courts. One need only to look to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to see that anti-discrimination legislation alone does not end discrimination. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which is even more ambitious than the Civil Rights Act, can only advance the lives of people with disabilities if Congress is clear about its intent and willing to take action to protect its vulnerable citizens.
When barriers to accessibility are discussed, or “public accommodations”, the most common concepts that come to mind are those of physical access to a place. The Internet is an integral part of life for over 80 million Americans, providing entertainment, education, the sale of goods and services, and exchanges of information with other individuals and organizations.
Despite the mandate of Congress and the Administration, too many areas of business and commerce open to the general public, including virtual (e.g., internet) goods and services, remain inaccessible to people with disabilities. Title III of the ADA bars discrimination on the basis of disability by “places of public accommodations” and “commercial facilities” “engaged in commerce,” yet, experts report that currently as many as 98% of all commercial websites are inaccessible to the disabled. Only by taking the lead in addressing the parallels between physical and information access can the federal government hope to achieve the goals of inclusion and access.
The ADA has had a particularly strong impact in promoting the development of community residential, treatment, and care services in lieu of unnecessarily segregated large state institutions and nursing homes. This was illustrated by the 1999 Olmstead case. Unfortunately, many people with disabilities continue to be warehoused unnecessarily in institutions simply because states have failed to develop appropriate community-based services to enable them to live normal lives.
It is imperative that the implementation of the integration mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act be enforced, moving persons with disabilities out of institutions and into integrated community settings. It is possible that we will need to return to Congress to seek assistance in carrying out the ADA’s intent and mandate.
When President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA into law on that day in 1990, he called this legislation a "dramatic renewal not only for those with disabilities but for all of us, because along with the precious privilege of being an American comes a sacred duty to ensure that every other American's rights are also guaranteed."
ACB encourages Congress and the Administration to continue their aggressive support for the ADA and pledge to assist in any way, its vigorous implementation and enforcement to ensure that this statute remains a living, breathing document, responsive to the needs of its citizenry.