The Americans with Disability Act: Accomplishments and Challenges

The Americans with Disability Act:
Accomplishments and Challenges

Richard K. Scotch, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, Texas, USA

Disability and Discrimination

People with disabilities face many barriers:

• Below average labor force participation
• Low incomes
• Difficulty in obtaining appropriate education
• Lack of access to public services
• Institutionalization
• Stigma and prejudice

Architecture, technology, work rules designed for “normal” - not for full range of human variation

Reponding to Marginalization

• In US, social movement of disabled people
• Goal: Change attitudes, practices
• Means: Public education, Change policy & law
• Formation of groups among impairment groups, such as deaf or blind
• Formation of groups with similar experiences, such as disabled veterans, unemployed, parents of disabled children
• Cross-disability organizations in 1960s

Responses to American Disability rights Movement

Local anti-discrimination laws

Rehabilitation Act of 1973

• Affected recipients of federal funds
• Broad definition of person with a disability
• Required reasonable accommodation
• Only implemented after national protests in 1977

New, more powerful statute needed

Americans with Disability ACT

Passed with large majorities in Congress

Signed into law by President Bush in 1990

Broad definition of person with a disability

Has condition affecting functioning

History of condition

Regarded as having condition

Prohibited discrimination in

private employment

public accommodation

state and local government

telecommunications

Social Model of Disability

• ADA based on social model of disability
• Medical model: disability is result of impairment, often leads to incapacity
• Social model: disability is result of interaction of impairment and social/physical environment
• ADA assists disabled people by changing environment to make it more accommodating to different kinds of people

ADA Impact: Narrow and Broad

Narrow impact:

require reasonable accommodation for individuals

Broad impact:

Empowerment

Change in social attitudes

Promotion of broad inclusion

Creation of comprehensive service system

Short Term Impact of ADA

Not many resources devoted to monitoring or enforcement

Some voluntary compliance

Judicial rulings narrowed impact by excluding many people from ADA protection

Judges expressed stereotypes about disability

Role of mitigating factors - devices or medication

Assumption by judges that if disabled, cannot work

Many claims for assistance turned down

Incremental, not transformative change

ADA Amendments of 2008

• Response to negative court decisions
• Reasserted broad definition of disability for protection by ADA
• Passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush (in election year)
• Effective in January 2009

Long Term Impact of ADA

• Prejudice against people with disabilities is deeply rooted
• Many structural barriers to participation by people with disabilities
• Benefits of ADA may be largely for disabled people with from more privileged backgrounds, better education

The ADA and Social Change

• Decades since ADA saw greater acceptance by society of people with disabilities
• Slow but increasing removal of barriers to participation
• ADA cause these changes? To some extent
• However, many disabled people still living on margins of American society

What Will Bring About Change for People with Disabilities?

• Political organization among people with disabilities and their allies
• Focus on disabling barriers and continuing advocacy to remove them
• Greater flexibility in creating environments that accommodate individual differences
• Technology may help with this

Lessons from ADA for the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities

• U.N. Convention is very important, but not sufficient in itself to bring about change
• Organization, long term political mobilization by people with disabilities will be necessary
• Nothing About Us Without Us