The ADA: 20 Years Old or 20 Years New?
Not the typical title of an article about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), especially on its 20th birthday. This title comes from my observation of humans, some call them people, and how they can view the same thing and yet see entirely different things, aren't we humans…. so human! So what do you think, is the ADA 20 years old or new?
I find myself moving back and forth on this question of old or new. Many of my friends and colleagues were engaged in the effort to bring the ADA to passage. However, nearly all of the guys I play quad rugby with know nothing of the history that brought us curb cuts on every corner or the blue line parking places that they use daily. While at work or around colleagues, I can speak the language that only those that have lived in a world without civil rights can use, to communicate volumes with one or two words. Using those same words among my younger friends carries no meaning and gets me nothing but, “the old guys mumbling again” look from each of them. I tried to tell them that it was not always this easy, then I realized I sounded like my grandfather and abruptly ceased!
So back to my question regarding the ADA and the different views held or should I say different perspectives on these past 20 years? In which camp are you? Do you see the ADA as being 20 years old? Have you experienced great change in your life as a person with a disability?
Earlier I mentioned a few changes I’ve experienced as a wheelchair user that many like me can readily understand and appreciate, such as the curb cut and accessible parking. These are two that I typically use when describing the pre-ADA period because these are very visible accessibility features. A few others that may not be understood as well are wider doors and my best friend, the door handle. I am one of those that does not miss the doorknob whatsoever. It looks like I may be a card carrying member of the 20 year old camp.
Now for the “glass is half empty” also known as the ADA 20 years new camp. These individuals have a look at the ADA over its first 20 years and see most Americans with disabilities unemployed or underemployed.
They see that we have to continue to explain why it is important that we be able to get into a store by ourselves or defend the right to even be in a store. This camp believes that the law is a mere 20 years new and needs to do a great deal of growing. Now I'm confused, I see and even experience this on at least a weekly basis. So does that make me a member of the 20 years new camp?
I believe I will take the human way out and say both camps are right and I am a member of both. I rarely think if there will be a curb cut at the corner but am more worried about it being blocked or built too steep. I also see businesses that bar me from entering because they were built as a walk down under a building before the ADA.
We have come a long way in these past 20 years and the ADA is still the path to the dream we seek. It has accomplished much in its first 20 years but it has its work cut out for it to turn the dreams of today into tomorrow’s reality. Have a happy 20th birthday ADA!
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From the Editor
Wow! Twenty years! Twenty years ago I was just finishing up my Bachelor’s degree in music and I was largely unaware of the impact that the ADA would have on my life.
That has certainly changed over the years and I am constantly moved when I read about other’s experiences with the passage of the ADA. I hope you are too!
Enjoy the Declaration and Happy Birthday to the ADA!!!
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LEND's Leadership
Loudoun County has been in the ECNV’s catchment area (the area served by ECNV) since its opening in 1982, as was Prince William and Fauquier Counties. Those counties, Prince William and Fauquier, became the catchment area for a satellite center of ECNV and eventually obtained the needed funding in order to become a stand-alone Center for Independent Living (CIL) in 1997 in Manassas called the Independence Empowerment Center (IEC).
With Loudoun’s expanded growth in the late ‘90s a group of citizens desired to have a CIL of their own, separate from ECNV. As funding became available, a satellite center (a center dependent on ECNV but with its own physical office space) was established in 2008, and services are provided by three employees.
This satellite office took the name Loudoun ENDependence (LEND). Bill Ward is the Director of LEND (Bill also started IEC); Elise Graves provides Independent Living (IL) Skills Training and Peer Mentoring; Tracee Garner is the Outreach Coordinator.
Having office space in Loudoun has provided the opportunity for these staff members to more readily provide IL services for people with disabilities in Loudoun County.
As you can see by this newsletter, we are excited about the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and are making plans to celebrate! During the past three months the LEND staff have taken the lead for ECNV and LEND in making plans to celebrate the ADA with three Saturdays of activities and a Gala on July 24th -- details can be found in this newsletter.
Please join us during July as we celebrate the ADA Anniversary. With LEND’s leadership and passion it will, hopefully in the near future, become a CIL in its own right.
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ADA Quotes
“And as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we must renew our commitment to uphold the civil rights of those living with disabilities and to fully include all our people in the life of our nation.” - President Barack Obama
“Working together, we can ensure that every American citizen will be provided the access and opportunity to be a part of all that society offers.” - Former US Senator Bob Dole
“The ADA opened the door when businesses were looking at hiring people with disabilities as a matter of nondiscrimination and civil rights. Now we are finding that the best businesses are finding out that the large expenses they feared would be required, never came about. They are now finding what an asset to their business, employees with disabilities can be.” - Cherie 
“Because of the ADA, I am able to have a sign language interpreter for my efficient communication with hearing people. I also have closed captions when I watch television, DVDs, and movies so I am able to enjoy my leisure time with my deaf friends.” - Doreen
“As a wheelchair user, ADA has opened up a whole new world to me, negotiating our local Transit system, which is now accessible.” - Ed M
“The ADA puts me on the same level as everyone else, even though I am sitting in a wheel chair.” - Ed W
“Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.” - Former President George H.W. Bus
“Because of the ADA I no longer worry that I’ll be kicked out of a movie theater because I can’t get out of my wheelchair and into a theater seat.” - Kimball
“Thanks to the ADA, I can get to and from work sooner.” - Jennifer
“Most importantly, ADA is a landmark commandment of fundamental human morality. It is the world’s first declaration of equality for people with disabilities by any nation. It will proclaim to America and to the world that people with disabilities are fully human; that paternalistic, discriminatory, segregationist attitudes are no longer acceptable; and that henceforth people with disabilities must be accorded the same personal respect and the same social and economic opportunities as other people.” - Justin Dart, Jr.
“If we believed that ADA is the power and we are the recipients of its strength, rather than we are the power and ADA is a tool for us to use, I fear we may still have a long way to go.” - Bob Kafka
“As a result of the law, I have been successful in getting curb cuts installed in two places important to my safety." - Matt B
“Thanks to the ADA, I know that my accessibility is not something only I worry about ... It is the law.” - Matt T
“Thanks to the ADA I can go out and dine at my favorite restaurants with my family and friends.” - Ruchika
“Thanks to this important law, living as a quadriplegic has become much easier. The ability to have accessible seating at movies and stadiums, accessible transportation, wide sidewalks and curb cuts and accessible dining opportunities has made my life better by leaps and bounds. However, there are still instances where accessibility is a barrier to full enjoyment of services in the community, so we cannot become complacent otherwise we will be left behind again.”- Sheri
Passing ADA was incredibly historic. Now every day we must fight to make sure that the words in the law, the words on the White House lawn, the words in the House, and the words in the Senate become reality…” - US Congressman Steny Hoyer
“...equal justice under the law is not a privilege — but a fundamental birthright in America.” - US Senator Ted Kennedy
“I strongly believe that it is important to level the playing field and give eligible individuals equal access to community-based services and supports. This vital legislation will open the door to full participation by people with disabilities in our neighborhoods, workplaces, our economy, and our American Dream.” - US Senator Tom Harkin
“The ADA was a landmark civil rights legislation. It was a bill of rights for persons with disabilities, a formal acknowledgement that Americans with disabilities are Americans first and that they're entitled to the same rights and freedoms as everybody else.” - Valerie Jarrett
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ECNV / LEND's ADA 20th Anniversary Gala
ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV)&
Loudoun ENDependence (LEND), a satellite center of ECNV,
cordially invite you to
Our ADA 20th Anniversary
Dinner & Celebration
Saturday, July 24, 2010
7:00 pm— 10:00 pm
Guest Speaker Theresa Rankin
National Community Educator/Brain Injury Services, WETA Brainline
Cash Bar, Formal Dinner, Special Program, Music
Washington Dulles Airport Marriott
45020 Aviation Drive, Dulles, VA 20166
$50 ticket for one; $80 tickets for two
RSVP to ECNV by July 16, 2010
Contact Tracee at 571-291-9550 (V/Relay)
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A New Dawn!
It dawned like no other day – Wednesday, July 26, 1990! Filled with joyful anticipation, I stood on the South Lawn of the White House, along with 2,000 others from all over the United States, waiting to witness President George H.W. Bush sign the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law.
Flooded with a myriad of thoughts and emotions, I was overcome with the sense I hadn’t come alone to this moment. My mother, my uncle, and my grandmother, all of whom were born blind, like me, were here with me in spirit! From an early age, the stories of the prejudice and discrimination they faced awakened my outrage and anger about the way society treated people with disabilities.
My own experience included exclusion from my neighborhood school and busing across town to segregated classes with other students with disabilities. At college after high school, I was given an isolated, segregated dorm room reportedly because I’d be using readers and want to be alone.
Upon graduation from university, I sought my first job but encountered a gauntlet of barriers. Back then there was no recourse under the law.
I recalled my friends and colleagues unable to enter government buildings, restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, movie theaters, and other places because they weren’t accessible. I bristled thinking of the eatery that turned away one of my friends, saying that his cerebral palsy would offend other customers.
I reflected on how we finally decided we’d had enough and organized as a cross-disability rights movement to advocate for our rights. It started in 1968 with returning Vietnam veterans and civilians with disabilities working to get a law requiring that all newly built or leased federal buildings and facilities be accessible.
More advocacy by people with disabilities resulted in the Rehabilitation Act passing Congress in 1972, but President Nixon vetoed it and in response, Judy Heumann led disability rights activists in a blockade of Times Square, gaining national attention. Congress overrode Nixon’s veto.
Momentum built with more marches, rallies and protests from 1985-89. Centers for IndependentLiving, like ECNV, organized people with disabilities in communities throughout the country to advocate for disability rights. In Virginia this resulted in enactment of the Virginians with Disabilities Act.
A final push to get the ADA bill through Congress culminated in a massive disability rights march and crawl up the Capitol steps in 1990.
Finally, after a historic public debate, both Houses of Congress passed the bill and sent it to President Bush for signature. And, so here we were at the White House.
Suddenly, President Bush mounted the stage. He spoke those beautiful words, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down!” And, with the flick of his pen, it was done, and everything had changed!
Changed – did I really think that all of the physical and attitudinal barriers had disappeared with the signing of the ADA? No, of course not. We all knew there would be years of struggle and advocacy ahead. But, in that wonderful, jubilant moment, we could revel in what we had achieved.
Americans with disabilities were now first class citizens! For the first time, we had rights under the law, and we had recourse against the injustice of discrimination.
It was a new dawn, like no other – and we weren’t going back!
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You Can Ride!
The transportation provisions of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cover public transportation, including bus and rail service. Broadly, Title II states that transportation providers cannot discriminate against people with disabilities and it also establishes accessibility requirements for transit providers.
Our area’s largest provider, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA/Metro) institutes these requirements. All Metro rail cars, buses and stations are accessible. Buses and rail cars are equipped with speakers to announce stops and pertinent information and has schedules and maps available in a variety of formats.
In addition to these requirements, the ADA has expectations for riders with disabilities. For example, riders should use fixed route transportation if possible, should arrive at their pick up location on time and should be able to pay their fare.
Individuals who cannot, because of their disability, ride the fixed route transit can apply for paratransit service. Metro’s paratransit, MetroAccess 
is a shared ride, door-to-door service with specific eligibility requirements.
Some individuals may just need a bit of assistance learning the bus and rail system or specific routes. For them, travel training on Metro can be a helpful resource. Whatever the transportation needs of the individual, the ADA gives the directives that make it possible for everybody to ride public transportation to get where they need to go.
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Websites featuring the ADA 20th Anniversary
- AAPD’s Countdown to the ADA Videos
- Disability.gov’s 100 Days to the ADA
- DBTAC’s 2010 by 2010 ADA Campaign
ADA 20th Anniversary Galas in DC
The Sprit of ADA…
Lead On!
Grand Hyatt Washington
1000 H Street NW
Washington, DC
July 20, 2010
7pm—11pm
$50 ticket
www.aapd.com
Come Celebrate:
A Night to Remember
National Press Club
Washington, DC
July 26, 2010
7pm – 11pm
$100 ticket
www.mypowerandpride.com
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