My Turn: 26 years later, assessing the ADA

  • By TRACY HANSEN
  • Tuesday, July 26, 2016 1:00am
  • Opinion

When President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, he said, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.”

Has that wall come down? After 26 years, it is time to assess ADA accomplishments.

The ADA had four goals: full participation, equal opportunity, independent living and economic self-sufficiency.

The first goal, full participation, requires that all individuals, regardless of disability, be allowed to participate in society’s programs, services and activities. Certainly the ADA has ensured such public services as paratransit providers, accessible buses, ramps, loading zones, parking spaces, elevators and many more accessibility standards.

In 1988, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced ADA legislation in the U.S. Senate. Regarding the first goal, he says “we’ve done pretty well.” Reality differs across the country. My daughter uses a wheelchair now and often finds restrooms marked accessible are anything but.

The second goal of the ADA, equal opportunity, requires that public accommodations, employment, transportation, government services and telecommunications be as available to an individual with a disability as they are to other members of society. At the Justice Department’s ADA 25th anniversary celebration, Harkin said, “Better; we have aways to go.”

Attitudes and a lack of understanding prevent this goal from being fully realized. For example, when my daughter and I were shopping in a large Seattle mall department store, her wheelchair got stuck in the women’s clothing section. A sales person assisting us said “people like that should stay in the main aisles.” Where in that statement is my daughter’s equal opportunity to purchase clothing for herself?

Some progress has been made toward independent living, the third goal of the ADA. It strives for a society in which people with disabilities can live where they want and with whom they want. The individual or person authorized to direct their care can make the choice. I have seen cases where those choices differ, however, and capable individuals denied independence.

Ultimately, ADA progress has to be judged on its fourth goal, economic self-sufficiency — the ability to support yourself financially and live your American Dream. In Harkin’s words, providing economic self-sufficiency to individuals with disabilities is a “blot on our national character.”

The Current Population Survey is the only national survey to have consistently used the same definition of disability. From 1981-2014, prior to and since ADA implementation, the survey asked respondents if they had a “health problem or disability which prevents them from working or which limits the kind or amount of work they can do.” Survey statistics track the employment rate and labor market activity for all respondents.

If the ADA has successfully assisted individuals with disabilities find employment, CPS statistics would show an increase in percentages of respondents who reported a disability. However, the exact opposite is true. Between 1990, when the ADA was implemented, to 2014, labor market activity in Alaska fell 18.6 percent. The Alaska employment rate for disability decreased 8.2 percent. National data during the same time period is similar. But why, when accessibility is so much better? Human attitude toward disability.

In “Confessions of a Bitter Cripple,” Elizabeth Barnes has heard it all, even the comment that a disabled human being is less valuable than another. A wheelchair user, the University of Virginia philosophy professor says society considers disability to be a matter of bad luck. Barnes could have taken it a step further and explained it as “inspiration porn” — telling an individual with a disability they are inspiring even though, with disability excluded, they have done nothing extraordinary. Such comments objectify individuals with disabilities for the benefit of non-disabled people in much the same way that pornography objectifies women for the benefit of men. If society did not consider disability a form of bad luck, society would not find mundane tasks inspiring.

At the ADA silver celebration Harkin proclaimed: “No more pity! No more patronizing. … Just take down those barriers and let me show you what I can do!” He told the story of a young Iowan born with an intellectual disability who was able to reach her goal of running a coffee shop. She employs five individuals, two of whom also have disabilities. She is living her American Dream.

Given the chance, everyone, regardless of disability, can be fully capable, successful members of society, but we will not see the full possibility of the ADA until the remaining barriers fall. While the physical environment is much better than before the ADA, the psychological and emotional barriers have proven to be much sturdier. When society stops thinking that people with disabilities are somehow less than fully capable, policies that limit them will finally come tumbling down.

• Tracy Hansen is a recent graduate of the University of Alaska Southeast with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts. Her column is a synopsis of her capstone presentation. Much of her work at UAS has focused on disability rights. She has a daughter with multiple disabilities, friends with various disabilities and had an uncle and aunt with Cerebral Palsy.

Read more Opinion:

My Turn: The mining industry wants it both ways

Alaska editorial: Timber moves

Empire editorial: On health care, please clap

More in Opinion

Web
Have something to say?

Here’s how to add your voice to the conversation.

Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Our comfort with spectacle became a crisis

If I owned a home in the valley that was damaged by… Continue reading

The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
My Turn: Maybe the news is ‘No new news’ on Canada’s plans for Tulsequah Chief mine cleanup

In 2015, the British Columbia government committed to ending Tulsequah Chief’s pollution… Continue reading

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Letter: Voter fact left out of news

With all the post-election analysis, one fact has escaped much publicity. When… Continue reading

People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
Opinion: Mired in bureaucracy, CBJ long-term flood fix advances at glacial pace

During meetings in Juneau last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Rights for psychiatric patients must have state enforcement

Kim Kovol, commissioner of the state Department of Family and Community Services,… Continue reading

Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)
My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice… Continue reading

The settlement of Sermiligaaq in Greenland (Ray Swi-hymn / CC BY-SA 2.0)
My Turn: Making the Arctic great again

It was just over five years ago, in the summer of 2019,… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Small wins make big impacts at Alaska Psychiatric Institute

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), an 80-bed psychiatric hospital located in Anchorage… Continue reading

President Donald Trump and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy pose for a photo aboard Air Force One during a stopover at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage in 2019. (Sheila Craighead / White House photo)
Opinion: Dunleavy has the prerequisite incompetence to work for Trump

On Tuesday it appeared that Gov. Mike Dunleavy was going to be… Continue reading

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many Louisiana homes were rebuilt with the living space on the second story, with garage space below, to try to protect the home from future flooding. (Infrogmation of New Orleans via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA)
Misperceptions stand in way of disaster survivors wanting to rebuild safer, more sustainable homes

As Florida and the Southeast begin recovering from 2024’s destructive hurricanes, many… Continue reading

The F/V Liberty, captained by Trenton Clark, fishes the Pacific near Metlakatla on Aug. 20, 2024. (Ash Adams/The New York Times)
My Turn: Charting a course toward seafood independence for Alaska’s vulnerable food systems

As a commercial fisherman based in Sitka and the executive director of… Continue reading