Americans With Disabilities Act

Sixteenth Anniversary Statement by Tony Coelho, Chair, Board of Directors, Epilepsy Foundation

Former California Congressman Coelho, primary author and sponsor of the ADA while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, has issued the following statement on the occasion of the 16th Anniversary of the ADA. The historic disability rights legislation was signed into law by the President on July 26, 1990.

Progress and a Promise Yet to Be Fulfilled

Passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) began the process of opening the door of respect and full participation in our society to people with disabilities. Great hope and excitement surrounded the law's passage – and we Americans were proud that we would serve as a model to the rest of the world. Many doors have opened since the law passed. The model is being copied around the world. But fifteen years later our optimism here in the United States is tempered with concern. The statute has achieved far less than we had hoped, although in some ways more than what we had foreseen.

The ADA has inspired people with disabilities all over the world and influenced the development of legal protections for the rights in many countries. International interest in this civil rights issue has also reached into the United Nations which recently held an International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disability.

Noteworthy here in our country has been the dramatic reduction of physical barriers. Though much more has yet to be done before our environment is completely barrier-free, wheelchair accommodations have benefited society beyond what we could have envisioned. Everywhere one sees signs of a more accessible world. For example, curb cuts and ramps designed to ease wheelchair access are also an aid to parents pushing baby carriages, delivery people with loaded hand trucks, the elderly, and mail carriers making their rounds. Accessibility is now a permanent part of the architectural lexicon.

Today, when you apply for a job, you do not need to reveal a disability; you cannot be asked – before a job offer is made – whether you have a disability. Instead, you are at least initially evaluated on whether you can do the job – not what you look like, not whether you have any hidden physical conditions. This is progress. Nevertheless, the biggest challenge we face is the continuing failure of American businesses to routinely hire people with disabilities. We have not made the progress we thought was sure to occur with passage of the ADA. The ADA is the single most powerful guarantor of the right to seek work without fear of discrimination. But it has been under assault by forces that contort the plain language of the statute and ignore the historical direction of civil rights in America.

The intent of the ADA is not to place a burden on corporations and small businesses of hiring people lacking the skills and experience to do the job. The ADA requires that you must be able to perform the essential functions of the job – with or without a reasonable accommodation. Hiring people with disabilities is not charity but good business sense. Employers who have opened their doors have discovered that their organizations benefit from the productivity of workers with disabilities. To achieve the ADA employment objective more employers need a fundamental shift in attitude to this realization.

Government should be setting the example; instead it is setting us back. The number of people with disabilities employed by the federal government is lower now despite increases in the federal workforce than it was in 1994, 1996, and 1998 and, with outsourcing, is likely to shrink further still. Governments at all levels, federal, state and local, can and must do more.

The greatest threat to the ADA is an organized assault by ideologues bent on tearing down its protections and with them the right of people who are qualified to work to actually do so. Core protections passed by Congress are seen as too broad or unneeded. Recent court decisions have radically narrowed the scope of the ADA's coverage, particularly negatively affecting people with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, bipolar disorder and diabetes.

We must restore the coverage of people with disabilities under the ADA, undo the restrictions placed by the courts on the definition of people protected by the law, and reopen the remedies available to those who successfully prove ADA violations. We must restore the obligation of employers to comply with the requirement for meaningful accommodations. And, we must reverse the Supreme Court's decisions that have effectively removed civil rights protections for too many people with chronic medical conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and epilepsy, either because they take medications that may control the condition, or because the condition's actual physical impact is only episodic. If you are discriminated against because you have a medical condition, and you are able to do the job despite the condition, your civil rights should be protected.

Work gives focus and purpose to our lives. It is a source of who we are and how we are accepted. Every American should share in the prosperity and justice on which our great nation has been built. We must redeem the promise of the ADA and assure that men and women with disabilities have the same opportunity for personal independence and economic security that their fellow citizens enjoy.