[Ohio-talk] FW: My ADA Article

[meandthedog at oberlin.net]

I an't agre more. Megan and MS. go Deb. Megan and MS. P.




Very well said sir.
>
> William
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of James
> Fetter via Ohio-talk
> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 12:32 PM
> To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List
> Cc: James Fetter
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-talk] FW: My ADA Article
>
> Dear Deborah and all,
> Thank you for sharing this article with us, and I found it to be very
> well-written and on point. I hesitate to raise any criticisms, and I know
> that space limitations play a major role and how much any article can
> cover. I would only like to mention that a discussion of the still very
> low rate of employment of working age adults with disabilities--according
> to Department of Labor statistics, two-thirds of working age adults with
> disabilities remain outside of the workforce--may have been helpful here.
> The ADA has barely moved the needle on employment, and I think it is worth
> asking whether an anti-discrimination law by itself is sufficient to
> achieve that goal.
> Even now, it seems that many employers consider job candidates with
> disabilities to be more expensive to hire and accommodate than is often
> the case, and rather than ensuring that all software and workplace
> equipment is accessible out of the box, they wait until a disabled
> employee faces an inaccessible environment and then plead poverty rather
> than implementing the necessary changes. Perhaps people with disabilities
> are still widely considered to be a resource drain rather than a resource
> in their own right, and the ADA is viewed as a series of onerous mandates
> imposed for their own sake by a regulation-happy federal government,
> regulations with which compliance is at times grudging and very uneven. My
> own search for employment is a good example of this problem. I have a
> Ph.D. in Political Science, have published articles in several
> peer-reviewed publications, and nevertheless have not been able to secure
> full-time employment in my field; I happen to be totally blind and have
> generally provided most of my own accommodations at little or no cost to
> my employers. I am now about to start law school at Ohio State with the
> intent of working in some area of disability advocacy and policy, and I
> hope to contribute to solving this serious underemployment problem for
> people with disabilities. I hope that this is taken not as an attack on
> your piece, which I like very much, but simply as a point that needs to be
> incorporated into the conversation about the ADA's effectiveness and
> limitations.
> With all best wishes,
> James
> On 7/27/2015 6:04 AM, Deborah Kendrick via Ohio-talk wrote:
>>
>>
>> I think most of you know that I write a regular column on disability
>> rights for the Columbus Dispatch.
>>
>> Thought you might like to see what I wrote for ADA day, July 26.
>>
>>
>>
>> This is my column from Sunday’s Dispatch, my happy ADA day tribute.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> Date: July 26, 2015 at 11:13:55 AM EDT
>> To: Deborah Kendrick <dkkendrick at earthlink.net>
>> Subject: ADA Article
>>
>> Deborah Kendrick commentary: Disabilities Act was drafted with uncanny
>> foresight
>>
>> 07/26/2015 5:00 AM
>>
>>  From coast to coast, in cities large and small, in state capitols and
>> campus conference centers, Americans are celebrating the 25th
>> anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act today.
>>
>> I’m celebrating, too, (although tangible plans made long ago have me
>> in a remote location with a few friends, who either don’t know much
>> about this birthday or celebrate another one because they are from the
>> United Kingdom).
>>
>> Like any “elder” reflecting on a given commemorative date, I’ve
>> been thinking about this day for a long time, and my reflections are
>> fragmented, at best.
>>
>> First, there’s the sparkling memory of the signing ceremony itself.
>>
>> I received two invitations, actually. I made the “advocates” list by
>> virtue of involvement with a number of grass-roots disability-rights
>> organizations. More thrilling by far, however, was that I made the
>> journalists list.
>>
>> For four years already by July 1990, I had been writing a weekly column
>> on disability rights. Far from being deemed a respectable beat,
>> disability didn’t even make the daily papers much in those days, aside
>> from the sugary heart-wrenching tales of inspiration that, regrettably,
>> are still alive and well in our media.
>>
>> I was trying to do something else, something a bit more substantive and
>> tough-minded, and I believe that every once in a while I succeeded.
>>
>> Convincing my editor at the time that the event was sufficiently
>> newsworthy to warrant my covering it was no small feat. The publisher,
>> however, thought I should go. And so I did. And sent back a Page 1
>> story.
>>
>> The images vie for centerstage in my brain. The gorgeous weather, the
>> palpable energy, the deliciously merged swarm of people with their
>> crutches and canes and wheelchairs, hands flying through the air with
>> American Sign Language, guide dogs sneaking a sniff from a canine
>> colleague under one of the folding chairs.
>>
>> As President George H.W. Bush spoke of that wall that needed to tumble
>> down, the joy in that crowd on the White House South Lawn was such that
>> it would have surprised none of us had someone begun to fly. The air was
>> redolent with hope and promise and a future shining with true equality
>> for everyone.
>>
>> As euphoric as the occasion was, however, I think now that I really saw
>> it as a gift to my friends who used wheelchairs and scooters.
>>
>> Other than the occasional miscreant who thought my lack of physical
>> eyesight translated as an inability to enjoy or have a right to enjoy
>> the simplest of pleasures, my own life seemed pretty standard issue.
>>
>> I had a job, a young family, a niche in my church and neighborhood.
>>
>> Laws in every state already allowed my guide dog entrance to public
>> transport and facilities.
>>
>> We didn’t have the Internet yet, and my then state-of-the-art
>> technology gave me access to various information databases and
>> facilitated transmission of email messages and other data via phone
>> lines.
>>
>> There were a few audible traffic signals being installed here and there,
>> and if movies were too visually complex to follow audibly, we were used
>> to poking our friends or family in the ribs with incessant variations of
>> “Hey! What’s happening?”
>>
>> Of course, there was no Braille signage on hotel rooms, offices, or
>> elevators and, yes, that led to more than one “funny” story
>> involving entering the wrong restroom or sleeping space. But the issues
>> seemed less insurmountable than being excluded from a building
>> altogether due to imposing stairways.
>>
>> What was most thrilling that day was the spirit of the ADA — the
>> president of the United States saying that none of us should be excluded
>> from what it means to be an American, that attitudes needed to change.
>>
>> Discrimination from my perspective came in the form of a ticket
>> attendant at the Cherokee museum who wouldn’t accept my admission
>> money because I couldn’t see the exhibits, or the server who thought
>> my 4-year-old should pour my coffee. And it took a delicious turn that
>> July 26 afternoon when a fellow journalist tried to hide his
>> astonishment that I was queued up to get the same quotes he was, rather
>> than as a grateful supplicant.
>>
>> Of course, the foresight written into the law, which made it apply to
>> technological components not yet conceived, is what renders the ADA to
>> people of all mental and physical differences an essential passport to
>> equality in America.
>>
>> Today, accessing a website with needed information is as critical as
>> entering any brick-and-mortar building, and without laws, many of us
>> would have no hope of traveling those paths.
>>
>> Today, movies are so complex that, without captioning and audio
>> description, those of us with vision or hearing disabilities would be
>> completely left out of this component of our culture.
>>
>> The ADA, hailed then as the most comprehensive piece of civil-rights
>> legislation since 1964, was no panacea, but its promise was dazzling.
>>
>> We have a long way to go. I still encounter doubt and disbelief in the
>> company of strangers, people who see me as less-than because I have a
>> disability. I still encounter web sites, touch kiosks and intersections
>> I can’t navigate.
>>
>> But the promise of the law is still alive and well.
>>
>> I celebrate the passage of the ADA and I celebrate its 25th birthday.
>> With greater anticipation, however, I celebrate the promise of inclusion
>> yet to come.
>>
>> Deborah Kendrick is a Cincinnati writer and advocate for people with
>> disabilities.
>>
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