[Ohio-talk] Ohio-Talk Digest, Vol 120, Issue 28

Mon Feb 26 14:35:54 UTC 2018

Yes Owen, it is sad. However, we must appeal to the comon sense and
decency of the American legislature. Drum up the support of our
networks, family and friends, because they know our capabilities,
dreams and hopes.
So, let's fight and claim the victory in advance! Defeat HR 620! CF

On 2/26/18, Owen McCafferty via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> And you know what’s sad and I know this for a fact if you have a friend or
> family member who is a Trump supporter they would say all of this is fake
> news and Thames mainstream media is using this as scare tactics for people
> with disabilities and I am the one that needs to do the research and stop
> listening to CNN!! Sorry to make this more political but I’ve had this
> happen to me when dealing with people on this issue of ADA reform
> Owen
>
>
>
> Owen McCafferty,
>
> Social Media Chair
>
> NFBOH-Cleveland
>
>  P:  (440) 462-9755
>
> C:  440 724-1530
>
> A;PO Box 141077
>
> Cleveland, Ohio 44114
>
> E: ojmccaf1963 at yahoo.com
>
> A: ojmccaf63 at gmail.com
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>
> On Monday, February 26, 2018, 7:00 AM, ohio-talk-request at nfbnet.org wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. The GOP Wants To Gut The Americans With Disabilities Act
>       (Suzanne Turner)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2018 11:18:53 -0500
> From: "Suzanne Turner" <smturner.234 at gmail.com>
> To: "'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List'"
>     <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>,    <NFBOH-Cleveland at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [Ohio-talk] The GOP Wants To Gut The Americans With
>     Disabilities Act
> Message-ID: <001a01d3ae54$54d41f30$fe7c5d90$@gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-7"
>
> 02/22/2018 02:36 pm ET
>
>
> The GOP Wants To Gut The Americans With Disabilities Act
>
>
>  <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/laura-dorwart>
>
>  <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/laura-dorwart> Laura Dorwart
>
> Guest Writer
>
>
>
> undefined undefined via Getty Images
>
> 8.3k
>
> *
>
> *
>
> *
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> *
>
> 26
>
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
>
> <https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/miscellaneous/cb12-134.ht
> ml> Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population is disabled. This means that
> the ADA - the Americans With Disabilities Act, which was passed in 1990
> under President George H.W. Bush's administration - protects the basic
> rights of almost 60 million disabled Americans.
>
> My husband ? a quadriplegic wheelchair-user since a spinal cord injury in
> his 20s, a father to our 6-month-old and a professor at Oberlin College ?
> has found the ADA to be invaluable to our family's ability to participate
> equally in society. In the U.S. House,
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-passes-changes-to-americans-
> with-disabilities-act-over-activists-objections/2018/02/15/c812c9ea-125b-11e
> 8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html?utm_term=.e4f96e4a164a> 213 Republicans and
> 12 Democrats took a step toward making our everyday lives a lot harder by
> voting "yes" on H.R. 620 on Feb. 15.
>
> Misleadingly named "
> <https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/620> The ADA
> Education and Reform Act of 2017," H.R. 620 is posited as legislation that
> would prevent frivolous lawsuits against business by removing incentives to
> comply with accessibility laws. But in actuality, the new bill could
> potentially strip away access to a number of Americans living with
> disabilities.
>
> Much of the support for the measure and its under-the-radar, low fanfare (at
> least in mainstream media coverage) passage relied on widespread public
> inattention to and ignorance about the ADA's significance to disabled
> populations. Rationalizations for H.R. 620 belie either a fundamental
> misunderstanding or willful misrepresentation of both the ADA and the bill
> aiming to gut it.
>
> Dismantling the ADA doesn't just hurt disabled people and their families. It
> hurts all of us.
>
>  In a nutshell,  <https://www.ada.gov/> the ADA protects the rights of
> disabled individuals to participate in public life and access government
> services. A landmark piece of legislation and the
> <http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/ada/> most comprehensive set of
> protections for the disabled population in U.S. history, the bill includes
> specific accessibility guidelines for businesses, particularly in the event
> of new construction or remodeling. The ADA sought to eliminate
> discrimination and to provide a legal incentive for government agencies and
> private businesses to address areas of inequality for the disabled.
>
> This new bill largely dismisses the reality that the heart of the ADA isn't
> about legal action at all. The ADA
> <https://www.teenvogue.com/story/hr-620-could-put-disability-rights-at-risk>
> does not provide for monetary compensation beyond legal fees. The goal of an
> ADA lawsuit is not financial reward, but steps toward equality by compelling
> the business or organization in question to provide accommodations for the
> disabled.
>
> H.R. 620 fundamentally weakens the ADA at its core and imposes an even
> greater burden on disabled people who encounter barriers to access. The
> disabled individual in question would now have to lodge a specific written
> complaint with the business violating the ADA, detailing the changes that
> need to be made for their particular accommodations. The business
> <https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/620/text> would
> have 60 days to respond to acknowledge receipt, and would have another 120
> days to provide proof of "substantial improvement" toward accommodations,
> which is so vaguely worded that it's difficult to enforce or evaluate.
>
> Thus, while H.R. 620's
> <https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/bill-that-would-try-an
> d-stop-drive-by-ada-lawsuits-passes-us-house> proponents claim that it
> untangles "red tape," that's the opposite of its likely outcome for the very
> population the ADA was written to protect, adding months of exhaustive labor
> and bureaucracy-defying logistical feats to our plates without promising a
> favorable outcome.
>
> H.R. 620 sets up a bogeyman in order to quietly roll back basic rights under
> the guise of protecting small businesses. The bill's
> <https://psmag.com/social-justice/congress-is-close-to-gutting-a-key-provisi
> on-of-the-ada> primary backer is the International Council of Shopping
> Centers and any claims from this group that it's merely attempting to
> prevent exploitation and frivolous lawsuits should be viewed with, to put it
> kindly, heavy suspicion. Retail lobbyists were some of the ADA's strongest
> opponents when it first passed, and that hasn't changed.
>
>
>
> yacobchuk via Getty Images
>
> The ADA allows my husband to be an effective parent, to go to work, to
> drive, and to enter public spaces for the purposes of everything from food
> shopping, education and medical care to recreation, exercise and
> socializing. It's the primary factor in my husband's financial independence
> because he can't work somewhere if he can't park, use the restroom or get in
> the door. For many disabled people (for example, wheelchair users who drive
> wheelchair vans), an absence of accessible parking spaces means not going
> anywhere at all.
>
> Disability rights activists fought valiantly against the attempt to
> dismantle the ADAour rights, with
> <https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2018/02/15/house-approve-changes-ada/24727/
>> many ADAPT protesters arrested or removed while demonstrating at the
> Capitol building and in the House gallery on the day of the vote on H.R.
> 620. ADAPT condemned the passage of the bill,
> <http://adapt.org/adapt-condemns-the-passing-of-the-hr-620-bill-in-the-house
> /> writing that "the House decided that the burden of getting justice for
> discrimination against people with disabilities lies with the victim."
>
> It noted that "more than 500 disability rights organizations sent letters to
> Congress opposing the bill." Now, ADAPT is shifting its attention to the
> Senate, where it is trying to prevent a companion bill from being
> introduced.
>
> The ADA has, for many, meant the difference between between second-class
> citizenship (or worse) and equality; between institutionalization and
> independent living; between poverty and the right to establish oneself
> financially. H.R. 620 is not so much an addendum or an amendment but a total
> rollback of the ADA, or at least its most valuable components.
>
> The ADA provides vital support to an
> <http://www.disabilitycanhappen.org/chances_disability/disability_stats.asp>
> increasingly disabled society, in which almost all of us will experience
> disability, whether our own or a loved one's, over the course of our lives.
> Dismantling the ADA doesn't just hurt disabled people and their families. It
> hurts all of us.
>
> Laura Dorwart is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California-San Diego
> with an MFA from Antioch University. Her website is www.lauradorwart.com
> <http://www.lauradorwart.com/> .
>
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-- 
Wishing You All the Best,

Cheryl E. Fields

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human
life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will
never sit.
--D. Elton Trueblood