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Chronicling
disability rights, self-determination
and the movement toward full
community inclusion around the world.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Year Eleven, Edition
2041
HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY ADA!!!
Dear reader,
In honor of the 20th anniversary of the
signing of the American with Disabilities Act,
I have changed today's format
to include links to several columnists that have commented on the law.
And,
since all of today's articles are about the ADA, I have only included a Below
The Fold page with links sorted by location in the USA:
Inclusion Daily
Express will return to the usual formats tomorrow. -- Dave
Today's front section features 7 news and information items, each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Today's "Below the Fold" list has links to 102 other
ADA items:
Sorted By Location (only)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/btf/07261099.htm
Featured headlines:
1. Happy 20th Birthday
ADA!!! (Spokane, Washington, USA)
2. White House
Marks 20th Anniversary Of ADA With New Initiatives (Washington, DC,
USA)
3. Congressman Langevin Makes History As First
Wheelchair User To Preside Over U.S. House (Washington, DC,
USA)
4. U.S. House Passes Bipartisan Measure To Improve
Access To Technology (Washington, DC, USA)
5. Senator Tom Harkin: "The ADA Has Changed America"
(Washington, DC, USA)
6. ADA Questions And Answers With
Andrew J. Imparato (Washington, DC, USA)
7. TODAY'S FEATURED ADA COLUMNS
Joni Eareckson Tada: I'm
a person, not a condition
John Hockenberry: Twenty Years of the
Americans with Disabilities Act
Ann Ford: 20 Years Ago, Disabilities
Came Out of the Shadows
Deborah Kendrick: Disabilities law changed
our perceptions
Deborah Kendrick: ADA was a godsend to
disabled
Ben Mattlin: Looking Back On 20 Years Of Disability
Rights
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"The ADA has changed America in ways
largely invisible to most citizens but profoundly transformative for tens of
millions of Americans with disabilities."
--U.S. Senator Tom Harkin,
from Iowa, who wrote and sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990
(Fifth story)
"I believe most of us recognize intellectually that we are all
created equal, but we need to help children and young adults go deeper in
understanding what disabled people contribute to society and how valuable they
are as human beings, not just to God, but to all of us."
--Joni
Eareckson Tada, author, disability advocate and the founder of Joni and Friends
International Disability Center (Sixth story)
---
Happy 20th Birthday ADA!!!
Commentary by Dave
Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 26, 2010
SPOKANE,
WASHINGTON--On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into effect
Public Law 101-306, commonly known as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I was working at a Salem, Oregon Goodwill Industries at the time and knew little about the law or the event. The next day, a coworker of mine named Mike (who knew much more about these matters than I did) told me this was the most sweeping law for people with disabilities. Mike also predicted that the people who would benefit the most from the ADA over the coming years would be attorneys.
"The ADA is so vague, they are going to spend the next twenty years in the courts just trying to figure out what it means," Mike explained.
Well, here we are twenty years later, and, what do you know . . . he was partly right.
Entire article:
Happy 20th Birthday ADA!!! (Inclusion Daily
Express)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/ada/20bday.htm
--
White House Marks 20th Anniversary Of ADA With New
Initiatives
(Associated Press)
July 26, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC--
[Excerpt] President Barack Obama marked Monday's 20th anniversary of a landmark
anti-discrimination law for people with disabilities by promising to boost
government efforts at recruiting, hiring and retaining people with physical and
mental limitations.
In a sun-splashed ceremony on the White House South Lawn, Obama signed an executive order requiring the federal personnel agency to develop model guidelines for hiring people with disabilities, and announced a series of other measures:
The Justice Department is publishing new rules to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities by more than 80,000 state and local government agencies and 7 million private businesses.
Beginning in 2012, all new construction must meet enhanced design standards for doors, windows, elevators and bathrooms. The requirement covers everything from stores and restaurants to schools, stadiums, hospitals, hotels and theaters.
New federal rules are being drafted to ensure people with disabilities better access to websites.
"Not dependence, but independence," Obama said. "That's what the (disabilities law) was all about."
Entire article:
Obama marks 20th anniversary of Disabilities
Act
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726a.htm
Related:
Celebrate
20 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act! (American Association of
People With Disabilities)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726b.htm
Obama's
top disability adviser on ADA's 20th anniversary (Washington Post)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726c.htm
Department
of Justice Announces Plans to Prepare New ADA Regulations (U.S. Department of
Justice)
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/July/10-crt-850.html
Chicago's
Marca Bristo, Marlee Matlin, mark 20th anniversary of Americans with
Disabilities Act at White House (Chicago Sun-Times)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726d.htm
---
Congressman Langevin Makes History As First Wheelchair User To
Preside Over U.S. House
(Boston Globe)
July 26,
2010
WASHINGTON, DC-- [Excerpt] On the 20th anniversary of the Americans
with Disabilities Act, Rhode Island Congressman Jim Langevin today became the
first person who uses a wheelchair to preside over a session of the U.S. House
of Representatives, thanks to a series of mechanical lifts recently installed
to make the speaker's rostrum accessible.
Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, was paralyzed from the chest down in a shooting accident in Warwick, Rhode Island when he was 16. He was working at the Warwick Police Department, when a gun accidentally discharged in the station locker room. The bullet damaged Langevin's spinal cord.
The Disabilities Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, forbade discrimination and opened public places to people who had mental or physical disabilities.
At a Capitol Hill reception shortly before Langevin took the rostrum, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Langevin has inspired his colleagues, and that his taking a turn with the gavel is "the best possible way to commemorate the passage" of the ADA.
In brief remarks, Langevin recalled lying in the hospital after his accident, and taking inspiration from others who had overcome life-changing injuries. "I hope some other young person . . . will see that they can succeed, too," he said.
Entire article:
Langevin becomes first person who uses a
wheelchair to preside over a session of the House
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726e.htm
---
U.S. House Passes Bipartisan Measure To Improve Access To
Technology
(Associated Press)
July 26, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC--
[Excerpt] The House on Monday celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Americans
with Disabilities Act by approving legislation assuring that the disabled have
full access to the Internet and television.
"The ADA mandated physical ramps into buildings," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., sponsor of the bill. "Today, individuals with disabilities need online ramps to the Internet so they can get to the Web from wherever they happen to be."
The bill, which passed 348-23 and now moves to the Senate, takes such steps as making it easier for the blind to access the Internet from smart phones, providing deaf people with the ability to watch new TV programs online with captions included, and requiring that telecom equipment used to make calls over the Internet be compatible with hearing aids.
Entire article:
House acts to improve Internet access for
disabled
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726f.htm
Related:
Markey
Bill to Make Technology Accessible to All Passes House, 20th Anniversary of ADA
Law (TMCNet)
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/07/27/4921352.htm
---
Senator Tom Harkin: "The ADA Has Changed
America"
(Politico)
July 26, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC-- [Excerpt]
The Americans with Disabilities Act -- signed into law on July 26, 1990 -- has
been described as the Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities.
It sets four goals for people with disabilities: equal opportunity, full
participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency.
But at its heart, the ADA is simple. In the words of one activist, this landmark law is about securing for people with disabilities the most fundamental of rights: "the right to live in the world." It ensures they can go places and do things that other Americans take for granted.
I will always remember a young Iowan named Danette Crawford. In 1990, she was just 14. She used a wheelchair and lived with great pain. But she campaigned hard for the ADA. When I told her that the ADA would mean better educational opportunities and prevent workplace discrimination, Danette said: "Those things are very important. But, you know, what I really want to do is just be able to go out and buy a pair of shoes like anybody else."
Two decades later, people with disabilities can do that -- and so much more. The ADA has changed America in ways largely invisible to most citizens but profoundly transformative for tens of millions of Americans with disabilities.
Entire article:
ADA at 20: A nation transformed
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726g.htm
---
ADA Questions And Answers With Andrew J. Imparato
(Washington
Post)
July 26, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC-- [Excerpt] Andrew J. Imparato,
president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, was
online Monday, July 26, at 12:45 p.m. ET to discuss the 20th anniversary of the
Americans with Disabilities Act, a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits
discrimination based on disability which was signed into law by President
George H.W. Bush in 1990.
[Question] Where has the ADA been most successful in achieving its goals and which area of the ADA is most in need of federal enforcement?
[Answer] I would say the greatest success has been around the built environment, and the telecommunications and transportation infrastructure for our country. We still have work to do in these areas and others, but the rate of progress has been pretty considerable when you consider how inaccessible our country was 20 years ago.
[Question] What do you see as top priorities for the next generation of disability rights activists?
[Answer] I think the next generation of disability rights activists need to make using the web to reach more people and build a stronger, more cohesive voting bloc a significant priority. Every issue we care about, from accessible technology to fighting Medicaid cuts to enforcement of civil rights in the workplace, will be easier to accomplish if we get organized and make voter registration and voter mobilization a priority in every election.
Entire article:
Americans with Disabilities Act
Anniversary
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726h.htm
---
# 7 TODAY'S FEATURED ADA
COLUMNS:
Joni Eareckson Tada: I'm a person, not a condition
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/26/tada.disabilities.law/
John
Hockenberry on Twenty Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726k.htm
Ann
Ford: 20 Years Ago, Disabilities Came Out of the Shadows
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726m.htm
Deborah
Kendrick: Disabilities law changed our perceptions
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726n.htm
Deborah
Kendrick: ADA was a godsend to disabled
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0726p.htm
Ben
Mattlin: Looking Back On 20 Years Of Disability Rights
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128697147
---
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Dave
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