The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law July 26, 1990, after years of lobbying, refining, and tweaking.
The law was written very broadly and does not provide enough protection for individuals with disabilities. Congress is again working on the bill, attempting to restore the original intentions of protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. Some people are not able enough to do a job but still not disabled enough to qualify for ADA protection. Read this article on that Catch 22 that is eroding the heart of the ADA.
Then call your elected officials and ask that they support HR3195/S1881, the ADA Restoration Act. This is urgently important.
The law was written very broadly and does not provide enough protection for individuals with disabilities. Congress is again working on the bill, attempting to restore the original intentions of protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. Some people are not able enough to do a job but still not disabled enough to qualify for ADA protection. Read this article on that Catch 22 that is eroding the heart of the ADA.
Then call your elected officials and ask that they support HR3195/S1881, the ADA Restoration Act. This is urgently important.
technorati tags: Americanswithdisabilitiesact, ada, adarestoration, discrimination, catch22, downthemspath, disability, healthcare
3 comments:
The ADA is a wedge in the door and the Norms (those healthy pricks who don't think that it should cost them anything, [even if, god forbid, they get sick and that costs them everything,]) are going to do everything and anything to stop it.
Never mind that the 'States is the only developed country on this planet which treats its citizens so shabbily, so wantonly, so despicably cravenly, as sacrificial lambs to their god Mannon (even when its a self sacrifice).
Billions and billions for blowing holes in the sands of some foreign hell-holes and bugger-all for universal health care.
I only hope George Bush's progenitors inherit some brains and some humanity, instead of his and his daddy's cupidity, stupidity and willful failure, near psychopathy, to see that 15% of people are disabled and, while the individuals in that percentage may change, it inhuman to demand that those people just catch fire and die, so as not to inconvenience them...
Point of clarification: The ADA is meant to protect disabled Americans who ARE able to work. The trouble is, EMPLOYERS have been trying to tell certain workers to their face that they are "too disabled" to do the job (even if they are, in fact, very qualified and need only simple accommodations) while simultaneously telling the courts that they aren't "disabled enough." In other words, employers are trying to have it both ways at once. And the courts have so badly managled their interpretation of the ADA that they have allowed employers to get away with this double speak.
To Charles A. Rovira: I'm not a fan of Bush either--father OR son. But I'm still a fan of accuracy, so I feel compelled to point out that it was Bush the senior who signed the original ADA into law in the first place.
I have been blogging on the ADA Restoration Act over at reunifygally.wordpress.com -- I hope you'll drop by some time and browse.
Reunifygally is a little quiet because I've been focusing more of my energy on my other, newer blog, We Can Do, on disability, poverty, and human rights in developing countries. But I do still add an occasional new post on the ADA Restoration Act there. And I also track blogging activity on the topic.
Andrea
http://reunifygally.wordpress.com (ADA Restoration Act and other topics)
http://wecando.wordpress.com (Disability, poverty, human rights, and other international development issues in developing countries)
Some good books on the ADA are The Disability Pendulum by Ruth Colker and Understanding he Americans with Disabilities Act (2nd version) by William Goren. The ADA was broad to protect more people. It is the courts that have narrowed the coverage with their rulings. Congress created the ADA and the courts interpret it.
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