Senate ADA Amendments Act Introduced with 56 Co-Sponsors

Senators Harkin and Hatch have introduced the ADA Amendments Act – S. 3406 – with 56 original cosponsors! 

While we will have to work hard to gain even more support in the Senate, ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) thanks the state and local organizers and thousands of grassroots supporters who took part in our Road To Freedom bus stop events to support restoration of the ADA; signed our petition; attracted widespread media attention to the need for restoration; and utilized our ADA Restoration Action Center to send thousands of messages calling on Congress to respond to the narrowing of the ADA in the courts.

While there is more that we will have to do next year to restore the ADA, we fully support passage of the ADA Amendments Act.

The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 will restore the civil rights of people with disabilities by:

• Specifically rejecting restrictive interpretations by the Supreme Court that have reduced theprotections for people with disabilities under the ADA
• Directing that the definition of “disability” must be construed broadly, to cover anyone who is discriminated against on the basis of disability. 
• Clarifying the definition of disability, to more clearly prohibit discrimination against people with physical or mental impairments.
• Prohibiting consideration of an individual’s ability to mitigate the effect of a disability (e.g., by taking medications) in determining whether she is eligible for protection from discrimination. 
• Covering individuals who experience discrimination based on a perception that they have an impairment regardless of whether they have a disability.

Here is the list of origional co-sponsors of the Senate ADA Amendments Act:

Harkin, Hatch, Kennedy, Enzi, Specter, Obama, McCain, Dodd, Gregg, Clinton, Alexander, Johnson, Roberts, Kerry, Coleman, Feingold, Snowe, Leahy, Burr, Brown, Smith, Durbin, Murkowski, Lautenberg, Warner, Sanders, Brownback, Reed, Martinez, Mikulski, Isakson, Casey, Craig, Murray, Bennett, Landrieu, Collins, Biden, Allard, Nelson, Sununu, Cardin, Thune, Levin, Barrasso, McCaskill, Crapo, Schumer, Stevens, Salazar, Voinovich, Tester, Cochran, Reid, Luger, Chambliss.

If your both your senators are not on this list, contact them and ask them to support the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. If one or both of your senators are co-sponsors, call them and thank them for supporting the civil rights of people with disabilities.

This is not, however, the ADA Restoration Act we all worked so hard on and it is quickly moving forward without the support of key disability rights organizations and leaders. The concerns being voiced come from many who were vital in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (www.dredf.org), for example, as part of an analysis posted on their website, states that:

“Passage of the current deal will improve the status quo for many, but it will also mean that the opportunity to correct the paradigm to remove severity as a factor of coverage and include many more who are currently unable to use the ADA because they are not considered “disabled enough” will be lost or indefinitely delayed as the new provisions are interpreted up the judicial ladder.”

[The medical severity test evokes eligibility criteria for benefits programs, an area of law that the courts encounter more frequently, rather than supporting a civil rights interpretation. The severity of disability should be irrelevant to whether the plaintiff's impairment resulted in discrimination. The ADA Restoration Act, unlike the ADA Amendments Act, would remove a medical severity test, allowing any person with an actual or perceived impairment the opportunity to show that he or she was subjected to an adverse action on the basis of that impairment.]

ADA Watch/NCDR spend more than18 months on the Road To Freedom bus traveling the United States to promote the original ADA Restoration Act and, in addition to working in coalition with organizations, we have been preparing to build unity and advance a shared disability rights agenda. [See below for what we have been cooking up] But, in the final weeks of this process, we held our public tongue along with AAPD, NCIL, and other national organizations at the request of disability negotiators who were in “delicate” negotiations with the business community.

Well now those negotiations are over, there is a deal that does not allow for any strengthening of the bill by our supporters in Congress, and there is little time to use this process to build community or change public consciousness about disability rights. There also seems to be, in this process, a missed opportunity.

As this process unfolded, ADA Watch/NCDR was at the table and, like others, expressed our concerns regarding content, process and timing. While many say that this is the best deal that could be had in the current environment, and while the Congressional leadership forced us into negotiations with business lobbying groups before it went to the floor, it seems that we, as a community, could have done more to soften the ground leading to these negotiations. A more cohesive and inclusive campaign, much like the one that led to the initial passage of the ADA, could have produced greater unity in our community and capitalized on all of our strengths — from the grassroots advocates to the legal teams, from our lobbyists to our media experts, and more.

ADA Watch/NCDR was praised by the disability negotiators for the extensive media we received in publicly making the case for ADA Restoration on the Road To Freedom bus tour. While we appreciate the praise, the reality is that we have one of the smallest budgets of any national organization – less than the yearly CEO salaries of some of the larger organizations. The fact that we received the bulk of media coverage in the year prior to this deal leaves us wondering what might have been had there been the will to fund either our campaign or another centralized effort to compete against the well-organized campaign of our opponents. While we often say that we are a poor community and that we can never compete with the well-funded corporate lobbyists, the reality is that – while our constituency is poor – there are billions of dollars being raised annually in the name of disability. Isn’t it time that a larger share of those funds went to publically promote the ADA and disability rights – not as charity, not as sympathy, not just as research or cure – but as fundamental civil and human rights.

As we learned in traveling around the country, and as you surely know, we are not winning in the media. More times than not, the ADA is covered as “big government putting ‘Mom and Pop’ stores out of business.” (Never mind that this is fiction and that, more times than not, we are talking about multinational corporations!) These stories are generated directly from the news releases from corporate lobbying groups and associations. When the original ADA Restoration Act was introduced these groups took aim, even declaring that individuals with a “hangnail” were now going to be covered by the ADA! Outrageous as they sound, they have been very effective.

So we are left to guess how the negotiations might have been influenced were there an organized effort that matched or even exceeded that which led to the passage of the ADA in 1990. A campaign that drew fairly on the resources in our community. A campaign with earned and unearned media portraying the struggle for equal opportunity nearly 20 years after passage of the world’s first civil rights law for people with disabilities. Community organizing efforts to teach and build coalition in support of restoration. Maybe even an ADAPT action at the Chamber of Commerce after the “hangnail” remarks. A united community pushing for full restoration of the ADA.

While, as an organization, we are not second-guessing our colleagues and have expressed support for the ADA Amendments Act, it is difficult not to imagine the results of a more unified effort. One that, in addition to the considerable legal drafting and negotiations, put similar emphasis – and funding – on the other “prongs” of the social change “pitchfork.” That we could have gotten more seems evident in the now public sentiment of at least one of the business lobbyists involved in the negotiations. Randel Johnson, a vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, referring to the original ADA Restoration Act, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, “We couldn’t beat this bill so there was a need for a compromise…”

Concerns about timing have also been raised in regard to sending this bill to President Bush, as the Administration responded to passage of the Act in the House with criticism that it “could unduly expand” coverage and significantly increase litigation. This criticism follows the Bush Administration’s release of federal regulations that many disability rights experts declare will further weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act. As disability rights attorney, Steve Gold reports, “On June 17, 2008, the Department of Justice issued proposed rules to the ADA’s federal regulations which, if adopted, will significantly undercut the original 1990 compromises and will impose numerous regressive restrictions. Many of the proposed rules will ensure that full accessibility will be, at best, postponed indefinitely.”

The process leading to passage of the ADA Amendments Act has undeniably taken a toll on our community. There are many divisions, many bruised egos, many damaged relationships. When the smoke clears, we hope there is an awareness that there remains a need for a unified campaign to change the “hearts and minds” of Americans regarding the ADA and disability rights. We don’t claim that our coalition alone is the answer to fill that need, but we hope that we can be a part of such an effort. And as we assess what happened, we should avoid the polarizing – and often self-serving – characterizations highlighting supposed dichotomies in our community such as “disabled”/nondisabled, lawyers/lay-advocates, Inside/Outside the Beltway, physical/mental disabilities, rights/research, and the like. This is not a time for further segregation but for greater unity.

This certainly is not our last legislative battle and many in our community have said that laws alone will not lead to the kind of social change we are seeking. The “missed opportunity” that many are seeing in this process will present itself again. Perhaps, however, we should not wait for the next battle and can commit now to greater unity and the fostering of a stronger disability community. Now, more than ever it seems, we need to join together behind a common agenda and we need to unite all aspects of what we call the “disability community.” We need to work together as national, state and local organizations; legal, non-legal and self-advocacy organizations; advocates and academics; youth organizations; rights and research organizations; student and educator organizations; parent and family organizations; aging organizations; as well as associated non-disability led civil rights and social justice organizations.

We can’t afford to exclude anybody who wants to get behind our vision of equality and opportunity for people with disabilities in America.

See below for what the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) has in the works for fostering “unity in the community” and changing public consciousness about disability rights. New membership information for NCDR has just been posted at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3621464/NCDRMembership-

What do you think? Contact ADA Watch/NCDR’s president, Jim Ward, directly and share your thoughts. He can be reached by email at jimward@ncdr.org and our mailing address is:

ADA Watch/National Coalition for Disability Rights
ATTN: Jim Ward
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 900S
Washington, DC 20004

The National Coalition for Disability Rights Looks Ahead…

Here is a look at what we are working on to do our part in community organizing, coalition-building and public awareness. As always, we are seeking individual and organizational support to fulfill our mission. Please contact us if you have time and skills – or a financial contribution – that you would like to contribute to our effort. Along with organizers, media experts, writers and graphic designers, we are especially looking for technicians with experience in Joomla to put the finishing touches on our new online community news and action center.

Road To Freedom: Our “mobile marketing” bus continues to roll across America, spreading the message of disability rights as essential civil rights. We have traveled nearly 40,000 miles to every state. More than 100 bus stop media events have been produced in partnership with state and local disability organizations. These events have attracted extensive media attention and included Members of Congress, Governors, Mayors and other state and local policymakers. We are currently editing both a documentary film and book of the first year of this journey and disability rights history. Look for the Road To Freedom bus at the National Council on Independent Living conference in Washington, DC next month, where we will lead a convoy of vehicles to the National Forum on Disability Issues with the presidential candidates on July 26, the 18th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To view photos from the road, go to: http://adawatch.smugmug.com/gallery/2925333_qPCEV

National Agenda for Disability Rights: While some might define their coalition based on disability, NCDR seeks to build unity around pressing issues of common concern. In this spirit, NCDR will be launching a drive to promote a National Agenda for Disability Rights – a declaration of values and goals to advance equity and opportunity for people with disabilities. This document, which is being vetted at the national, state and local levels, seeks to build unity and broadly focuses on civil rights, housing, government services, transportation, education, healthcare, assistive technology and more. We will need your help to get national, state and local organizations to sign-on in support of the vetted Agenda. At this early stage, it should not be assumed that each organization associated with our Board of Directors, National Advisory Committee, or State Coalition Steering Committee necessarily supports this document. This document has just been posted for comments at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3620189/A-National-Agenda-for-Disability-Rights

Community Organizing: NCDR seeks to place a vetted National Agenda for Disability Rights at the center of an intensive community organizing project to build coalition within the disability community at the national, state and local levels. NCDR has been in the process of reaching out to leading community organization educators with the help of the Association for Community Organization & Social Administration. ACOSA is a membership organization for community organizers, activists, nonprofit administrators, community builders, policy practitioners, students and educators. Wikipedia explains that, while “organizing describes any activity involving people interacting with one another in a formal manner, much community organizing is in the pursuit of a common agenda. Community organizers create social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved.”

NCDR Issue Areas: NCDR has identified key areas of focus for our educational and advocacy efforts. These areas correspond with leadership committees to be comprised of leaders in respective areas as well as associated online content areas of the new ADAWatch.org website and Action Center. Contact us if you are interested in serving on one of these committees and/or writing for a website topic area. These areas are:

1. Civil Rights & Discrimination
2. Poverty & Social Justice
3. Healthcare & Public Policy
4. Community Organizing & Coalition-Building
5. Media & Public Outreach
6. Disability Rights History    

New Website and Action Center: NCDR has been putting extensive work into rebuilding our online community news and action center that will reside at www.adawatch.org and www.ncdr.org. Launching prior to the anniversary of the ADA on July 26th, the new website will:

• Highlight news and coalition activities in our key areas of focus
• Provide breaking news and action alerts impacting the disability community
• Incorporate online advocacy tools from Democracy In Action
• Provide state pages and action tools to build the capacity of state cross-disability coalition
• Highlight community leaders, academics and writers by way of opinion columns and articles
• Promote “town hall” forums to increase community influence on national organizations and public policy   

NCDR looks forward to working with you build a united disability community to create a more equitable and just Nation. As always, let us know what you think.

This vital legislation will restate and clarify the intent of Congress in order to keep the promise of the ADA. Please take action now to encourage members of Congress to sign-on and pass this legislation which was drafted with the support of a broad coalition of disability organizations.  

Contact Congress
Click the link above to tell your representatives in Congress to support the ADA Restoration Act.

Sign the Petition
Click the link above to show your support for passage of the ADA Restoration Act. We will distribute the petitions to Congress and the media.

Tell Your Story
Click the link above to tell your story about disability discrimination, how the ADA has helped you or how the promise of the ADA is still unfulfilled. We will share these testimonials with Congress and the media.

Get On the Bus
Click the link above to follow the Road To Freedom: Keeping the Promise of the ADA, our year-long, cross-country bus tour promoting the restoration of the ADA.   Freedom bus Check out the tour schedule, read the blog and view photos of our journey so far covering more than 14,000 miles, 30 states and 45 bus stop events.

Background:
Seventeen years ago, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with overwhelming bipartisan support. However, in recent years, a number of Supreme Court decisions have significantly reduced the protections available to people with disabilities in employment settings.

Courts are quick to side with businesses and employers, deciding against people with disabilities who challenge employment discrimination 97% of the time, often before the person has even had a chance to show that the employer treated them unfairly.

Indeed, courts have created an absurd Catch-22 by allowing employers to say a person is “too disabled” to do the job but not “disabled enough” to be protected by the ADA. People with conditions like epilepsy, diabetes, HIV, cancer, hearing loss, and mental illness that manage their disabilities with medication, prosthetics, hearing aids, etc. — or “mitigating measures” — are viewed as “too functional” to have a disability and are denied the ADA’s protection from employment discrimination.

People denied a job or fired because an employer mistakenly believes they cannot perform the job or because the employer does not want people with disabilities in the workplace are also denied the ADA’s protection from employment discrimination.

The Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act (H.R. 3195), introduced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), would restore the original intent of the historic Americans with Disabilities Act. The bipartisan bill would reverse recent court decisions that have made it easier for employers to discriminate against workers with disabilities.

Full Story Continues Below…

The Road To Freedom bus and traveling exhibit has been on the road promoting passage of the ADA Restoration Act. Here is what you can do to learn more and take action to restore civil rights protections for people with disabilities:

1) Sign the Petition to restore the ADA at: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/adawatch/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=589&t=roadtofreedom.dwt

2) Urge Congress to pass the ADA Restoration Act at: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/adawatch/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6722&t=roadtofreedom.dwt

3) View photos and descriptions of the Road To Freedom bus tour events across America at: http://adawatch.smugmug.com/gallery/2925333

4) View samples of news coverage on the ADA Restoration Act generated by the Road To Freedom tour at: http://roadtofreedom.org/cs/press_room

Story continues…

With several rulings beginning in 1999, the Supreme Court dramatically narrowed the definition of who is protected under the ADA. The court held that disabled workers who are able to mitigate their impairments, such as by wearing hearing aides or taking medication, should not be considered disabled. In such cases, these workers would have no remedy under the law when they are discriminated against because of their disability. In other words, an employer could fire or refuse to hire a fully qualified worker simply on the basis of his or her disability, while contending in court that the worker is not “disabled enough” to qualify for protection under the law – a Catch-22 that workers’ advocates said today must be remedied.

Hoyer, who was the chief House sponsor of the ADA in 1990, testified that Congress needs to act to ensure that workers with disabilities are treated fairly in the workplace.

“The bill does not seek to expand the rights guaranteed under the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. Instead, it seeks to clarify the law, restoring the scope of protection available under the ADA,” said Hoyer. “It responds to court decisions that have sharply restricted the class of people who can invoke protection under the law. And it reinstates the original Congressional intent when we passed the ADA.”

“Despite our progress, the courts – including the U.S. Supreme Court – have narrowly interpreted the ADA, limiting its scope and undermining its intent,” Hoyer continued.  “We could not have fathomed that people with diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions, cancer, and mental illnesses would have their ADA claims kicked out of court because, with medication, they would be considered too functional to meet the definition of ‘disabled.’”

Carey McClure testified that an initial job offer was revoked by General Motors because of his muscular dystrophy. But the courts ruled that because McClure had adapted to his condition by modifying the way he performed everyday tasks such as showering or brushing his teeth, he was not disabled and, therefore, not protected by the ADA.

“Even though GM revoked my offer because of my disability, GM’s lawyer started arguing to the federal courts that I didn’t have a disability at all,” said McClure. “Well, you can’t have it both ways – am I disabled or not? If I am, then the ADA should have been there to protect me. If I’m not, then I should be working…at GM right now.”

Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said that the initial promise of protecting disabled workers under the ADA has largely faded as a result of Supreme Court rulings.

“In 1990, the ADA was heralded as an ‘emancipation proclamation’ for people with disabilities,” said Imparato. “Seventeen years later, on account of judicial activism, we are far from having a law that can be counted on to safeguard the fair treatment of people with disabilities in the workplace.”

Robert Burgdorf, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia, agreed and noted that fewer than one in ten ADA complaints is successful.

“Even a cursory review of the cases decided under the ADA reveals a plethora of court decisions in which people with conditions everyone thought were covered under the law when it was enacted have had their lawsuits thrown out of court based on technical, harshly narrow interpretations of what a ‘disability’ is,” said Burgdorf.

“It is evident that the Supreme Court’s misinterpretation of Congress’s intent when enacting the ADA has left many Americans without protection from workplace discrimination,” said Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions. “Without question, Congress must act to rectify this mistake so individuals like Carey McClure can apply for a job without fear of being fired because of their disability.”

http://edlabor.house.gov

http://support.tennessean.com/blogs/?p=5494 

By Michael Cass

(Nashville, Tennessee) The cross-country Road to Freedom tour stopped in Nashville on Wednesday to pitch the importance of preserving the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Mayor Karl Dean and Councilman Darren Jernigan were there to talk about the cause. Advocates for the ADA, which Congress passed in 1990, say its power to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities has been steadily eroded by federal court decisions favoring employers over workers. The advocates are now lobbying Congress to pass an “ADA Restoration Act.”

“We must restore the language, we must restore the intent of the ADA,” said Jernigan, who became the first Metro councilman with a physical disability when he was elected to represent District 11 in Old Hickory this year. “We will not go quietly into the night.”

Dean helped ensure that Metro government complied with the ADA when he was the city’s law director from 1999 until earlier this year. He said Nashville “needs to be an accessible city.”"I know as a city we can do more. We need to do more,” the mayor said at a news conference outside the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, which displayed a photo exhibit related to the tour. The Road to Freedom bus has been on the road since last November, stopping in 44 states, said one of its riders, Jim Ward, president of the National Coalition for Disability Rights. The bus will return to Washington, D.C., where it started, on Nov. 15.

 

http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/200710295

By Eric Eyre
Staff writer

A national bus tour exhibit about the disability rights movement will make a stop this weekend at the South Charleston Wal-Mart on Corridor G. West Virginia leads the nation with more than 27 percent of residents reporting they are disabled, according to national health surveys. Nearly 10 percent of West Virginians have health problems that require special equipment — also the highest rate in the United States.

The bus tour includes a multimedia display about the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act and photographs from Tom Olin, whose work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

“The Act is extremely important here in West Virginia because we have so many people with disabilities,” said David Stewart, coordinator for the West Virginia ADA Coalition. The “Road to Freedom Tour” has stopped at 65 events in 44 states during the past year, a journey that has stretched more than 20,000 miles. The exhibits explain the struggle for disability rights and promote the expansion of educational and economic opportunities for children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities.

The ADA was designed to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. Stewart said 70 percent of disabled people of working age in the United States don’t have jobs. Also, 90 percent of people who file disability rights lawsuits in federal court wind up losing, he said. Stewart said U.S. Supreme Court rulings have eroded the Act in recent years.

“The United States of America made a promise to people with disabilities, and it’s not being upheld,” Stewart said. “We need to make people aware of what’s happening, the history of the Act, and why it’s important.”

Jim Ward, president of ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights, travels on the bus and plans to talk about problems with the Act, which became law 17 years ago. Ward also is collecting signatures that he will present to Congress, urging lawmakers to approve the proposed ADA Restoration Act. West Virginia disability rights advocates also plan to speak at this weekend’s event.

“This is very significant, and it’s extremely relevant in West Virginia,” said Seth DiStefano, field organizer with the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The photographic display alone is worth a visit.” The exhibit will be open 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Southridge Centre Wal-Mart, 2700 Mountaineer Boulevard, South Charleston.

To contact staff writer Eric Eyre, use e-mail or call 348-4869.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/619890,adabus.article

By Michelle L. Quinn
Post-Tribune correspondent

MERRILLVILLE — Life since the Americans with Disabilities Act has improved in a way that a road full of potholes spot-filled with asphalt is improved: It’s better but still fundamentally flawed.

People with disabilities have better access to buildings and have their own washrooms and parking spaces, said Jim Ward, president of ADA Watch and the National Coalition of Disability Rights, during his stop at Everybody Counts, Inc. on Wednesday.

But that’s only one small fraction of a larger issue that continues to leave much of the population sliding through the cracks, he said. Ward and his family have been touring the country for the past year in their “Road to Freedom” bus. They have stopped at 65 events in 44 states, spreading both the victories and obstacles of the ADA through a display shot by photographer Tom Olin.

Ward and the bus came to Merrillville as a kickoff to other initiatives Everybody Counts and its sister organization, Indiana F.A.C.E.S., plan to implement, said Indiana F.A.C.E.S. executive director Emma Sullivan.

“We’ve committed to host three more discussions like this one today here in Northwest Indiana and eight more around the state,” Sullivan said. “We want to continue the discussion we’re having here today.”

According to Ward, 95 percent of ADA employment-related court cases are dismissed before ever going to a jury because people with disabilities aren’t found “disabled enough.”

“Disabilities are determined by ‘mitigating measures,’ like if you have epilepsy and you take medication for it, courts are ruling you’re no longer disabled,” Sullivan said. “But those mitigating measures can change at any time.”

The Road To Freedom is supporting the ADA Restoration Act, legislation introduced in Congress this past July which will clarify the intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act and restore these civil rights protections.

“Are we looking for special rights? No. We’re just asking for equal rights,” Ward, who’s a person with bipolar disorder, said. “The world’s wealthiest nation doesn’t respond to its own humanity.”

——————————–

To learn more:

For more information on the Road to Freedom bus and exhibit, log on to roadtofreedom.org

http://www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-11/119269385953160.xml&coll=1

By Diane Lederman

AMHERST – About 50 people, some in wheelchairs, some on crutches or with service dogs, gathered yesterday to welcome the Road to Freedom bus to Stavros Center for Independent Living.

James Ward, president of the National Coalition for Disability Rights, has been traveling around the country in his red, white and blue bus since November with his wife and two children to teach people about the Americans with Disabilities Act and to listen to stories about how the act is failing to protect those who need it.

His stop here was one of about 60 across the country, a journey that has stretched more than 20,000 miles, he said.

Ward, who said he suffers from an invisible disability – mental illness – was also collecting signatures that he will bring to Congress urging the approval of the ADA Restoration Act that will address some of the problems with the act that was approved 17 years ago.

He said the act has improved physical access, but over the years the courts have interpreted it narrowly, and many people with disabilities had their cases dismissed.

“Judges are not supposes to write law,” he said. They’re supposed to interpret it.

The restoration act, he said will address and create the law that Congress believed it was passing.

James A. Kruidenier, executive director of Stavros, said having the bus stop “is a wonderful opportunity for people to learn about the issues.” Also, he said, “It’s a way to get people together. We’re very glad for the chance.”

Mark C. Rossi, of Agawam, is a comedian who uses a wheelchair. He said people with disabilities are invisible. He talked about an elderly woman at the Holyoke Mall who in her manual wheelchair couldn’t make her way out of the store last holiday season. Rossi, who said he’s about 450 pounds, told her to hold on to the back of his motorized chair and helped clear the way.

Addressing a crowd, Ward said, “We’re not looking for special rights. We’re not looking for special privileges.” He said people just want to be treated fairly.

He said there’s a Catch 22 because some people can’t get hired because of their disabilities, but their disability isn’t apparent enough for them to be protected by the law.

“We’re not going to give up the battle. We’re going to make the ADA the sweeping civil rights law it was intended to be,” he urged the crowd.

“Let’s get on the bus for equal opportunity,” he said. “Let’s get on the bus for freedom.”

The tour includes a multimedia display and exhibit highlighting the history of the disability rights movement and the passage of the disability act.

©2007 The Republican© 2007 MassLive.com All Rights Reserved.

 

Campaign To Toughen ADA Visits Amherst, Massachusetts 
By Paul Tuthill, WAMC Public Radio Bureau Chief

http://publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1167730

AMHERST, MA (2007-10-17) A national campaign to strengthen the Americans with Disabilities Act , called The Road to Freedom, rolled into the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts this afternoon…WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports…..

Listen to this radio news report >>

 

By Mark Zaretsky  

NEW HAVEN — If you’re someone without a disability, you may think that when Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, it took care of problems people with disabilities may have with accessibility and opportunity. But a traveling “freedom tour” landed on the New Haven Green Sunday, and dozens of Connecticut disabilities rights advocates spent the day spreading the message that 17 years later, the ADA is threatened. And particularly threatened by some court decisions by judges who opted to narrowly interpret the law. The advocates say the law is in need of protection, reinforcement and, in some cases, repair.

The event on the Green celebrated “disability culture.” The Road to Freedom Bus Tour, a project of ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights, is touring all 50 states to urge Congress to keep the promise of the ADA and build support for passage of the proposed ADA Restoration Act in order to do that.

“We feel that the Americans with Disabilities Act over the years has been weakened by a lot of the court cases,” said Heather Northrup, coordinator of CT-KASA, which is an acronym for “Connecticut Kids As Self Advocates.”

CT-KASA, an organization that, except for Northrup, is largely run by youths, was one of two such organizations that organized the New Haven stop. The other was the Connecticut Youth Leadership Project. Jeff Prushko of Shelton, one of CT-KASA’s two youth co-facilitators, said events like Sunday’s let people know about ADA, as well as how it falls short.While many people might think the passage of ADA solved the problem, “there are many places where new buildings are built” that, while largely accessible, don’t have things such as “paddle buttons” to help people like Prushko, who use wheelchairs, enter the building. Prushko, 16, a junior at Shelton High School, cited the relatively new Shelton Intermediate School as one such example.The event included afternoon-long entertainment on the Green and a host of information displays in the first and second floor of the City Hall atrium, along with a visit by the traveling “Road to Freedom” RV and exhibits that included a display of the photos of Tom Olin, who for decades has documented the history of the disability rights movements in much the same way that earlier photographers captured the civil rights movement.“Nothing is given to us” without hard work, said Olin, who has carved out a documentary legacy despite his own outwardly subtle disability: dyslexia. Olin, who is in the process of moving from Kansas to Milwaukee, said one of the most interesting things about Sunday’s gathering “is that two primarily youth groups are putting this on.” He said that Connecticut is one of the few places where young people are relatively out front in the fight for disability rights.Nicole Beno, 17, a senior at Tourtellotte Memorial High School in Thompson who is a member of the Connecticut Youth Leadership Project, said the Road to Freedom Bus Tour “promotes equality for everyone.“I don’t think there is” full equality “right now,” Beno said. “People may treat you nice, but I think they don’t always look at you as a human being.” While some people’s problems or difference “are more visible” than others, “everybody is unique,” Beno said.——————————————————————————–Mark Zaretsky can be reached at mzaretsky@nhregister.com or 789-5722.