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Businesses have always, at different times, had to add new tools, techniques, and infrastructure that were not previously required. Adapting to change motivated by new technology, increasing societal expectations, and improved ethics has always been part of the “cost of doing business” for anyone who proposes to serve the public. And it’s not just businesses; local governments and nonprofits have also always adapted, both to further their mission and as a legal requirement.
Over the past 150 years or so, businesses and other public services have been required to implement many entirely new technologies: electric lighting, indoor toilets, telephones, computers, accounting software, fire alarms, electronic security systems, and more recently websites. All of these were once considered expensive luxuries. Even the change from two-pin to three-pin plug sockets involved costs and no doubt frustrated some people. But today we don’t think of these changes as “undue burdens” or even acts of generosity that deserve special praise. So why do we treat wide, step-free entrances and accessible toilets as if they were special amenities worthy of praise?
Sunday, July 26, 2020 marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The law was passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress, and Republican President George H. W. Bush signed it in a ceremony on the White House lawn, joined by hundreds of disability activists who had fought for the new law. The ceremony came after years of intense advocacy, including writing the law itself, pressuring Congress to take it seriously, and participating in visually and emotionally shocking demonstrations such as the “Capitol Crawl” and the occupation of the Capitol Rotunda. Today, the ADA may seem like a logical and inevitable step, motivated by the basic decency of the American people and government. But while these qualities were present, it was primarily disabled people and disability-led organizations who brought the law to fruition, with critical support from allied social movements.
At the risk of becoming boringly repetitive, here is a summary of the ADA:
The Americans with Disabilities Act has four main sections.
Title I provides employment rights for workers and job seekers with disabilities.
Section 2 deals with the obligations of state and local governments, including public buildings, services, and transportation, which the federal government was already subject to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Article 3 concerns “public establishments” – private sector businesses and other organisations that provide goods and services to the general public.
Title IV established several requirements for adaptive telecommunications.
Each title imposes different levels of specific and thorough requirements on non-discrimination, physical accessibility, and reasonable accommodations, with the goal of ensuring equal access and opportunity by:
1. Refrain from overt discrimination. You cannot deny services to someone with a disability simply because they have a disability.
2. Make buildings and other built environments accessible according to detailed accessibility standards. New buildings built after 1992 must be fully accessible. All renovated areas of older buildings must be accessible. And older buildings built before 1992 must be as accessible as is “readily achievable.”
3. Individuals with disabilities should be provided with individual accommodations, simple assistance and flexibility to ensure equal service. For example, retail staff should help a customer in a wheelchair to retrieve an item from a high shelf, even if it is not the employee’s regular job.
Many of these concepts had been tested in previous laws and regulations, such as Section 504 of 1973 and the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, but the ADA was the first law to consolidate them all and apply them to both the public and private sectors nationwide.
Thirty years later, people with disabilities have mixed feelings about the ADA. We appreciate its protections, its guidance on how to ensure equal access, and the way it frames disability issues in terms of civil rights rather than as individual medical issues. At the same time, we recognize the law’s limitations, its susceptibility to abuse and neglect, and its uneven record of the actual change it has wrought. The ADA has changed the literal landscape and conceptual language of disability life in America. But it has also fallen short in terms of full access to community, long-term care, employment, and equal protection for all people with disabilities of any kind, not just white, educated, middle-class people in wheelchairs.
It is right for people with disabilities to celebrate the ADA’s 30th anniversary. We do not want to see the ADA weakened or repealed. But we long for it to be enforced in more creative and directly effective ways. We wish that, 30 years later, discrimination, physical barriers, and inequalities were still less common. And we ourselves must work to extend the protections and meaning of the ADA to our entire complex and diverse disability community…which includes people of color with disabilities, LGBTQ people with disabilities, women with disabilities, and people with hearing, visual, mental, learning, intellectual, and developmental disabilities.
Thirty years is a long time, and the ADA is no longer a “new law” that will take time for people to comply with. There is no longer any reasonable argument for why businesses and other public entities have not yet made the necessary physical and procedural changes. However, many barriers and bad practices remain.
So now is a good time for every business, nonprofit, and local government to re-perform the self-audits they may have done decades ago or have yet to do. You may find work that was not completed long ago. You may also find new challenges and tasks because technology and expectations have changed since the law was first passed. Whether you or your organization existed in 1990 or not, it’s time to ask yourself: Are there still items on your ADA to-do list?
Here are some places to start:
Physical Access
Can people who use wheelchairs, mobility scooters or other mobility aids attend your business? What about people who are unsteady on their feet, like older people?
Is there enough room to move around in your store? Are the counters and tables at a height that is accessible to shorter customers or those in wheelchairs?
If there are public restrooms, do they have access to not only toilets but also sinks, mirrors and towel dispensers?
Online and Information Access
Is your website fully accessible and can it be used by people with visual or hearing impairments?
Are menus, brochures, and other documents printed clearly, without distracting ornamentation or unnecessarily small or decorative fonts? Are alternative formats provided, such as large print, audio clips, transcripts of audio content, or accurate captions for videos?
If written materials are a key part of your organisation’s profile or services, are they written in plain, direct language? Have you considered providing plain language versions that are more accessible to people with learning or intellectual disabilities?
customer service
Do your store staff treat customers with disabilities with friendliness and respect? Remember that common courtesy can still be condescending or embarrassing to a person with a disability. A cashier may be genuinely kind, but if she speaks to an adult with a disability in a childish, singsong tone, she can come across as rude, even if unintentionally.
Do your staff have the flexibility to modify their usual routines to better serve customers with disabilities? Treating customers with disabilities equally often requires different service. Employees at all levels should support this improvisation and allow for reasonable adjustments to rules and procedures without fuss.
employment
Do you accept job applications through a variety of methods and formats? If you only require resumes to be submitted by mail or only conduct interviews in person, you may inadvertently filter out qualified applicants with disabilities.
If you’re interviewing an applicant with a disability or who may have a disability, do you know how to ask the necessary questions without prying or discriminating?
Do you think you would be willing and able to employ people with disabilities? If not, then you may need to address your own ableism. And if you find it hard to imagine people with disabilities of any kind working successfully within your organisation, then your organisation may need to address some of its own systemic ableism.
human resources
Do you pay workers with disabilities a fair wage for their work (at least minimum wage) and pay them at a rate comparable to the same positions and work performed by workers without disabilities?
Do employees with disabilities have equal access to all formal and informal company events, such as retreats, holiday parties, and after-work employee get-togethers?
Do you joke about disabilities or use derogatory terms such as “crazy,” “stupid,” “clumsy,” “lazy,” “slow,” etc.? Do you allow other employees to talk like this? Are you comfortable addressing this issue, or are you worried about limiting people’s “free speech” or disrupting office culture?
We sometimes do good things for the wrong reasons, such as hiring people with disabilities out of charity or to gain public acclaim, and then we are likely not to realize that a good thing has turned into a bad thing. Are your expectations about what hiring people with disabilities means for your organization fair and appropriate?
Like the ADA itself, these questions are merely a starting point, or a restart, not a two-hour exercise in one go. But it’s important to start somewhere, no matter how late, and these questions can provide a jumping off point and a nudge in the right direction. Above all, at this stage, 30 years later, it’s essential to let go of the feeling that these are “new” questions that need “more time” to be solved. It’s never too late to do the right thing. But it’s too late for excuses.