The Americans with Disabilities Act

Work gives focus and purpose to human lives. Whether a person should be hired or fired should be based on the merits, on whether you can do the job. If you are discriminated against because you have a medical condition, and you are able to do the job despite the disability, your civil rights to employment should be protected. Every American should share in the prosperity and justice on which our nation has been built.

The asylums that isolated some people from a normal life gave way to a promise of equal participation with passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. But court decisions in disability cases negating the intent of the law and recent conservative appointments to the US Supreme Court have become a serious threat to the achievement of equal rights for the people this legislation was intended to protect.

Efforts to achieve equal rights for people with disabilities began in the 1940s with the establishment of advocacy groups for persons who were blind, had physical disabilities, or were paralyzed war veterans. The deinstitutionalization movement, sparked by journalistic reports of appalling conditions in psychiatric facilities, was propelled by advances in medicine. The Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 provided funds for community-based services and fostered the independence of persons with disabilities.

Legislation for neurologic conditions followed but mainly focused on education and did not emphasize the integration of people with disabilities into the workforce. In 1970, the federal Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Act provided states with funds to serve those with “neurologic handicaps originating in childhood,” including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and mental retardation. Congress later passed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, guaranteeing children with disabilities the right to a free, inclusive public education in the least restrictive …