Americans with Disabilities Act

Introduction

Overcoming the ADA Lie

MYTH: Presidents Reagan and George Bush Sr. were against the ADA did not care about people with disabilities! President Bush Sr. was forced to sign the ADA!

MYTH: Republicans didn’t support the ADA! It was a Democrat bill!

MYTH: President George W. Bush does not support the ADA! President Bush and the Republicans want to repeal it!

Introduction:

It was the passage of this law, Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”), that spurred the transformation of an entire community of Americans with hearing loss. We began to see, at first slowly but then quickly, millions upon millions of disabled Americans rise up on their own footing, and shake from their limbs the cobwebs of a long restless slumber.

The playing field was effectively leveled that day for us, and thanks to this law, and to former President George H.W. Bush, Sr., many of us are now leading prosperous and fruitful lives. The son of this former President, our current President George W. Bush, has continued his father's legacy of supporting disabled people and ensuring that they lead independent lives, and remain free to make their own individual choices and exercise their own free will.

What so many Americans do not realize, and what many liberal partisan activists will not admit, is that the philosophy and approach of the ADA, and that of Republican presidents since the passage of that law, is a wonderful model of a classic Republican principle; a principle that stands for the proposition that a disabled individual who no longer needs to rely upon the government, taxpayers, or the mercy and compassion of others for his or her everyday life, will be empowered to lead a life of opportunity, economic growth and prosperity with the dignity, freedom and responsibility that comes with being an American.

By empowering the deaf and the hard of hearing, we remove millions from the slavery of dependence, lift them up from the poverty of idleness and joblessness, and free them from the bigotry of low expectations and illiteracy.

And since the passage of the ADA we have proven ourselves fully capable of being an integral part of the workforce and of society as a whole.

But as President George W. Bush so aptly said recently, “The ADA is an excellent start in affording everyone an equal chance at success, but more must be done.” And President George W. Bush is following through on that promise; More IS being done!

Overcoming The ADA Lie:

When George W. Bush ran against Gore four years ago, deceptive e-mails were circulated by partisan activists that “condemned” George W. Bush for wanting to “repeal” the ADA. Any person with intelligence and a handy Google search engine could look through the Internet and quickly confirm the utter falsity and ridiculousness of such malicious rumors. Yet such e-mails have persisted to this day, and are still being circulated in a crass attempt to manipulate our votes.

Try to remember what life was like before the ADA. Few shows with captions, the scarcity of TTYs, and the total absence of telecommunication relay services (which the ADA directly authorized) that are now available everywhere where there is a TTY, pager or a computer with Internet access. And lets not forget Video Relay Service, 7-1-1 access, and the many accommodations at hotels, airports and places of business. The ADA was the trigger that directly caused these advances in disability rights, bringing all of these things into reality.

Both Republicans and Democrats wanted to level the playing field for the disabled and place them on equal footing, and it was the passage of ADA that made it reality.

It is disheartening to see how quickly people have forgotten. Democratic partisans and campaign operatives are now trying to capitalize on that, claiming Democrats were solely responsible for the ADA, and self-serving deaf partisan activists who claim to be leaders in our community are helping them in this deception. Let's not forget it was Bush's father who nurtured and signed that sweeping legislation into law. He did so without hesitation, and had the full support of his party.

George H.W. Bush Sr. has never sought attention or acclaim, but has many times publicly stated that his brightest accomplishments was the law that allow so many of us to thrive today.

Yet there are deaf partisan activists in our community that would begrudge these true heroes the praise and respect they earned for their integral roles in bringing to life the most important civil rights accomplishment in our community’s history.

These Republican's sense of fairness, compassion, and respect for the individual liberties of the disabled, are shamelessly rebuffed and their contributions belittled and even denied, in a stunning act of injustice and ingratitude.

Worse still, the levels that these activists will sink to spurn the vital role that our President and other Republicans played in the ADA, have reached such shocking and revolting depths, that a renowned deaf leader that formerly headed one of the deaf community’s most well-known advocacy organizations, has recently made the incredible claim, in an open letter to all deaf people, that President George H.W. Bush, who signed the ADA into law, was actually “against” it.

As you read below, you will find that not only is that irresponsible claim outrageously false, insulting, and disrespectful to a true hero of the disabled community as well as a former President of our United States of America, but is also so blatantly partisan it is almost malicious in nature.

Such irresponsible behavior and acts of deception by these partisan activists must be held to account, and should not go unanswered by our community. Their conduct only serves to do much damage to our Deaf community, and increases ill will among the very politicians in Washington, DC, that we look to for preservation of our civil rights.

By snubbing Republican politicians who are compassionate and sympathetic to our cause, and driving away those who have given and supported so much, these partisan activists have dealt a setback to the disability rights movement that will take years, if not decades, to recover from. In their shortsightedness, these activists never dreamed that Republicans could one day become the Majority party in Congress, much less at a time when a Republican also occupied the White House. Yet they persist in facetious political attacks such as making baseless claims that "captioning censorhip hurts family values", an obvious and extraneous slap at one of the Bush Administration's political platforms.

Is it any surprise now that we find it ever so slightly harder to get our voices heard, our issues addressed, and our people seen? When we need them to be non-partisan and loyal to our cause as our leaders, these partisan activists would place all of our eggs in the basket of Democrats, and entrust to just one political party the fate and well-being of our entire Disability Rights movement.

Fortunately, in an amazing testament to the fundamental decency and integrity of our President George W. Bush, from the very beginning of his administration President Bush has made disability issues a cornerstone of his administration. Under President George W. Bush's administration, and that of his father, President Bush, Sr., we have seen more gains in our Deaf community than under any other Presidential Administration in history, Democrat or Republican.

Read on, and uncover the TRUTH about the Republican record on the ADA:

MYTH: Presidents Reagan and George Bush Sr. were against the ADA and against people with disabilities! President Bush Sr. was forced to sign the ADA!

False statements such as the above is one of the most disappointing and unfortunate untruths circulated in our community. Not only do these statements refuse to give Presidents Bush and Ronald Reagan the credit they deserve for nurturing the ADA as it passed through Congress to become law, the partisans that are making these statements are engaging in flagrant historical revisionism in a mean-spirited effort to exclude the contributions of all individuals who supported and participated in the development of the ADA solely on the basis of their political party.

President Ronald Reagan

President Reagan was supportive of people with disabilities from very early on in his presidency. President Reagan in 1982 expressed concern that "[o]ur Nation's commitment to equal protection of the laws will have little meaning if we deny such protection to those who have not been blessed with the same physical or mental gifts we too often take for granted."

President Ronald Reagan proved his dedication and commitment to addressing disability issues when he appointed Lex Frieden in 1984 to head the National Council on the Handicapped (which is now called the National Council on Disability), and appointed Justin Dart commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration. This council later drafted a seminal report entitled “Toward Independence”, which was the forerunner of the law we know today as ADA. This document would shape the destinies of all disabled Americans, transforming our lives forever. Lex Frieden originated the phrase “reasonable accommodations”, which allowed a perfect symbiosis in the balance between civil liberties of the disabled, and economic realities of the business community.

In an issue of SCI Life Magazine (Fall 2002/Winter 2003), Lex Frieden recounted a meeting with Dr. Bill Roper, who was the head of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council under President Reagan, when he first proposed the idea of a civil rights law protecting disabilities from discrimination, a concept that had been theretofore unheard of in political circles.

[Dr. Roper said] “What is your intent with this”? I said, My intent is to stop wasting the billions of dollars we spend on medical rehab, vocational rehab, special education, and other kinds of accommodation to ensure that people with disabilities have opportunities and then turn around and allow discrimination to go on that prevents us, as a society, from benefiting from the great skills these people have.

[Dr. Roper] said, this administration supports that fully. This administration supports the report you are going to offer, and if you'd like, I'll schedule an appointment with the President so you can give the report to him in person on the day the law calls for it to be delivered. Well, I nearly fell out of my wheelchair.”

As you can see, this is exactly the complete opposite of the claims circulated by partisan democratic activists in our community that President Reagan was hostile to, and opposed, the early stages of the ADA. In fact, it shows that President Reagan’s Administration was 100% in sync with the concept of the law. How could they not be? The concept of this law perfectly embodied the spirit and principles of Republican beliefs – It proposed a fundamental change in how government traditionally approached societal inequities which had previously involved giving out hand-outs that harms people and cripples their dignity, and instead promoted the leveling of the playing field, ensuring opportunities and equal footing for the disabled, and the exercise of self-determination and free will in shaping their own destinies. This is basic “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for life” Republican philosophy. These Republicans didn’t want to simply open one door and push us though it, as government bureaucracies frequently did – They wanted to make sure all doors of opportunity would be opened up, and leave it up to us to decide which ones to walk through.

Unfortunately, shortly after this very optimistic and promising meeting, a national tragedy occurred: the Challenger space shuttle exploded. President Reagan’s schedule suddenly filled up and could not meet with Lex Frieden. But the Reagan Administration didn’t give up. They sent Vice President George H.W. Bush to meet with Lex Frieden, as he recounted:

“It soon became apparent, however, that [Vice President Bush] had actually read the report and that he was particularly interested in the part on nondiscrimination. It was such a wonderful meeting. We spent about 45 minutes with the Vice President. It felt so great that someone in a leadership position like his, the Vice President of the United States, actually understood what it was we were trying to do…

“It was almost prophetic, because as we were leaving, he said, if I have an opportunity to help you with this in the future, I'll do it. Two years later in his first address to the country, he said, one of the things I want to do is to make sure there is a law in this country that protects people with disabilities from discrimination. And two years later, he signed the ADA.” ( http://www.spinalcord.org/html/sciw2003/w2003_1.php)

President George HW Bush Sr.

In his first address to Congress after becoming President, George H.W. Bush said on February 9, 1989:

“To those 37 million Americans with some form of disability, you belong in the economic mainstream. We need your talents in America's work force. Disabled Americans must become full partners in America's opportunity society.”

President Bush Sr. delivered on his promise. On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and contrary to the lies circulated by partisan activists in our community, an overwhelming majority of Republicans voted for the ADA.

In a statement upon signing the law, President Bush Sr. compared the ADA to the Declaration of Independence, and said “The Americans with Disabilities Act presents us all with an historic opportunity. It signals the end to the unjustified segregation and exclusion of persons with disabilities from the mainstream of American life.”

President Bush Sr. was so proud of the ADA that he frequently cited the law throughout his Presidency, and in speech after speech after he left office. In Lafayette, Louisiana in 1992, he proudly described the ADA as the “best piece of civil rights legislation in a long time”. In one of his last speeches in office, President Bush Sr. explained why he felt the ADA, which freed the disabled to lead independent lives safe from discrimination, made so much sense to him: “When you add together Federal, State, local, and private funds, it's been costing almost $200 billion annually to support our disabled in artificial isolation.” (From remarks at a January 12, 1993, dinner given by disability rights groups). President Bush Sr., was truly ahead of his time, as he wisely saw that a community of working and participating members of society was better for America than sustaining a society of dependents.

There was an immense sense of pride across America, and within our community, that so many people from both parties joined President Bush, Sr., in supporting the ADA. That so many people, both Republicans and Democrats, saw the sense and the justice in protecting the disabled from discrimination was an amazing feeling among us in our community, when we had endured so many years of feeling like second class citizens.

Now there is a profound sense of incredible injustice and shame that the Democrats and partisan activists in our community would begrudge President Bush, Sr., President Reagan, and the Republican party’s important contributions to the ADA. What happened to the sense of respect and unity that we felt that day? When we relied upon these partisan activists as our leaders to rise above politics and political allegiances when it came to our basic civil liberties, they chose to be more loyal to their political biases than to our deaf community.

As a noteworthy postscript to this, George W. Bush, soon after becoming President in 2001, carried on his father’s proud tradition in his dedication to disabilities. Like his father, President George W. Bush used his very first address to Congress after taking office as an opportunity to address Americans with disabilities, and announced an ambitious far-reaching program: the New Freedom Initiative program.

MYTH: Republicans didn’t support the ADA! It was a Democrat bill!

Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee who voted for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): "Disability is not a party issue. It is not a Democrat issue and it is not a Republican issue."

Unfortunately, many partisan Democratic activists in our community do not see it that way. Because these partisan activists have stubbornly persisted in circulating deceptive claims and statements that falsely criticize Republicans, the American Association of People with Disabilities, a prominent disability advocacy group, found it necessary last year to remind people that Republicans have historically played an important role in improving the lives and protecting the civil liberties of Americans with disabilities. Andrew J. Imparato, President and CEO of the AAPD noted in a statement last year that the criticism by these activists “are not even-handed or fair in our assessment of the contributions being made by Republicans to advance the quality of life and civil rights of children and adults with disabilities in the U.S. and around the world.” (Read Mr. Imperato’s important letter here)

It is not our intention to discount the contributions of Democrats to the ADA. On the contrary, we honor their contributions, as we honor the many Republicans’ contributions, to the passage of that law. We specifically condemn, however, the partisan activists from our community and political campaign operatives who, because of their misguided political leanings, have chosen to denigrate our public servants on Capitol Hill solely on the basis of their party affiliation. Our statements here are a direct result, and a direct response to, the deceptive and misleading statements that has been heavily circulated and perpetuated by these irresponsible people.

In an example of the lengths that these partisan activists will go to in order to deprive Republicans of any recognition or praise for their service to the disabled community, a former leader of a renowned disability advocacy group recently made the incredible assertion (among many other similarly outrageous statements) in an open letter to the deaf community that the original sponsor of the ADA, Lowell P. Weicker, was a Democrat. Fortunately, we are able to dispel that obvious deception for you here: Senator Weicker was a Republican Senator from the state of Connecticut.

The Heroes of the ADA

As you have read, the “fathers” of the ADA, Lex Frieden and Justin Dart, were appointees of Republican presidents. (See Article: The ADA - From Idea To Law: An Inside View). Justin Dart’s support of various presidential candidates would periodically change from party to party over the years (he was a Clinton supporter), but he would go on to state that he had never abandoned the Republican party.

The very first sponsor of the ADA was Lowell P. Weicker, a Republican senator from Connecticut, whose son was born with Down’s Child Syndrome. (Congressional biography of Sen. Lowell P. Weicker)

Lex Frieden recounted his first attempt to bring the ADA bill to the attention of the Democratic leaders of Congress, at a time when the Democrats had majority control of both the Senate and the House:

“The Council members proudly handed a copy of the report to the Administration and a copy to the Leadership of the Congress. And what happened? Nothing. So, we decided to take action. It was then that we asked for a meeting with Senator Weicker. At this meeting with the Senator we asked him to be the chief sponsor of our proposed legislation called the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1986. And he agreed!” (July 24, 2004 Remarks by Lex Frieden at the 14th Anniversary of the ADA)

Again, far from being the hostile and opposing forces that partisan activists in our community have claimed, it took Republicans - a Republican Senator and a Republican President - to break through the logjam and herd the ADA bill through a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Senator Weicker (R-CT) later left the Senate to become governor of Connecticut (running as an independent), after which the ADA bill was taken up by Democratic Senator Harkin, who had a deaf brother, and was co-sponsored by a bi-partisan group by an overwhelming figure of 63 Senators (the House version had a bi-partisan group of 250 co-sponsors!). The fact that the sponsors were Senators who had family members who had disabilities, or who were disabled themselves, played more of a factor in their support of the ADA than mere party affiliation. To them, this was not a partisan issue.

In support of the ADA, Senator Robert Dole, a Republican Senator from Kansas and is disabled himself from a World War II battle injury, said, “The ADA is . . . a good example of bipartisanship in action. The bill originated with an initiative of the National Council on Disability, an independent Federal body comprised of 15 members appointed by President Reagan and charged with reviewing all laws, programs, and policies of the Federal Government affecting individuals with disabilities.” (135 Cong. Rec. S 10790 (Daily Ed. Sept. 7, 1989) (remarks of Sen. Dole)).

Another crucial Republican supporter of the ADA was President Bush, Sr.’s Attorney General at the time, Richard “Dick” Thornburgh, the father of an adult son with Down’s Syndrome, has stated his belief that “the ADA was an important civil rights legislation.” Governor Thornburgh (Richard Thornburgh later became the Governor of Pennsylvania) was recognized by longtime advocates of disability rights for his work on behalf of people with disabilities recently in March of 2003. He was selected by a national jury to receive the Henry B. Betts Award, which said of Governor Thornburgh, “He played a leading role in the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, referring to that moment as one of his proudest, and subsequently oversaw development of regulations for that legislation.”

In the end, party affiliation did not matter when it came to ensuring civil liberties for the disabled. And for most of us, party affiliation still does not matter, except, of course, for a sad group of petty partisan activists in our deaf community who would seek political gain by misleading members of our community with deliberate untruths.

ADA Voting Record

When the ADA was passed, an astonishing number of senators and congressmen voted for it. Contrary to deceptive statements by partisan activists, a large majority of Republican members of Congress voted to support the passage of the Bill. Yet these activists would have you believe that “only Democrats supported the ADA”, and that Republicans “fought against the ADA”.

As Lex Freiden remembers:
“In the end, it was passed by an overwhelming majority. Only two members of the Senate failed to vote for it, and in the House, it was passed by one of the largest majorities ever recorded.”

Members of Congress who voted for the ADA:
80% of Democrats in the Senate; 97% of the Democrats in the House
71% of the Republicans in Senate; 88% of Republicans in the House.

See the voting records for yourself:

Senate Voting Records on the ADA

House Voting Records on the ADA

MYTH: President George W. Bush does not support the ADA! President Bush and the Republicans want to repeal it!

As the National Association of the Deaf observed in a recent statement last week, “There has been a flurry of emails and websites that have not been accurate -- demonizing or glorifying each party or candidate.”

We wholeheartedly agree. We urge the leaders of our community to rise above partisanship and recognize the contributions of Republican leaders in advancing the cause of disability rights. By placing the political fortunes of the deaf community in the hands of just one political party, the effectiveness of our public policy objectives are reduced by 50% percent!

The important contributions of Republicans continue today, and should not go unnoticed.

For example, Lex Frieden, a Republican appointee who is one of the ‘fathers’ of the ADA, is now again a Republican appointee as the head of the National Council on Disability. The fact that our current President George W. Bush appointed one of the architects of the ADA to lead our government’s policy on disabilities is indicative of his commitment to serving the disabled.

President George W. Bush made disability a priority early on in his administration, carrying on the tradition set by his father. The President, like his father, made a point of mentioning the importance of advancing disability policy in his very first address to Congress on February 27, 2001, using the address as an opportunity to unveil an ambitious program to do so: The New Freedom Initiative. In this address, President Bush described the benefits this program would bring:: ”My new Freedom Initiative for Americans with Disabilities funds new technologies, expands opportunities to work, and makes our society more welcoming. For the more than 50 million Americans with disabilities, we need to break down barriers to equality.”

President Bush has recognized the necessity of continued dedication in advancing the cause of disabilities, observing, “The ADA is an excellent start in affording everyone an equal chance at success, but more must be done. My commitment to the 20% percent of Americans with disabilities is demonstrated in my New Freedom Initiative.”

President Bush in a recent statement to the American Association of People with Disabilities said:
“I believe that the Federal government should not only provide an outstanding example of equality and fairness in its own employment policies, but should facilitate efforts that will help to establish an environment of opportunity that gives every American a chance to succeed and thrive. It is the government’s duty to enforce the laws that protect the rights of Americans with disabilities and to invest in the projects that will further expand their opportunities. In keeping with this philosophy, the Justice Department is aggressively enforcing the ADA, which has been critical in tearing down the barriers once faced by Americans with disabilities”

President Bush has continued to expand the frontiers set by the ADA, seeing new programs thrive and unfold during his Administration, such as the national roll-out of the 7-1-1 relay service, along with Speech-to-Speech and Spanish telecommunications relay services in 2001, and the authorization of the use of FCC funds for Internet based relay service calls and Video Relay Service (VRS) in 2002.

President Bush, through his New Freedom Initiative, has asked federal agencies to develop new strategies to educate employees about the ADA and the benefits of hiring qualified individuals with disabilities. The following is an excerpt of a long list of federal agencies that have enacted aggressive programs to accomplish those strategies under the New Freedom Initiative:

• Department of Justice
• Department of Education
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• Department of Labor
• Small Business Administration
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The President recognizes that for the promise of full integration to become a reality, people with disabilities need safe and affordable housing, access to transportation, access to the political process, and the right to enjoy services, programs, and activities offered to all members of the community at both public and private facilities. The President has proposed a budget increase of $2.2 billion over the next five years to fund demonstration projects that promote community-based services for people with disabilities; proposed $918 million over six years to remove transportation barriers still faced by individuals with disabilities; and secured $15 million under the Help America Vote Act to improve access to voting for people with disabilities.

The Bush Department of Justice filed several new suits and briefs to uphold the constitutionality of the ADA and filed a brief in support of Lane and others in the "State of Tennessee v. George Lane and Beverly Jones."

The National Council on Disabilities said of the Bush Administration’s defense of the ADA: “On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Tennessee v. Lane--a case in which a person who uses a wheelchair was jailed for failing to appear for a second-floor court proceeding to which there was no elevator. The State of Tennessee argued that it cannot be sued by the individual under the ADA because it is protected from suit by the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Paul D. Clement, DOJ deputy solicitor general, vigorously defended the constitutionality of the ADA and the right of individuals with disabilities to sue states that engage in such discriminatory conduct.”

This decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year in a huge victory for ADA advocates. Many of you will be surprised by this; We have been led by partisan activists in our community to believe that President Bush has sought to undermine the ADA, or incredibly, that he wishes to “repeal” the ADA. As you can see in Tennessee v. Lane, when it comes to protecting the original intent of the ADA, there is no question as to where President Bush stands: squarely on the side of people with disabilities.

The National Council on Disabilities recently praised the Bush Administration for their support of the ADA on February 23, 2004,

“The National Council on Disability (NCD) commends the Administration's on-going support for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Millions of Americans with disabilities achieve increased productivity and independence as a result of the access provided by ADA enforcement. In response to recent cases involving the ADA, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been consistent in actively defending the constitutionality of the ADA and the civil rights of individuals with disabilities”

President Bush’s record of supporting people with disabilities is not limited to his unwavering support of the ADA. Indeed, President George W. Bush’s record shows a far-reaching commitment over a wide range of subjects that lay outside the boundaries of ADA, from employment, taxes, education, health care and social security.