22nd Anniversary of Americans with Disability Act: News of the Day

Today marks an important day in the history of this nation’s civil rights laws.  With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 22 years ago, and its amendments passed four years ago, individuals with disabilities are guaranteed the right to be judged on their merits and not discriminated on based on disability.  For the first time in our nation’s history, ADA opened public spaces and employment and education opportunities to people with disabilities. The law broke down barriers, prohibited discrimination, promoted access and provided basic civil rights to people with disabilities.

This country faced many challenges on the road to passage of the ADA. For example, in 1973 Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act which, among other things, prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability by any recipient of federal funds.  Unfortunately, this important legislation faced obstacles in implementation.  Congressman Miller remembers vividly watching the demonstrations in San Francisco, California where  individuals with disabilities held month long demonstrations and demanded the full implementation of the act. In fact, State Representative Burton and Congressman Miller held a televised hearing in an occupied building demanding that discrimination be ended.

We’ve come a long way since 1973 with the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and ADA, but there’s still a long way to go to improve educational outcomes and employment for people with disabilities.  Rep. George Miller (D- Calif.), who championed ADA in 1990 and worked to strengthen the legislation in 2008, has been with the disability community every step of the way. As the senior Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, Rep. Miller is committed to strengthening laws such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and IDEA so that students with disabilities receive a high quality, world-class education. He is also committed to ensuring that student with disabilities have access to critical federal programs that provide transition services to help these students move successfully into postsecondary education and the workforce.

Congress wrote ADA to guarantee that individuals with disabilities have the chance to pursue their dreams, achieve their goals and fully participate in society. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress are threatening to make finding a job or getting an education even more difficult for students with disabilities. Unless Congress acts, federal programs will see across-the-board cuts – known as sequestration – of approximately 8 percent starting January 2013. In addition to defense programs, a wide range of domestic programs – from Head Start to special education and worker retraining – will see drastic cuts in their budgets starting next year. For example, sequestration would cut nearly $1 billion in IDEA funding next year impacting almost 500,000 children with disabilities.