Remembering George H.W.Bush
Do you happen to know the link between George H.W.
Bush , the 41-st President of the USA , who died on November 30,2018 and the
ADA, an equivalent to the Civil Rights Act ? Many changes occurred in the world
during his term in office , but the disability community will remember him for
signing the ADA-Americans with disabilities Act in 1990. But actually G.H.W.Bush expanded rights of
millions. The ADA did far more than just require places to be accessible. It
finally brought disability rights into public consciousness. It is the first comprehensive list of laws
specifically addressing the rights of people with disabilities. It radically
challenged old, discriminatory laws, and touched almost every area of society,
as transportation and employment policies were uppdated. For the first time in
history, the United States government officially defined the rights of people
with disabilities. It ultimately changed the way America viewed people with
disabilities as a whole and it is still changing the lives of the 1 in 4 people
in the U.S. who have a disability.
When Bush signed the ADA into law on July 26, 1990, he
said it would “ensure that people with disabilities are given the basic
guarantees for which they have worked so long and so hard: independence,
freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and
equally into the rich mosaic of the American mainstream.”
The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits
discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public
life. It eliminated the barriers to employment, public accommodations, transportation
services, etc. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with
disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA
gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to
those provided to individuals on the
basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The ADA is divided into five titles (or sections) that
relate to different areas of public life. It has had a huge impact on every
sector of our everyday lives and it is a model for international rules.
Huge numbers of people with disabilities can be in community, be independent
and not stuck to their homes as the ADA demands that public and private institutions,
restaurants, hotels, museums and sporting venues and etc to be fully accessible
to individuals with disabilities.
If you search the web, you will find a lot of examples
how the ADA has changed the lives of a
certain personality. Here come just few
of them:
-In North Carolina, an individual with a mobility
disability was denied access to a
grocery store because he uses a service animal for balance. After his complaint
the company changed its policy,
developed procedures to allow service animals, posted them on the nationwide
employee website. The company posted signage stating "Service animals
welcome, no pets please" in more than 1,300 stores in 11 states.
-In Florida, a couple who is hard of hearing complained
that there was not enough assistive listening devices in the cinema and those they had often did not
work. The theater complex, located in an area with a large elderly population,
agreed to provide more than 40 assistive listening devices and to implement a policy
to ensure they function well.
-In Illinois, a person who uses a wheelchair complained
that a medical center did not have accessible restrooms. The medical center
modified the restrooms to be accessible and paid the complainant $2,500.
When you think about the ADA law, the first image you
have in mind is probably a wheelchair person. But the truth is that this
legislation act has made life easier also and for people with no disability at
all, meaning for all. The ADA required access to government services and public
accommodations, and included a rule that public transportation be made
accessible. That means adding an elevator to a major subway station, or
including elevators when building new stations, or adding one when there's a
substantial renovation at a station. Many underground stations have been equipped
with elevators so that wheelchair users can get to platforms. As a matter of
fact, many walking people or moms with children in stroller ride
those elevators. It is also used willingly by elderly people, people with heavy
bags or suitcases and many others. So elevators in many public places-are they
gift from the nondisabled community to the disabled or visa versa ?
But the question still remains-what percentage of
stations and public building are accessible? Still wheelchair accessibility has
not became an issue everywhere, but in great demand. Many people don’t even
call themselves as disabled-they are just a little over their 80s, or probably
they can\t manage heavy luggage when travelling because of trauma. But those are
the people who are being helped by the ADA, and it's a large and growing
population."
Most of city centers nowadays have so-called City
district, full of skyscrapers. But does it come in your mind that not so long
ago the absence of a high-rise evacuation plan for people with disabilities was
a norm. Meaning that there was no effective high-rise evacuation plan for
anybody. You don’t have to be disabled to have a problem walking down from a
25-story skyscraper. Since the ADA has been implemented, new safety plans takes
into consideration not only people with disabilities and the elderly, but also
people who are injured during a disaster. Evacuation assistance can be in need
by any of us.
The great thing about the ADA is that it covers almost
everything and creates a society that is safe and comfortable for all. And the
impact of these changes is a privilege for all of us.
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