Americans With Disabilities Act Discrimination

In the United States today, there are over fifty-one million disabled adults and children. Throughout our nation’s history, we have not allowed the best treatment and care for these numerous citizens. But, in the recent past, the government has passed laws, made exceptions, and thoroughly tried to provide accommodations to these people with special needs. While this is true, America, as a whole, still views this group as strange or different. Even though this is exceptionally normal, it is not correct. The United States needs to be opened up to the truth about their fellow American citizens. The people of America ought to understand that these disabilities affect not only those who are disabled, but that it affects the family and friends

Over forty million Americans are disabled, whether it is a physical, sensory, cognitive, or mental disability. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was signed into law in 1973. This law states that no handicapped individual shall be disqualified from partaking, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program receiving federal financial assistance. The foundation of the Section 504 is from the language of preceding civil rights laws that sheltered women and minorities. Section recognizes that history proves that humanity has treated people with disabilities as second-class citizens based on previous stereotypes. These types of attitudes have translated into policies based on paternalism. Section has acknowledged

Individuals with disability have had a long history of maltreatment in America. From being thought of as possessed individuals in need of exorcism, targeted for heinous experiments, unknowingly sterilized, being labeled imbecile, feeble minded, and retarded, to being shipped off to state schools or mental asylums, those with disabilities were given no consideration as a valuable and able to contribute member of society. In a speech to congress, Frank Bowe, a highly educated deaf-man highlighted this claim by stating, “we are not even second-class citizens, we are third-class citizens” (Bowe, F. 1977--need citation), and Jim Cherry (2001) furthered the ideal in his words, that prior to “1970 we [disabled citizens] had no right to education, to employment, to transportation, to housing, or to voting. There were no civil rights laws for us, no federal advocacy grants. Few people looked beyond our medical needs” (Cherry, J.L, 2001 http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/0701/0701cov.htm). Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 attempted to fundamentally change how disabled people were reguarded.

For starters, disabled people in the United States were not always treated equal, as they are today. As recent as the mid 1900’s, disabled people were stripped of their rights and experimented on. From 1950 to 1972 the Willowbrook State

Americans with disabilities make up the largest minority group in the United States. Approximately fifty million people in the United States live with physical or mental handicaps. This minority group is unique in that it is made up of people from all socioeconomic classes, genders and races. Mental and physical impairments do not discriminate. As with other minorities, Americans with disabilities face unique challenges and discriminatory behaviors. For centuries, disabled people had to battle irrational fears and stereotypes due to the lack of medical understanding. The first demand for equal treatment for disabled people came in the 1960s. The struggle for disability rights has followed a similar pattern to many other civil rights movements – first negative stereotypes must be challenged, followed rallying for political and institutional change and lobbying for the self-determination of a minority community. As a result the examples of the African American civil rights and women’s rights movements encouraged the disability rights movement, and after decades of campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990.

Unlike people who had experienced discrimination against the civil rights act of 1964, the ones who had experienced it on the basis of disability didn’t have any legal recourse to redress it. Therefore, with a very strong influence from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination on the foundation of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which set people with disabilities as a legitimate minority, the ADA became the "equal opportunity" law that has set an example for the rest of the world. This act finally defined what non-discrimination was in the context of disability. The 1990 ADA added the specifications of a new conduct that should be undertaken, for instance, architectural and communication barriers should be removed by providing reasonable accommodation to disabled workers, and finally, it also imposed accessibility requirements for public spaces.

Americans with Disabilities Act was established to restrain illegal discrimination in employment against individuals qualified to be disabled. The purpose of the law was to generally end discrimination in the place of work and to deliver equal employment chances for individuals living with disabilities or have had histories of disabilities. The act defends employees that experience physical or mental deficiency that greatly limits a key life activity. In addition to that, it protects the rights of employees with a history of disability and those that employers regard as being disabled even when in the real sense they are not. The main goal of this law is to simply eradicate discrimination against people with disabilities.

In nineteen ninety Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. This act was established in order to eliminate discrimination of people with disabilities and to break down barriers in society that limits the freedom a disabled person. According to Section 2 Subsection A part one, "some 43,000,000 Americans have one or more physical or mental disabilities, and this number is increasing as the population as a whole is growing older." As the number suggests there are a lot of people that would be classified as disabled making this act very important. This paper will look at the Americans with Disabilities Act as how it pertains to helping people with disabilities based on who is covered, what are their rights, and what legal actions

Expansion of the disability programs and the poor employment rates of adults with disabilities have become major concerns for Social Security and disability policy makers across the country. Disability law, culture, and policy, as reflected most directly by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), has undergone a dramatic shift toward the equal employment of persons with disabilities. The ADA prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, governmental, and local services, public accommodations, insurance, telecommunications, and public transportation. Dramatic, positive changes affecting the lives of persons with disabilities are occurring in public attitudes and behavior toward individuals

It is reasonable to argue that, over the last century or so, the United States has made great strides in addressing issues of injustice. Feminism, the Civil Rights movement, and activism from gay men and women have transformed laws and greatly changed the ways in which these populations were once perceived as inferior. There are still major conflicts regarding race relations, just as issues remain with other minorities and women's rights. At the same time, there has been remarkable progress, indicating a nation more aware of its ethical obligation to treat all equally. To some extent, this same awareness goes to the disabled. Unfortunately, this is a population still very much victimized by bias, and because

As African Americans had once fought for desegregation, people with disabilities mirrored African Americans when they protested injustice through the streets. Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act offered some protection as it banned discrimination on the basis of disability (https://dredf.org/news/publications/the-history-of-the-ada/). Section 504 was a historical moment because it was the first time people with disabilities were seen as a class. The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund states that “Section 504 recognized that while there are major physical and mental variations in different disabilities, people with disabilities as a group faced similar discrimination in employment, education and access to society,” but there was still the question of how Section 504 regulations would be publicized (https://dredf.org/news/publications/the-history-of-the-ada/). The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare became responsible for broadcasting these regulations, which would serve as guidelines for all federal agencies. Section 504 regulations, which were issued on May 4, 1977, helped form the foundation for the ADA and helped further the disability rights movement

The path to enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the history of the disability rights movement and its struggle to attain a better chance for equality not unlike other minority groups. The Disability community came to realize that the problem they were fighting was discrimination. The Disability community came face to face with some of the same problems and challenges that every individual who is in the minority faces. However, a disabled individual was not considered to be in a minority therefore could not be afforded the protections under the Civil Rights Act. A growing sense of unrest or change in mood galvanized and empowered the Disability community to fight for its civil rights. Federal laws that were enacted

More than fifty-six million Americans have one or more physical disabilities. Many of these individuals are physically able to partake in everyday activities, yet they are excluded from these opportunities (Crockett). People with disabilities are intentionally isolated by society due to a stereotypical assumption of their lack of abilities to participate and contribute (Harris 368). They are viewed as objects of pity, who are unable to work, go to school, or live on their own”(Crockett). Ed Roberts, an individual with a disability, clearly states, [we] “are considered the weakest, the most helpless people in our society, [but] are the strongest, and will not tolerate segregation, [and] will not tolerate a society which sees us as less than whole people” (Laney 21). He wants to “reshape the image that society” has on them and prove that people with disabilities are just as capable as everyone else. George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act into law on July 26, 1990. (The Americans with Disabilities Act: A Brief overview). Bush knew that the act was “powerful in its simplicity” and that it would “ensure that people with disabilities [were] given the basic guarantees for which they have worked so long and hard” (Americans with Disabilities Act, Medicine 3). The goal was to help people with disabilities live the “American Dream” and be identified by their potential and not their inadequacies (Rodgers 2). Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into

In 1990, the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, making those with disabilities equal to those without in the eyes of the law. Now, almost 30 years later hospitality/retail industries want to turn responsibility back on individuals. The ADA Education and Reform Act rewards business that fail to comply with the ADA and allows business to wait to remove barriers that impeded disabled Americans until after they are notified of their failure. With this legislation, the disability community would be the only protected class, under civil rights law, that would rely on education rather than enforcement.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, ADA, is an act prohibiting discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for people with disabilities. These opportunities include: employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation (Justice U. S., 2014). The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Right Division states, “An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.” (Justice U. D., 2009).