The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed on this day in 1980. I think it was 1980; everyone’s saying that it’s “21 years old and leaving me to do the math. As a dyscalculic, this often leads to trouble.
Anyway. Anniversaries are occasions to stop and reflect on what you’ve accomplished and what remains to be done. In terms of accomplishments, there are many. Wheelchair accessibility is a big one here. As Dr Ruth Webb describes in her autobiography, people in chairs were simply not expected to live independent lives. Webb, who has cerebral palsy, was determined to live a full life. She went to college, and even got a PhD, in spite of being told that it would be bad for her to become “overeducated”.
As she went about her education, and her career, wheelchair access, was a constant concern. Even if she could fit her chair through the door, she sometimes had trouble getting someone to hold it for her as she went through it. For many people, someone with a disability was less than a person; they were expected to stay home, have their families care for them, and make do with dependency.
This post from one of the alternative local dailies covers some of the things that we still need to work on. People with disabilities are still unemployed and underemployed in larger numbers than the non-disabled. The author also makes the point that advances in technology do not always include universal access. Many websites are designed without considering the needs of users with disabilities — and with the current level of technology, there’s no excuse for this.
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