ADA Restoration Act

The ADA may not be a perfect civil rights document, but its initial imperfections have been inflated tenfold by the changes in the way it has been interpreted. It is no longer being enacted in the way it was intended. Right now the ADA still offers people with disabilities important rights that without their status as equal citizens would be jeopardized. Without the ADA there would not be an increasing number of curb cuts in every city, or public TTYs in public buildings, or new voting machines that have given people their right to vote privately for the first time in their life.

What the ADA has been unable to accomplish has been in large part due to its major flaw - that to get the ADA enforced one has to go to court before a judge who will decide what the ADA says. Judges across the nation have interpreted the ADA and what constitutes a person with a disability differently. They are not ADA experts. They have generally decided to look at the language of the ADA as exact - the law must be followed precisely. But when written the ADA was written as a guideline to given people an idea of what made sense. Every situation that could confront a person with a disability could not be described in one document - so the ADA only suggests broad parameters.

Please, if the ADA is as important to you as it is to me, read the following and act!

Ask Your Representative to be an
Original Cosponsor of the ADA Restoration Act of 2007!

Background

This Thursday, July 26, marks the 17th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On this day, the ADA Restoration Act of 2007 will be introduced by chief cosponsors Representatives Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) to restore protections for Americans with disabilities under the landmark law.

Despite the ADA's intent to create a level playing field in the workplace, the full promise of the law has never been fulfilled. In recent years, the Supreme Court has slowly chipped away at the broad protections of the ADA and created a new set of barriers to employment for people with disabilities.

Courts across the country have been quick to side with businesses and employers, deciding against people with disabilities who challenge employment discrimination 97% of the time, often before the person has even had a chance to show that the employer treated them unfairly. Indeed, courts have created an absurd catch-22 by allowing employers to say a person is too disabled to do the job, but not disabled enough to be protected by the ADA. For example, people with conditions like epilepsy, diabetes, hearing loss, and mental illness that manage their disabilities with medication, prosthetics, hearing aids, etc. or mitigating measures are viewed as too functional to have a disability and are denied the ADA's protection from employment discrimination.

This is not what Congress intended when it passed the law and President George H.W. Bush enacted it into law in 1990. The law was intended to be broadly - not narrowly - interpreted.

The bipartisan ADA Restoration Act will amend the ADA to require courts to focus on whether a person has experienced discrimination "on the basis of disability," rather than requiring individuals with disabilities to first demonstrate that they are substantially limited in some major life activity.

Disability advocates have been working tirelessly for the last several years to restore the original intent of the ADA by meeting with Members of Congress, collecting stories about disability discrimination and ADA success stories, issuing a petition to support the ADA Restoration Act, and leading a bus tour that has traveled more than 13,000 miles in 28 states. We need your support now more than ever.

Status

On July 20, a "Dear Colleague" letter was sent by Representatives Hoyer and Sensenbrenner to all members of the House of Representatives seeking original cosponsors before the bill is introduced next week on July 26.

Take Action

Call your Representative TODAY and ask him/her to cosponsor the ADA Restoration Act now! Our champions need to have as many original cosponsors as possible to make a good showing on introduction.

Hate Crime Bill

If a person deliberately harms you because you are of a particular race,
it is considered a hate crime and they are prosecuted for a hate crime
in addition to whatever other crime they committed. No so if you are a
person with a disability. If your very existence pisses a person off and
they decide to harm you, it is still a crime, but only a crime for the
crime act, not the intent behind it. So a person might be willing to
risk the penalty for a simple assault, but not be willing to risk the
penalty for a simple assault AND a hate crime. It also demonstrates to
the community at large that this government is serious about protecting
people with disabilities - even if it doesn't always appear so by other
laws and regulations we enact or don't enact or enforce.

(TO INCREASE FEDERAL PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION
BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION, DISABILITY, GENDER AND
GENDER IDENTIFICATION.)

Urge your Senators to Enact the Hate Crimes Bill
Take Action!
Calls needed TODAY!!!!

Status

Last week, Senators Edward M. Kennedy(D-MA)& Gordon Smith(R-OR)
filed S.1105, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime
Prevention Act of 2007 (LLEHCPA) as an amendment to the Dept.
of Defense (DOD)reauthorization bill currently being considered on
the Senate floor.

The LLEHCPA, already passed by the House of Representatives will,
for the first time, allow for the federal prosecution of hate crimes
based on disability, as well as gender, sexual orientation and gender
identity.It will also provide local police and sheriff's departments
with vital federal resources to address hate crimes on a larger, more
inclusive scale.

The DOD reauthorization bill vote could happen any time, most likely
this week after the Iraq war debate. Thus, it is imperative that we
communicate NOW with Senators urging them to move the K-S
Hate Crimes amendment on the DOD reauthorization bill. Without the
LLEHCPA, crimes committed against people w/ disabilities SIMPLY
BECAUSE THEY HAVE DISABILITIES may continue to go unrecognized,
unprosecuted, and unpunished.

Take Action

ACT NOW! Call your Senators TODAY at 202-224-3121 & urge
them to support S. 1105, the Matthew Shepard Local Law
Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2007 (LLEHCPA)
and to ensure that the Kennedy-Smith Hate Crimes
Amendment is passed as part of the Department of Defense
reauthorization bill.

Disability Pride Parade

It was a wonderful parade - the best ever. But I am disappointed. I know there were going to be some people there I know online. But we didn't make any exact plans to hook up and we didn't. We might have seen each other- but since it isn't a conference - no one wears name tags. I also forgot my camera. I have a camera on my phone, bt sadly I just couldn't get any good pics with it. I do have a few - if they look any good bigger I will post them.

I have no idea how many people were in the parade - countless. People in chairs, scooters, on crutches, with dogs, on bikes, sitting on floats, and walking. Everyone is happy! (Except possibly some of the parade volunteers - who like previous years all seem to be overwhelmed with the stress of it all ). People are excited to meet friends they know from far away - or close by. New people hook up with like-minded agendas.

I was impressed with the float ahead of us. It was a group of people with various Hispanic ties - most, but far from all had developmental disabilities. Latin music was played full blast which gave everyone the inspiration to dance. Everyone held flags - many from the country of their origin. Somebody gave Teddy a flag - which interestedly enough just happened to be from Puerto Rico where his birth grandparents were born.

This year I noted two things - Justin Dart was brought up many times (well-deservedly so) and appears to have clearly taken the role of the creator of the current flavor of disability pride. And Not Dead Yet has taken over as the most popular self-identifying slogan. As a self-identifier it seems to represent the idea if that we do not want to live in institutions like nursing homes - that is where people go to die and we are not ready to be dead yet, nor are we dead yet - so support us living in the communty.

Teddy sells tshirts at the parade and Not Dead Yet was clearly the front runner as the most requested tshirt. Teddy has a new design that has Justin on it ( fully approved by his widow Yoshiko) and that was the best seller of the day. (We were out of Not Dead yet shirts.)

The most impressive part though was the entertainment. I can't say I liked all of it, but there were some really stellar performances. A dance troupe that was people of mixed abilities, including 2 chair users was stunning. There was a discernable change in the crowd when these women danced. No one could keep their eyes off their fluid graceful movements. There was a group that sings using sing language. It was beautiful to watch and makes me regret not keeping up with or improving my signing. Even without understanding the signs, you understood the intent of the music. And there was Sarah Triano's hop hop raps. She is either improving or I am getting my ear tuned to rap. Each year Sarah raps to a rapt audience and must say that in previous year although I thought what she did was clever - it didn't really excite me. This year was diffferent - loved every rap - and wanted to hear more. (BTW Teddy got on stage with his friend Micah and another young woman with Down syndorme and they danced as Sarah's back-up.)

All in all it was as is always a wonderful, eneergizing place to be. It still does not have the feel of a national parade like I wish it would - more and more people and organizations are coming from afar, but not enough to make it feel like we have come along way to travel 240 miles.

July 26, 2008 That is the date of next year's parade. Put it on your calendar now. Start saving your money so you can afford to go . (There is an inexpensive youth hostel that anyone of any age can stay at - that is accessible.) You won't regret going -and I am going to be sure people I want to meet are going to be wearing name tags!