By: Ryan MacDougall
The COVID-19 pandemic has given the non-disabled a glimpse into the disabled experience. During crises like this, minority groups become increasingly marginalized compared to the general population. 30 years ago, on July 26, 1990, the largest minority group in the United States—people with disabilities, became legally protected from discrimination. A quarter century after the Civil Rights Act, this protection was written into a law named the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed by President George H.W Bush. On this 30th anniversary of the ADA, let’s reflect on the progress made and the progress that remains.
The ADA was long overdue. When it was signed, it banned discrimination against disabled people and mandated that nearly all social services—transportation, telecommunication, buildings, employment, etc.—be accessible to people with disabilities. There are four central goals in the ADA: equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for all people with disabilities. In short, the ADA sought to give people with disabilities basic human rights…finally. The effects of this law can be felt by everyone, regardless of disability, and its impact shapes our everyday life—even if you don’t realize it!
For example,
Under the ADA, all public transportation is required to be accessible to people with disabilities. This means that wheelchair users can ride a bus, a train, and a plane. For deaf people, there are captions available in movie theaters and on public televisions as well as sign language interpreters at concerts and ball games. There are accessible swings at parks. Paved paths line National Parks for wheelchair users. In Yosemite Valley National Park, there are tactile exhibits so that people who are blind can feel the layout of the valley. For every set of stairs, there is a ramp or elevator. New buildings are required to have universal accessible designs. People with disabilities can get their pilot’s license so long as they can still demonstrate they can fly the plane. Every sport, from skiing to rugby, has parasport alternatives. Voting polls are required to be accessible. All university programs must be accessible to students with disabilities. Before the Disability Rights Movement and the ADA, the idea of a person with disabilities even being able to go to college was a pipe dream. Now, there are entire offices within universities dedicated to accommodating a student’s needs.
When the internet became widely available, it connected millions of people. But it also created new barriers for people with disabilities. The beginning of the 21st century has been painted with new legislation to make the web accessible. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a landmark international ordinance that sets standards for web accessibility. This legislation, combined with a boom of adaptive technologies, has broken down the internet’s ableist walls and replaced them with accessible doors through which anyone can pass. The ADA’s adaptability to the internet is promising for whatever future technological advances occur that might be inherently ableist. All of this, and much more, is thanks to the ADA and to the brave pioneers of the Disability Rights Movement.
Clearly, the ADA has made a profound impact on everybody’s lives. But we’re not done yet. Judy Huemann, a notable disability rights activist, has reminded us that the ADA is only the beginning. Sure, we can create laws to establish legal justice, but societal views are slower and more resistant to change. However slowly, our society needs to change its views about disability in order to win the fight against ableism. The work of a civil rights activist is never done. So, what work do we have left to do?
One of the most quantifiable indicators of ableism is the employment status of people with disabilities. Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , as of June 2020 the unemployment rate for those with disabilities is 16.5% and the unemployment rate for those with no disability is 11.0%. Both of these numbers are inflated due to the pandemic, but the unemployment rate for those with disabilities is almost 50% higher than those without disabilities. Even more concerning is the employment to population ratio. This ratio, otherwise known as the employment rate, measures the proportion of the working age population that is employed. As of June 2020, 59.7% of the non-disabled working age population is employed. On the other hand, only 17.5% of the disabled working age population is employed. This is a stark difference. What could be contributing to this disparity? There are a multitude of variables contributing to these statistics, but there is one theme present: inequality. Perhaps employers are cautious to employ people with disabilities because they are worried about the cost of accommodation (which, according to an NPR interview, is only $200 on average). Maybe people with disabilities are worried about working in an office that might discriminate against them. Maybe there are just not enough opportunities for disabled people to work. Perhaps the Social Security benefit system is disincentivizing the disabled from working. Maybe there is not enough inclusion in local communities for disabled people to engage in (such as local politics, community service, etc.) These could all be contributing to the employment inequality. And they all present opportunities to grow and mature as a society.
Additionally, disabled people are in need of healthcare at a greater rate than people without disabilities. You would think that the healthcare system and insurance companies would tailor to the needs of the disabled. But, one quick google search as to how much a wheelchair costs might be enough to convince you that we need healthcare reform. This topic deserves a blog post of its own though.
It’s also important to consider that our society is aging. The average age is steadily rising, and older people naturally become less abled. It would be interesting to check in on the politicians who opposed Section 504 and the ADA now that they are much older and less abled and see how grateful they are for the wheelchair ramps they so confidently claimed to be unnecessary and cost ineffective. The actions we take now to improve accessibility will benefit everyone—whether you never have a disability, you are currently disabled, you will develop a disability, or you become disabled by old age—it is everybody’s responsibility to fight ableism.
It’s not just our society that is ableist—the whole world is. The nature of life is to be presented with challenges in the environment, analyze them, and overcome them. Non-disabled people and disabled people both face the same general challenges. Perhaps disabled people face more challenges, and with more difficulty. But this difficulty is not something that is brought about because a disabled person is inherently weak. Disabled people are strong. This difficulty is brought about because the world is inherently ableist. Climbing a mountain is a putridly ableist task. It is a challenge for able-bodied people. Climbing a mountain with Cerebral Palsy is also a challenge. One might be more of a challenge than the other, but they are both surmountable challenges. Neither is impossible, they just require different perspectives as to how to overcome the challenge. There is everything to gain from differing perspectives.
How can we gain these new perspectives? If you are reading this and you are not disabled, then you can start by asking yourself what tasks you do that someone else might not be able to do. Ask yourself, “Can everyone do what I’m doing? If not, then why not? And how can this change?” This questioning should occur no matter how silly or meaningless you think the task is. For example, next time you brush your teeth, ask yourself something like: “is there anything that would prevent me from brushing my teeth?”, “if I didn’t have arms how would I brush my teeth?”, or “how would I brush my teeth if I had Parkinson’s”. Asking these questions may feel odd at first, but the answers to these questions could change people’s lives. Keep asking these questions throughout your day. Even if you are only casually thinking about what might be challenging for other people, this will subdue some ignorance, offer you a new perspective, and will help the disabled rights movement progress—even if it is just by a centimeter.
Disabled people: speak up! Although a non-disabled person can imagine some challenges that a disabled person faces, only the disabled can know the nuanced challenges of their experience. The more disabled people who speak up about the challenges they face, the more familiar disability becomes to the general population, and the less ableist our culture will be. There seems to be a hesitancy from some disabled people about walking the line between feeling like a burden when they ask for accommodations and feeling entitled to those accommodations (as my colleague, Carolanne Link, wrote about in her blog post Burden vs. Entitlement). From an able-bodied individual to all of the disabled people in the world: you are never going to be a burden! Even those who demand unnecessary and excessive accommodations are not burdens. They are people seeking what is good to them. And seeking good is what we all do right? This may sound sappy, but it is true. I hope that all disabled people can feel comfortable asking for the accommodations they need and deserve. While I disagree with the weaponization of the ADA, in which serial plaintiffs profit off inaccessibility, I believe anybody who requests accommodations deserves to be accommodated. The more disabled people who speak up, the more voices will be heard and the less of a burdening feeling it might be to ask for accommodations. It is challenging to speak up against a stigma, but it is what needs to be done. Part of the divide between disabled people and non-disabled people is that non-disabled people just simply don’t know what the disabled person’s experience is like and what challenges may arise from their disability. Ignorance breeds fear, and fear fuels hate. When disabled people speak up about the challenges they face, they become more familiar and humanized to people who might otherwise look at them xenophobically.
The next question to ask then is how do we ensure that those who speak up are heard? There are several avenues to make disabled voices heard, like social media and classroom education. The YouTube series, Roll Models Needed, answers this question with their self-explanatory title. We need more disabled role models! We all looked up to Superman because he appears strong. It’s time that we showed how people with disabilities are strong and that they should be looked up to as well. It would be great to see more disabled protagonists in Disney’s Pixar animated films. These movies define generations and I’m sure that seeing a character that everyone loves, regardless of their disability, would inspire kids with similar disabilities. Para-athletes are getting increased recognition for their sports and have great potential to inspire young athletes with disabilities. Teachers with disabilities are perhaps the most valuable players in the fight against ableism. They have the power to introduce children to disability from a young age, and to show these children that people with disabilities are people too. It’s one thing to read that on paper and another to experience it as part of your upbringing. Imagine if a disabilities course was required to graduate high school. This course would not need to be a rigorous AP level course, it would just need to bring disabilities out of the dark corner in the back of the room and into the light to show people that disability is not scary, it’s normal.
Overall, I consider myself lucky to live in a post-ADA world. The laws created by the ADA continue to bring justice and make the world a better place. We owe a worldwide thanks to the people who made the ADA possible. However, the ADA isn’t the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s equality factory. A lot of progress remains until our society can truly be inclusive to people with disabilities. This fight for equality may continue indefinitely as our society changes and new challenges, like the internet, arise. Regardless, I will live my life according to the simple belief that anything a non-disabled person can do, a disabled person should be able to do as well. You may call me an idealist, but you cannot call me an ableist.
Originally Posted: 28 July 2020