On the 32nd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

 On the 32nd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Julie Ann Racino

Community and Policy Studies

July 26, 2022

        A decade after The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1978, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The ADA, described as the US model taken globally, was the precursor of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The latter was signed by President Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner and "the opposite political party of Presidents "George H.W. and son George W. Bush".

     We are delighted to have viewed this month 19th and 20th Anniversary celebrations at the White House under President Barack Obama, and the 30th and 31st celebrations under the President Joseph Biden administrations. This party, of course, was even more pleased to see the videos of the federal Education for All Handicapped Children's Act (later to be IDEA) with an early view of "Clinton's, Obama's and Bush's" Honorable Judith E. Heumann. 

     "As non-disabled partners" (yes, to Republican Oneida County, post "$12.5 million Democratic startup in Republican Onondaga County"), we have always deferred to our disability activist partners who have awakened the US and world to what had previously been called the plight of the disabled. Most of us came from the new 1970s disability or civil rights laws, and the term independent living became synonymous with "we won't take it anymore"! And we agreed to personal choice, self determination, user control and decision making. 

 

     It is absolutely 'eye opening' to have the difference between life in the hospital or nursing home beds to political, cultural and social partnership in this country (thanks again to Steve Brown in Racino, 2000). We all know that to achieve the goal "we must still fight everyday against the forces that push back to lives of dependency and isolation". As we knew then ("Heumann & Racino", research and education meeting on seniors and facility care, 1989!), seniors in America "fight the good fight" and two steps forward is often one step back.

     Everyone knows, "except for the service providers themselves" (to our allies and today's partners), that the IL sector did mean and often still does "them" as the problem of rights abridgments in America. Indeed, as nursing facilities were transferred into for-profit hands (at US government poverty programs), and US private sector chains of homes or treatment programs developed, "substance abuse and mental health proliferated" (See, cannabis, as a million NYS arrests claimed), and health care became an investigative gate of the AGs. 

     Today, we continue to celebrate the 32nd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (and say we didn't notice criminal justice pyrotechnics amendment at a civil rights law-circa 1998!), and thank Dr. Lex Frieden as National Council on Disability for "explaining the position of US states on ratification of treaties of the United Nations".  President Barack Obama made short shrift of some public policies by explaining to the federal, state and local governments that his administration does not torture!

     "Heumann's Education Director" for the new federal centers, Dr. Steven E. Brown then of the World Institute on Disability, offered an update on history of PAS (personal assistance services), disabled student activists on university and college campuses, and UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) in Racino's 2014 book, Public Administration and Disability: Community Services Administration in the US. (See, http://www.crcpress.com)

      By 2014, the UN moved on to the Rights of Indigeneous Peoples, as Pope Francis of the Holy See at the Vatican in Rome, Italy, this week met in 2022 with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and the indigeneous peoples of Canada apologizing for any wrongdoing (e.g., boarding and residential schools). As we know in America, no apologies come from our governments, schools and education sectors, or from our private sector provisions. 

     While much remains to be done, we take this opportunity of July 26, 2022, to reaffirm our support for a better world (e.g., US Paris Climate Accords, now in Glasgow, Scotland via Krakow, Poland), and for the leadership in support of the civil and hu'man' rights encompassed in the spirit of the law of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. With this Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. God Bless America!

References

Americans with Disabilities Act as described by the National Council on Disability (first hand account)

Youtube and CSPAN online, videos of White House ceremonies on critical disability legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act

UN web tv for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and Rights of the Child, post Universal Human Rights

Global climate change and human rights, videos online with indigeneous peoples and small island communities

1990s employment and ADA books, industrial and labor relations, and technical assistance centers online and archived (e.g., Dr. Paul Wehman and Dr. Suzanne Bruyere)

History of disability rights legislation in the US, and disability rights leaders (e.g., President Clinton and ADA leader Justin Dart)

First hand accounts and biographies (e.g., Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann, Steve Brown, Lex Frieden, Peg Nosek) together with institutional to community activism (e.g., Michael Kennedy, Frank Laski-court cases)

History of rehabilitation in US and internationally (with Gunnar Dybwad back to League of Nations and Hank Bersani to US Family and Community Living Amendments)

And much more!

Postscript: Today, video by President George W. Bush on the 12th Anniversary of the ADA (CSPAN online) at the East Room of the White House with the lifting of Medicaid restrictions on homebound to support independent living, education, and participation in community life. With US federal budget of 2003 and the New Freedom budget requests to the US Congress. The original signing ceremony by his father President George H. W. Bush on July 26, 1990 is also available online in 2022.