The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Table of Contents

• Introduction

Executive Branch

• Looking Forward to New Blood in Washington
• Interview with Bob Edgar

On the Hill

• The Americans With Disabilities Act, Act Two
• As Home Foreclosures Climb, Efforts to Help Troubled Homeowners Continue
• The Year in Judicial and Executive Nominations
• Advocating for Federal Leadership on Education
• Facing New Challenges with the 2010 Census
• Modernizing the Federal Poverty Measure
• Piecemeal Legislation, Raids Take Place of Immigration Overhaul
• Below the Surface
• Interview with Kathryn Kolbert

In the Courts

• Wrapping up the Supreme Court’s 2007-2008 Term

In the States

• Colorado: Battleground for More Than Just the Presidency.
• Interview with Lilly Ledbetter

Leadership Conference Activities

• Preventing a Digital TV Divide
• Examining the State of Fair Housing in the 21st Century
• Bringing Diverse Communities Together
• 32nd Annual Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner
• Interview with John Payton

The Americans With Disabilities Act, Act Two

Opinion by Andrew Imparato

As I write this message, the Senate has just passed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADA Amendments Act) by unanimous consent, and we’re confident that it will be passed today in the House, and then off to the White House for signature.  [Editor's note: The bill was signed by President Bush on September 25, 2008.]

The ADA Amendments Act will restore protections for certain people with disabilities – including, but not limited to, people with diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, mental disabilities, and cancer – who were originally intended to be covered by the ADA but were excluded by a series of Supreme Court and lower federal court decisions in the last decade.  The bill restates Congress' original intent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which prohibits discrimination against Americans with physical and mental disabilities in such areas as employment, public accommodations, and transportation.

We are grateful to the bipartisan congressional champions of the bill—people like Tom Harkin, Orrin Hatch, Steny Hoyer, Jim Sensenbrenner, Mike Enzi and Ted Kennedy—who have been striving to bring home this victory before Congress adjourns.

The June 25 vote of 402-17 in the House and the reintroduction of a Senate bill with 67 Senators signing on as co-sponsors just before the August recess certainly gave the bill tremendous momentum going into the month of September.  Now, we would not be where we are today without the coordinated advocacy of disability, civil rights and employer groups.  To see who has been helping to lead the effort to pass the ADA Amendments Act, go to ADAbill.com and you will see for yourself a truly diverse and powerful coalition.  I am confident that we can reconvene this same coalition to work on other disability, employment, and civil rights policy issues once we have this victory firmly under our belt.

What happens after the ADA Amendments Act is signed into law? 

I was recently one of three speakers on a national teleconference on the ADA Amendments Act organized by the Great Lakes region’s Disability Business Technical Assistance Center.  Commissioner Christine Griffin from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was one of my co-panelists.  Commissioner Griffin made the good point that once this bill passes, there will be a need for the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Justice to do another round of training so that people know how the new bill affects their civil rights.

I encourage all activists to recognize that the passage and implementation of the ADA Amendments Act creates an opportunity for all of us to re-educate our respective communities - at the local, state and national levels - about why there is still a need for a civil rights law like the ADA 18 years after its original enactment.

What are the access and attitudinal barriers that still exist in our communities, and what can community leaders do in partnership with disability leaders and organizations to remove those barriers once and for all?  Why do we have to take actions like protesting the offensive portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities in Hollywood blockbusters like "Tropic Thunder?"  Why are politicians, including Senators Obama and McCain, failing to mention their disability agendas in their campaign stump speeches?   Why has it been so difficult to increase the employment rate for people with significant disabilities, and why is our nation’s largest employer, the federal government, moving backwards on this issue?  Why do hot new gadgets like the iPhone come out without paying adequate attention to accessibility for people with disabilities?  Why has it been so difficult to implement the accessibility requirements in the Help America Vote Act? 

We should be raising all of these issues, and many more, as we begin a dialogue with America around the implementation of the restorative amendments to this critical civil rights law.

The bottom line is that implementation of the ADA Amendments Act is an opportunity for all of us to refocus America on the benefits of full inclusion, full participation, and full citizenship for the more than 50 million Americans living with disabilities.  For the implementation to be successful, we will need to engage the very broad coalition that is now working to pass the bill, and then reach out even more broadly to include more groups that can really help change attitudes and improve access.

Here at AAPD, we want disability to be THE social justice issue of our time.  We see implementation of the ADA Amendments Act, coupled with the global implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as a great opportunity to put our issues front and center.  When the bill is enacted into law, let’s all work together, even harder, to implement it in a manner that truly elevates the visibility and quality of life of all people with disabilities in the United States and reestablishes our country’s role as a model of inclusion for the rest of the world.

Andrew J. Imparato is the president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, the largest national nonprofit cross-disability member organization in the United States.