The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

People with Disabilities

IN JULY 1990, President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), potentially the most far-reaching civil rights legislation since the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Reports on the number of people covered by the law vary widely, from some 14 million to as many as 43 million.

THE ADA DRAWS HEAVILY from previous civil rights legislation, including Titles II and VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It prohibits discrimination against Americans with physical and mental disabilities in such areas as employment, public accommodations, and transportation.

TITLE I of the ADA covers employment and prohibits job discrimination against individuals with disabilities who, with or without a reasonable accommodation, can perform a job's essential functions.

TITLE II extends the same ban against discrimination to state and local governments and includes provisions requiring agencies to make public transportation and other public services accessible to individuals with disabilities.

TITLE III bars discrimination in a wide range of public accommodations, including hotels, restaurants, museums, schools, and sports arenas, and requires that these facilities be accessible to people with disabilities.

TITLE IV addresses telecommunications barriers, requiring that telephone services offered to the general public must include so-called "relay services," which are designed to bridge the gap between individuals who use conventional voice telephones and those who use special equipment such as a TTY device. A TTY uses a keyboard to send and receive graphic messages over telephone lines. Relay services enable a caller using the TTY to call a "communications assistant" at a relay center who then dials the requested voice number and acts as a go-between for the two parties, speaking the TTY's typewritten message and typing the oral conversation of the other party.

THE ADA HAS GREATLY EXPANDED opportunities for persons with disabilities in its first decade. For example, 1996 Census Bureau data showed that an additional 800,000 people with severe disabilities joined the workforce in the first three years after the ADA's enactment. The ADA has enabled the removal of barriers such as narrow doors or steps that prevent persons with wheelchairs from attending a town meeting, eating at a restaurant, or registering to vote; and has helped ensure that people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech impairments can access 9-1-1 emergency services.

BY THE LATE 1990s, ADA issues had begun to work their way to the Supreme Court. The Court first addressed the ADA in its 1998 Bragdon v. Abbott decision, holding, among other things, that HIV-positive individuals are protected under the ADA. 1999 brought another significant victory for disability rights advocates, as the Court reaffirmed in Olmstead v. L.C. that the ADA bars the unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in state institutions. As the Court noted, such segregation is often motivated by irrational fears, stereotypes, and patronizing attitudes, and unfairly relegates individuals with disabilities to second-class status.

THE COURT'S NEXT DECISIONS, however, significantly limited the ADA's reach. In a trio of 1999 cases (Sutton v. United Airlines, Murphy v. United Parcel Service, and Albertson's v. Kirkingberg), the Court held that any determination of whether an individual has a disability triggering the ADA's protections must consider any mitigating measures taken to control the effects of the individual's impairment, such as medication or therapy. As the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law notes, under this decision, an individual who controls the effects of depression through medication may be unable to claim the ADA's protections when he or she suffers discrimination because of that depression. And in 2001, the Court held in University of Alabama v. Garrett that the Eleventh Amendment bars suits in federal courts by state employees seeking to recover money damages for discrimination in violation of Title II of the ADA.

THE YEAR 2000 marked the 25th anniversary of another landmark piece of disability rights legislation: IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). In 1975, Congress found that the special education needs of more than eight million students with disabilities were not being met. For example, some students were entirely excluded from school, while others failed to receive an appropriate education. Many of those who did receive educational services were educated far away from their local schools.

IDEA PROVIDES THAT ALL CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES have a federally-protected right to a free appropriate public education that meets their schooling and related needs in the least restrictive environment, in regular classes, in the school the student would attend if not disabled. Under IDEA, students with disabilities are entitled to support services and devices (such as assistive listening systems, Braille textbooks, talking computers, and speech synthesizers) as needed to facilitate their learning in classrooms alongside nondisabled students.

IN THE 25 YEARS SINCE ITS ENACTMENT, IDEA has significantly improved the quality of the public education received by millions of American children with disabilities. Today, according to the National Council on Disability, "[p]ost-school employment rates for youth served under IDEA are twice that of older adults with disabilities who did not benefit from IDEA in school, and self-reports indicate that the percentage of college freshmen with a disability has almost tripled since 1978."

DESPITE IDEA'S SUCCESS, however, its work is far from over. Surveys by the National Council on Disability also found that "the dropout rate for students who receive special education continues to be far higher than that of students who receive general education services. Diploma rates for special education students are far lower than for their peers enrolled in general education services. Unemployment among those with disabilities who want to work, but can't find a job, is approximately 70 percent." Moreover, many children with disabilities -- especially minority and/or low-income students -- are not yet receiving the services to which they are entitled under IDEA.

FULL FUNDING FOR THE IDEA is thus one of the key legislative priorities for disability rights advocates. Another is the enactment of protections for consumers of managed care to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to needed health care services, experienced health care providers, specialty care, and prescription drugs -- along with meaningful procedures for resolving and remedying grievances with managed care providers. Still other priorities include parity for health care coverage of mental disabilities and voting rights measures to ensure equal access to the right to cast a secret ballot (since many technologies currently in use are not accessible to persons with certain disabilities).