Advocates reflect on the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Jul. 25--It's been more than 30 years, but Renee Wood can still easily remember the indignities she and some of her friends used to suffer when just trying to do something simple like going out for a bite to eat.

Mrs. Wood, who is disabled, recalls going to a local restaurant in the 1980s and being told that she and her friend could not eat there because of their disabilities. The restaurant owner told her they had no liability insurance to protect the business should something happen to the pair of would-be diners.

"We had no recourse. Even if we had access -- I could walk at the time -- they wouldn't let us eat there," Mrs. Wood said. "Just because I didn't look like other people we were told 'No,'" she added.

"I had no recourse. And basically we didn't know what to do. There was no law to protect us."

But that changed on July 26, 1990 when President George H.W. Bush, with nearly 2,000 disabled citizens watching nearby, held a historic ceremony on the south lawn of the White House to sign into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At the time, the new law brought equality to nearly 43 million people with disabilities by providing equal access to jobs, transportation, public facilities such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, stores, and stadiums. It also required new buses, cars, and trains to be accessible to people with disabilities, and mandated that within two years all businesses with more than 25 workers had to make reasonable accommodation for disabled workers.

The ADA, as it was known, was supposed to remove all the barriers -- physical or intangible -- that had segregated a portion of the country from the mainstream.

Now with the act turning 30 years old Sunday, many people with disabilities who had yet to be born the day President Bush held his signing ceremony have grown up in a world where curb cuts are standard, signing and closed captions are common, therapy and guide dogs are welcomed everywhere, buildings less than 30 years old are accessible, and Mrs. Wood will never be refused service at the restaurant of her choice because it has no liability insurance.

But even after three decades of gains, a hard truth remains: The ADA was no panacea.

A law can mandate curb cuts, but it cannot mandate a change in attitudes.

Tim Harrington, executive director of the Ability Center of Greater Toledo, said the significance of the ADA cannot be understated. Yet after 30 years, there are many problems people with disabilities face daily that have yet to be addressed.

"It's interesting. We in the disabled community have a whole generation that was born after the ADA and it's taken for granted these days that new construction must have disability access and that in most communities curb cuts are something you don't even think about anymore," Mr. Harrington said.

"So progress has been slow but steady. But there's still much work to be done to ensure that folks with disabilities are still able to live in their communities," he added.

Making it easier to integrate into their communities was one of the goals of the ADA, Mr. Harrington said. But there still needs to be more support services available for that to happen.

After 30 years, those support services fall short, he said.

"The other area that still needs work is we still have yet to move the needle on employment," the Ability Center executive director said.

"There are many more opportunities for folks with disabilities in the employment area. But there is still work to be done with 70 percent unemployment and under-employment for folks with disabilities. Nobody seems to know that," he said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019 just 19.3 percent of persons with a disability were employed.

By contrast, the employment-population ratio for persons without a disability was 66.3 percent.

While it is true that half of all persons with a disability are age 65 and over -- about three times larger than the share of those with no disability -- it is still a fact that across all age groups, the employment-population ratios were much lower for persons with a disability than for those with no disability.

Tim Menke, CEO of Lott Industries, which does contract work for major companies and uses a work force of about 300 employees with various disabilities, said two things seem to hold back people wit disabilities when it comes to employment opportunities.

"To me, the biggest thing is transportation, especially with people with developmental disabilities. TARTA has a system, but it's cumbersome," Mr. Menke said. "I know they're working to improve that at TARTA but it's hard right now for people with disabilities."

The second issue, Mr. Menke said, is educating employers to think harder about hiring the disabled when job needs arise.

Mr. Menke and others have appealed to the Toledo Rotary Club to try to get its members, many of whom are business owners, to hire more people with disabilities.

"The community could use improvement education-wise. I think we have work to do," Mr. Menke said.

Progress on the employment front is slow, Mr. Harrington agreed.

"Unemployment for the disabled is off the radar," Mr. Harrington said. "It really is a situation where, when they have this whole discussion of the issue of diversity in the corporate world, we are not in the discussion in any meaningful way."

Mrs. Wood, who is a board member at the Ability Center and was a former Disability Rights Advocate there, has a simpler explanation for the high unemployment for the disabled.

"It's about attitudes," she said.

"The ADA did not change people's attitudes at first. Eventually, people got used to us and then the attitude changed somewhat. But that took a good 10 years," Mrs. Wood said.

"When there is talk about all kinds of things, we are included now. We are included. But we're still not seen as equal," she said. "Just because you're included doesn't mean you're equal. You're tolerated, you're not equal."

Still, Mr. Menke said he sees signs that the job situation is changing somewhat, albeit slowly.

"Walgreens Distribution in Perrysburg is very active at recruiting. They have a goal of 30 percent of people with disabilities," he said. "And First Solar, they were looking to hire people with disabilities."

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer Meijer, which has five Toledo area grocery supercenter stores and 253 stores in six states, this month was named a 2020 Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion, an award recognizing its culture of inclusion for people with disabilities.

The award came from the 2020 Disability Equality Index, which is a joint initiative of Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Other large employers are also recognizing that people with disabilities are a potential workforce demographic that is underemployed.

Two years ago, Amazon Inc., which is building a huge warehouse in Rossford and a smaller facility in South Toledo, began quietly rolling out a disability hiring initiative.

Recently, the Seattle-based retailer has become more open and proactive. Last month the company began airing a national commercial in which one of its warehouse workers, who is deaf, never speaks and tells his story of working for Amazon in sign language.

In various accounts, the giant retailer said the recruitment strategy is part of Amazon's commitment to increased diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

But Mrs. Wood said there may be a shrewder motive for Amazon.

"Baby Boomers are getting older and retiring," she said. "Companies need workers to take the new job openings that the Baby Boomers have left. Society is changing where they need a lot more workers.

"Amazon is already doing that hiring," she added.

While there may be hope for a changing job market, Mr. Harrington said another issue the ADA could not solve was housing to allow people with disabilities to remain in their communities.

The housing issue was a problem prior to the ADA, and it remains, he said.

"The promise of the ADA was to end segregation and discrimination. And we still need to work on those systems that tend to direct people into institutional care versus community-based services," Mr. Harrington said.

There just are not enough community services available to allow people with disabilities who need some care to stay in their homes, he said.

"You can be way down the waiting list. It takes forever to get supporting home health care in your home. But you can get institutionalized pretty easy," he said.

Housing stock that is accessible also is an issue, he added.

"To be real clear, over the last 30 years we've known one thing for sure: that our demographic population is getting older. As they get older, their ability to walk and stand becomes challenged," Mr. Harrington said.

But the amount of housing stock that is affordable and accessible is still challenged.

"That's why at the Ability Center year-over-year we're installing over 100 ramps at people's homes so we can keep those people in their homes.

"When we get into older neighborhoods, you're talking about people who have lived there for 30 years. Their goal is not to pack up and move into an eight story apartment building, and they cannot do that without chair lifts, ramps, or bathroom modifications," Mr. Harrington said.

With so many issues still to resolve, it would be easy to think progress has not been achieved. But Mr. Harrington said that would be wrong.

"I believe that slow and steady wins the race and I think there has been progress along the way. What excites me most is whenever you have new construction there are reflective practices in universal design," he said.

"Public works engage the disabled in the discussions before putting anything in the ground. When the Mud Hens were building Fifth Third Field, the disabled community representatives were sitting at the table from the beginning and the result is you have the most disabled-friendly park in the division.

"And it's all because they listened to us," Mr. Harrington said.

___

(c)2020 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)

Visit The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) at www.toledoblade.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.