BENEFITS
Landmark legislation makes certain that everyone
17 years ago today, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed and began changing lives.
Landmark ADA legislation makes certain that everyone benefits

By Jim Killackey

Published: July 26, 2007

Born in 1950 with muscular dystrophy and wheelchair-bound, a hungry Bill Austin frequently utilized a quirky tactic for getting into his favorite Oklahoma City restaurant for a meal.

He'd go to the back of the establishment, push himself up the restaurant's only ramp used for food deliveries, cut through the restaurant's kitchen amid stares, frowns and groans, and then quickly get a table in the dining area.

Austin's past dilemma — denied access to a restaurant because he uses a wheelchair — underscores just how far Oklahoma has come since 1990, when then-President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, extending civil rights protections to an estimated 54 million Americans — and about 600,000 Oklahomans — with disabilities.

Today is the signing's 17th anniversary.

"The Americans with Disabilities Act has helped everyone because everyone benefits when qualified people with disabilities go to work and participate fully in their communities,” said Linda Parker, state Department of Rehabilitation Services director. "Most of our clients who go to work are also paying taxes and no longer relying on disability benefits and social services, which is a good thing for taxpayers and our state as a whole.”

The landmark federal legislation made it illegal to discriminate against individuals with disabilities in employment, public services, public accommodations, transportation and telecommunications.

The ADA applies to those with physical or mental impairments that substantially limit one or more major life activities. Those activities include walking, talking, hearing, seeing, breathing, learning, and performing manual tasks, said Jody Harlan, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitative Services.

The ADA often is compared to other civil rights legislation based on race, sex, national origin and religion, advocates say.

These days, for example, restaurants and most buildings have front-door ramps for people in wheelchairs.

"You don't have to look far to see the impact of the ADA,” said Jason Price, 33, who has cerebral palsy and works at Shepherd Mall in Oklahoma City.

"Stroll into your nearest restaurant and visit the bathroom, take note of the wider stalls and roll-under sinks for wheelchair access.

"The next time you visit a hotel, take notice of the lowered peepholes in some rooms and Braille room numbers. The next time you decide to take in a movie, notice the designated seating for moviegoers with disabilities,” said Price, a Social Security Administration vocational-rehabilitation coordinator.

The ADA "gave me hope for a more equal world when it passed 17 years ago,” said Price, who uses a wheelchair.

By the numbers

According to the 2000 U.S. Census:

•604,245 Oklahomans age 5 and older have disabilities that may qualify for ADA protection.

•Among work-age individuals, 361,145 have some type of disability.

•143,594 of 564,544 Oklahomans living below the poverty level are individuals with disabilities.

The ADA "has done a super job opening up physical access and has been a tremendous advantage for many people with disabilities,” said Steve Shelton, 52, of Edmond, a member of the Commission for Rehabilitation Services, which governs the state Department of Rehabilitation Services.

Shelton, who is blind, develops software for banks nationwide. He works from his Edmond home with adaptive equipment.

The law also prohibits disability-based discrimination in the workplace and employers cannot refuse to hire a qualified applicant solely because of the individual's disability.

"Before the ADA, most employees could deny a person a chance to even be considered for a job because of a disability. Before the ADA, most employers knew they did not have to even try to accommodate an employee with a disability,” said Jean Jones, legislative representative for the state Department of Rehabilitative Services. She is visually impaired.

The ADA"brought Americans with disabilities out of the shadows,” she said

The law "was a reaction to an American society and culture that for centuries had largely excluded people with disabilities from participating,” Jones said. "Even past the middle of the last century, many families hid their members with disabilities away at home, or in institutions, so that neighbors and friends would not know the family shame.”

The ADA made society more welcoming for people with disabilities, she said.

"Often, you have to change the attitudes before the practices, but in the case of the ADA, both have been happening at once,” Jones said. "People with disabilities have a right to be out in the public, at the store, jobs, football game, swimming pool.”

Disability advocates report the ADA has produced major gains in access to stores, restaurants and other places open to the public. A successful nationwide network of telephone relay services for Oklahomans who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired, is a result of the ADA's focus on communication access.

On the job, an employee with a disability may seek "reasonable accommodations,” such as a wheelchair- accessible work space or modified work schedule, to enable him or her to perform job duties despite the disability.

"While the ADA can level the playing field, people with disabilities must also take some responsibility for getting past roadblocks by adapting the way they do things – like using computer-based technology to work and function more independently in all aspects of their lives,” Shelton said.

Selena Sundling-Crawford, 30, is an Internal Revenue Service auditor in Tulsa. She is legally blind.

People are as important as laws such as the ADA in helping the disabled, she said.

"I have lived in five states and Oklahomans have treated me the best,” Sundling-Crawford said..

"Whenever I go into a group of people, they always treat me like a ‘normal' person from the beginning. In the four other states that I have lived in, the majority of the people treated me like I was mentally impaired until I was able to prove to them otherwise,” Sundling-Crawford said.

Some disabled Oklahomans, though, think the ADA still has a long road ahead.

"Most of the barriers faced by the disabled today aren't physical,” said Steve Shelton. "The significant barriers of today are the attitudes and misconceptions held by employers as to what the disabled are able to do, or not do. Hopefully, by complying with the ADA, employers will be educated and recognize the value of disabled employees in their business.”

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