It’s Time for ADA 2.0: Accessibility for All Benefits All

The ADA was passed thirty years ago, but people with disabilities have yet to experience full inclusion into society.

Have you heard this ad? “Comcast believes that disability isn’t the lack of ability. It’s the lack of a solution.” Whoa. Wait. What’s going on here? Since when do huge, profit-driven conglomerates focus on underserved communities like people with disabilities? Just because the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed in 1990, and curb cuts and closed captioning are more prevalent than ever, doesn’t mean that discrimination of the disabled is a thing of the past.

Far from it. Just ask veteran David Szumowski. At age 23, David was injured in Vietnam and lost his sight. After rehabilitation, he applied to law school at the University of Richmond and was denied admission in 1970. “Our experience with blind students leads us to the firm belief that you would have no chance whatsoever of being a successful student in our Law School,” said the dean. In spite of the obstacles, however, David graduated from law school and had a thirty-year career as a deputy district attorney and superior court judge in San Diego.

Just ask Haben Girma, disability rights lawyer. In her book, Haben Girma: The Deaf-Blind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, she suggests that “when the media portrays the problem as the disability, society is not encouraged to change. The biggest barriers exist not in the person, but in the physical, social, and digital environment. People with disabilities and their communities succeed when the community decides to dismantle digital, attitudinal, and physical barriers.” What should communities do? Her answer is simple: “find alternative techniques to reach goals and accomplish tasks. These creative solutions are equal in value to mainstream solutions. We’re all interdependent and go further when we support each other.”

Amanda Leduc, a Canadian with cerebral palsy and author of Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, says that we need to change the template for how society continues to treat the disabled. Rather than making the world accessible for everyone, the disabled are often asked to adapt to inaccessible environments.

It’s time to start writing an alternate narrative, one where we all engage in the work to make our world accessible to everyone.