Disabilities Act Means Access and Opportunity for 604 Thousand Oklahomans

OKLAHOMA CITY—Seventeen years ago on July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law, extending civil rights protections to an estimated 54 million Americans with disabilities.

The landmark legislation makes it illegal to discriminate against individuals with disabilities in employment, public services, public accommodations, transportation and telecommunications. The ADA is often compared to other civil rights legislation based on race, color, sex, national original and religion.

“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 of Edmond, a member of the Commission for Rehabilitation Services, which governs the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS).

Shelton, a computer applications programmer with 30 years experience in information technology, has not allowed blindness to be a deterrent to his own career objectives.

The ADA applies to those with physical or mental impairments that substantially limit one or more major life activities. These activities include walking, talking, hearing, seeing, breathing, learning, performing manual tasks and caring for oneself. The law also applies to individuals who have a history of such impairments, as well as those who are perceived as having such impairments.

According to the 2000 Census, 604,245 Oklahomans age five and over have disabilities that may qualify for ADA protection. This figure doesn’t count 31,214 individuals living in nursing homes and institutions for the chronically ill.

Among work-age individuals, 361,145 have some type of disability. This group has an employment rate of 38.2% compared to 74.5% among people without disabilities.

Of 564,544 Oklahomans living below the poverty level in 2005, 143,594, or over one-fourth, had disabilities.

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 Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired is a result of the ADA’s focus on communication access.

The law also prohibits disability-based discrimination in the workplace. Under the ADA an employer cannot refuse to hire a qualified applicant solely because of the individual’s disability. 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,” Steve Shelton said.

Volume 5, issue 1 of “Washington Watch,” published by the Disability Policy Collaboration, reports: “… a host of lower court rulings and some significant Supreme court rulings have allowed a retreat from the core principles of ADA….”

According to “Washington Watch,” in recent years the courts have allowed employers to say a person is “too disabled” to do the job, but not “disabled enough” to be protected by the ADA. Some cases have been rejected by the courts, while the individuals are not given the chance to prove they can do the jobs.

“People with conditions like epilepsy, diabetes, HIV, cancer, hearing loss or mental illness, for example, who manage their disabilities with medication, prosthetics or hearing aids are viewed as ‘too functional’ to have a disability have been denied the ADA’s protection from employment discrimination.

For example, in the 1999 case of Sutton v United Airlines, the Supreme Court ruled against severely myopic, or near-sighted, twins who were denied jobs as pilots because of their weak eyesight. Those with myopia see nearby objects clearly, but distant objects appear blurred.

The court rejected their claims of discrimination because their vision was correctable with eyeglasses. The Supreme Court decision was the first to narrow the definition of disability by upholding discrimination against the individuals who were regarded as having a disability by their employer, but yet did not qualify for protection under the ADA.

In 2006, Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and John Conyers (D-MI) introduced the Americans with Disabilities Act Restoration Act (H.R. 6258). The intent of the legislation in Congressman Sensenbrenners’ words was to “restore the intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to more fully remove the barriers that confront disabled Americans.”

Congress did not approve the act in 2006, but similar legislation may be reintroduced at some point in the future.

“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,” Department of Rehabilitation Services Director Linda Parker said. “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 other taxpayers and our state as a whole.”

The Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) provides rehabilitation, employment and educational services for Oklahomans with disabilities. The agency also helps employers recruit qualified employees with disabilities and advises on workplace accessibility, assistive technology and tax incentives for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. For information on services, visit the agency website at www.okrehab.org  or call 1-800-845-8476. The number is accessible by telecommunications equipment for the deaf.

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