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Appendix E -The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
A Historical Perspective

"No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of goods, services, facilities..."

American society has been committed in principle to civil rights protection since the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Throughout its history, the nation has slowly but steadily advanced toward a "bill of rights" for all Americans. Over the last 35 years, Americans have become increasingly aware of the need to enact legislation that guarantees these basic rights to everyone, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex or national origin. With the passage by Congress in 1990 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), barriers to equal opportunity and full participation in American life are being removed for individuals with disabilities.

The ADA uses the framework of Titles II and VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for coverage and enforcement. The law relies on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for a definition of what constitutes discrimination.

The ADA forbids discrimination against individuals with disabilities as follows:

• Title I - Employment
  
• Title II - Public accommodations and services, including government offices, retail stores, hotels, theaters, medical offices, museums, libraries, parks, schools and public transportation provided by public agencies
  
• Title III - Public accommodation provided by private agencies.
  Transportation services provided by private entities are also covered.
  
• Title IV - Telecommunication

Public Transportation - ADA Title II

The legislation sought to ensure the full access to transportation that is a necessity if the act's provisions for equal opportunity in employment and equal access to public accommodations are to be meaningful. The transportation provisions of Title II cover public transportation services such as city buses, light rail, subways, and Amtrak. Public transportation authorities may not discriminate against people with disabilities in the provision of services.

While the bill required all new transportation facilities and vehicles to be accessible to persons with disabilities, it did not require the retrofitting of existing vehicles. New bus stations and alterations to existing stations must be made accessible. Public transit agencies operating fixed route services must also provide comparable paratransit services to individuals with disabilities who cannot use the fixed-route system.

Before the ADA

This civil rights law (the ADA) was preceded by other state and national legislation with far less impact for people with disabilities, including:

• 1964 Civil Rights Act
  
• 1970 An Amendment to the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
  
• 1973 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (referred to as Section 504)
  Provisions for enforcement applied only to agencies or institutions receiving federal funds.
  
• 1986 The Aircraft Carrier Access Act

Prior to 1986 the airlines had no industry-wide policy for providing accessible service, and even within individual airlines policies varied or were nonexistent. The Aircraft Carrier Access Act provides that passengers with disabilities be treated like other passengers, so long as safety is not compromised.

"No air carrier may discriminate against any otherwise qualified (individual with a disability), by reason of such [disability] in the provision of air transportation."

The ADA defines an individual with a disability as "a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment."

The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 Findings and Purposes

(a) FINDINGS: The Congress finds that:

(1) some 43,000,000 Americans have one or more physical disabilities, and this number is increasing as the population as a whole is growing older;

(2) historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities, and, despite some improvements, such forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem;

(3) discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation, institutionalization, health services, voting, and access to public services;

(4) unlike individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, or age, individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of disability have often had no legal recourse to redress such discrimination;

(5) individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers, overprotective rules and policies, failure to make modifications to existing facilities and practices, exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, segregation, and relegation to lesser services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or other opportunities;

(6) census data, national polls, and other studies have documented that people with disabilities, as a group, occupy an inferior status in our society, and are severely disadvantaged socially, vocationally, economically, and educationally;

(7) individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority who have been faced with restrictions and limitation, subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment, and relegated to a position of political powerlessness in our society, based on characteristics that are beyond the control of such individuals and resulting from stereotypic assumptions, not truly indicative of the individual ability of such individuals to participate in, and contribute to, society;

(8) the Nation's proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for such individuals; and

(9) the continuing existence of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and prejudice denies people with disabilities the opportunity to compete on an equal basis, and to pursue those opportunities for which our free society is justifiably famous, and costs the United States billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses resulting from dependency and nonproductivity.

(b) PURPOSE: It is the purpose of this Act-

(1) to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities;

(2) to provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities;

(3) to ensure that the Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing the standards established in this Act on behalf of individuals with disabilities; and

(4) to invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce, in order to address the major areas of discrimination faced day-to-day by people with disabilities.

Source: The U.S. Department of Justice

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