[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20997-20998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        17TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today we celebrate the enactment of the 
Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the great civil rights laws in 
the Nation's history. Seventeen years ago, Congress acted on the 
fundamental principle that people should be measured by what they can 
do, not what they can't do. The Americans with Disabilities Act began a 
new era of opportunity for millions of disabled citizens who had been 
denied full and fair participation in society.
  For generations, people with disabilities were treated with pity and 
as persons who deserved charity, not opportunity. Out of ignorance, the 
Nation accepted discrimination for decades and yielded to fear and 
prejudice. The passage of the ADA finally ended these condescending and 
suffocating attitudes and widened the doors of opportunity for all 
people with disabilities.
  The anniversary of this landmark legislation is a time to reflect on 
how far we have come in improving the ``real life'' possibilities for 
the Nation's 56 million people with disabilities. In fact, the seeds of 
action were planted long before 1990.
  In 1932, the United States elected a disabled person to the highest 
office in the land, and he became one of the greatest Presidents in our 
history. But even Franklin Roosevelt felt compelled by the prejudice of 
his times to hide his disability as much as possible. The World War II 
generation began to change all that.
  The 1940s and the 1950s introduced the Nation to a new class of 
Americans with disabilities--wounded and disabled veterans returning 
from war and finding a society grateful for their courage and sacrifice 
but relegating them to the sideline of the American dream. Even before 
the war ended, however, rehabilitation medicine had been born. 
Disability advocacy organizations began to grow. Disability benefits 
were added to Social Security. Each decade since then has brought 
significant new progress and more change.
  In the 1960s, Congress responded with new architectural standards, so 
we could have a society everyone could be a part of. No one would have 
to wait outside a new building because they were disabled.
  The 1970s convinced us that greater opportunities for fuller 
participation in society were possible for the disabled. Congress 
responded with a range of steps to improve the lives of people with 
mental disabilities as well. We supported the right of children with 
disabilities to attend public schools. We guaranteed the right of 
people with disabilities to vote in elections, and we insisted on 
greater access to cultural and recreational programs in their 
communities.
  The 1980s brought a new realization, however, that in helping people 
with disabilities, we can't rely only on Government programs. We began 
to involve the private sector as well. We guaranteed fair housing 
opportunities for people with disabilities, required fair access to air 
travel, and made advances in technology available for people hard of 
hearing or deaf.
  The crowning achievement of these decades of progress was passage of 
the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its promise of a new 
and better life for every disabled citizen in which their disabilities 
would no longer put an end to their dreams.
  As one eloquent citizen with a disability said, ``I do not wish to be 
a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I 
want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and to 
succeed. I want to enjoy the benefits of my creations and face the 
world boldly, and say, this is what I have done.''
  Our families, our neighbors, and our friends with disabilities have 
taught us in ways no books can teach. The inclusion of people with 
disabilities enriches all our lives. Every day, my son Teddy, who lost 
his leg at the age of 12, continues to teach me every day the greatest 
lesson of all--that disabled does not mean unable.
  As the saying goes, when people are excluded from the social fabric 
of a community, it creates a hole--and when there is a hole, the entire 
fabric is weaker. It lacks the strength that diversity brings. The 
fabric of our Nation is stronger today than it was 17 years ago because 
people with disabilities are no longer left out and left behind, and 
because of that, America is a greater and better and fairer Nation.
  Today, in this country, we see the many signs of the progress that 
mean so much in our ongoing efforts to include persons with 
disabilities in every aspect of life--the ramps beside the steps, the 
sidewalks with curb-cuts to accommodate wheelchairs, the lifts for 
helping disabled people to take a bus to work or the store or a movie.
  Disabled students are no longer barred from schools and denied 
education. They are learning and achieving at levels once thought 
impossible. They are graduating from high schools, enrolling in 
universities, joining the workforce, achieving their goals, enriching 
their communities and their country. They have greater access than ever 
to the rehabilitation and training needed to be successfully employed 
and become productive, contributing members of their communities.
  With the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act in 1999, 
we finally linked civil rights much more closely to health care. It 
isn't civil and it isn't right to send a disabled person to work 
without the health care they need and deserve.
  These milestones show that we are continuing the way to fulfilling 
the promise of a new, better, and more inclusive life for citizens with 
disabilities--but we still have a way to go. Today, as we rightly look 
back with pride, we also need to look ahead with hope and dedication.
  We still face many challenges, especially in areas such as health 
care and in home-based and community-based services and support. Many 
persons with disabilities still do not have the services and support 
they need to make choices about how best to live their lives. Many are 
unwillingly confined to institutions or unable to have a financial plan 
for their future.
  A strong Medicare prescription drug benefit is essential for all 
people with disabilities. Today, about one in six Medicare 
beneficiaries--over 6 million people--is a person with disabilities 
under aged 65. Over the next 10 years that number is expected to 
increase to 8 million. These persons are much less likely to be able to 
obtain or afford private insurance coverage. Many of them are forced to 
choose between buying groceries, paying their mortgage, or paying for 
their medication.
  Families raising children with significant disabilities deserve 
health care for their children. No family should be forced to go 
bankrupt, live in poverty, or give up custody of their disabled child 
in order to get needed health care for disabled child. They deserve the 
right to buy-in to Medicaid so that their family can stay together and 
stay employed. Congress did its job, and now every State should do its 
part under the Family Opportunity Act, adopted in 2005.
  People with disabilities and older Americans need community-based 
assistance as well, so they can live at home with their families and in 
their

[[Page 20998]]

communities. We need to pass the CLASS Act to ensure this support is 
available, without forcing families into poverty. It is a challenge for 
the Nation, and we need to work together to meet it.
  The Americans with Disabilities Act was an extraordinary milestone in 
the pursuit of the American dream. Many disability and civil rights 
leaders in communities throughout the country worked long and hard and 
well to achieve it.
  To each disabled American, I say thank you. It is all of you who are 
the true heroes of this achievement and who will lead us in the fight 
to keep the ADA strong in the years ahead.
  Sadly, the Supreme Court has not been on our side. In the past 17 
years, it has restricted the intended scope of the ADA. Suppose you are 
a person with epilepsy in a job you love and you get excellent 
personnel reviews. You are taking medicine that controls the seizures 
and you have no symptoms. But your employer finds out you have epilepsy 
and fires you. Should you be able to sue your employer for 
discrimination? Suppose you are a person with Down's syndrome, doing a 
fantastic job at the local Wal-Mart, but the manager really doesn't 
want someone with Down's syndrome greeting the public. Should you be 
able to sue for discrimination or are you no longer even covered under 
the ADA? Congress intended full protection from discrimination--but the 
courts are ruling differently. It is time now to restore the intent of 
the ADA.
  The Supreme Court continues to carve out exception after exception in 
the ADA. But discrimination is discrimination, and no attempt to blur 
that line or write exceptions into the law should be tolerated. 
Congress wouldn't do it, and it is wrong for the Supreme Court to do 
it.
  The ADA was a spectacular example of bipartisan cooperation and 
success. Passed by overwhelming majorities in both the House and the 
Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike took rightful pride in the 
goals of the law and its many accomplishments.
  I know that the first President Bush, Senator Bob Dole, Senator 
Harkin, and many other Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle 
consider their work on the ADA to be among their finest accomplishments 
in public service. It is widely regarded today as one of the giant 
steps in our ongoing two-centuries-old civil rights revolution.
  The need for that kind of bipartisan cooperation is especially 
critical today as Congress embarks on restoring the ADA to its original 
intent, so that the rights of those with disabilities are protected, 
not violated.
  Today, more than ever, disability need no longer mean the end of the 
American dream. Our goal is to banish stereotypes and discrimination, 
so that every disabled person can realize the dream of working and 
living independently and becoming a productive and contributing member 
of our community.
  That goal should be the birthright of every American and the ADA 
opened the door for every disabled American to achieve it.
  A story from the debate on the ADA eloquently made the point. A 
postmaster in a town was told to make his post office accessible. The 
building had 20 steep steps leading up to a revolving door at the only 
entrance. The postmaster questioned the need to make such costly 
repairs. He said, ``I've been here for thirty-five years, and in all 
that time, I've yet to see a single customer come in here in a 
wheelchair.'' As the Americans with Disabilities Act has proved so 
well, if you build the ramp, they will come, and they will find their 
field of dreams.
  So let's ramp up our own efforts across the country. We need to keep 
building those ramps, no matter how many steps stand in the way. We 
will not stop today or tomorrow or next month or next year. We will not 
ever stop until America works for all Americans.
  I ask all of us in Congress join today in committing to keep the ADA 
strong. It is an act of conscience, an act of community, and above all, 
an act of continued hope for a better future for our country as a 
whole.

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