[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 131 (Friday, July 7, 2000)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 41865-41866]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-17386]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 131 / Friday, July 7, 2000 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 41865]]

                Proclamation 7327 of July 1, 2000

                
Spirit of the ADA Month, 2000

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act 
                (ADA) 10 years ago this month signaled a transformation 
                in our Nation's public policies toward people with 
                disabilities. America is now a dramatically different--
                and better--country because of the ADA.

                In the last 10 years, we have worked hard to eliminate 
                harmful stereotypes and have grown to understand 
                disability as a natural part of the human experience. 
                We are taking steps, such as renovating and 
                constructing public accommodations to make them fully 
                accessible, to ensure that people with disabilities are 
                fully integrated into our communities and workplaces. 
                And we have come to appreciate that people with 
                disabilities are a key element--and an untapped 
                resource--in sustaining our Nation's historic economic 
                growth.

                Throughout our Administration, Vice President Gore and 
                I have worked hard to achieve the ADA's core goals--
                equality of opportunity, full participation, 
                independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. Our 
                Administration has vigorously defended the ADA in court 
                cases across the Nation; we are collaborating with 
                State Medicaid directors to implement the Supreme 
                Court's 1999 Olmstead decision, which prohibits 
                unjustified isolation of institutionalized persons with 
                disabilities; we helped ensure that 80 percent of 
                America's public transit buses are now accessible; we 
                are implementing the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives 
                Improvement Act, which I proudly signed into law last 
                December; we have worked closely with schools and 
                colleges to improve the enrollment, retention, and 
                graduation of students with disabilities; and my Task 
                Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities is 
                developing far-reaching policies for a comprehensive, 
                coordinated employment agenda.

                We still have much to accomplish. Because the many 
                barriers confronting people with disabilities took 
                generations to develop, breaking them down requires 
                consistent, coordinated, and farsighted effort. We must 
                work aggressively to increase the employment rates of 
                people with disabilities by attacking a range of work 
                disincentives, including barriers to education, health 
                care, technology, housing, and transportation. We must 
                provide real choices for people with disabilities to 
                live and work in their communities with the necessary 
                services and supports. And we must be vigilant in 
                protecting the rights we have secured through decades 
                of legal activism. I am encouraged that the first 10 
                years of the ADA's life have provided us with a solid 
                foundation for meeting these challenges.

                To mark the ADA's 10th anniversary and the 25th 
                anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities 
                Education Act (IDEA), the American Association of 
                People with Disabilities has organized a nationwide 
                ``Spirit of ADA'' Torch Relay. Twenty-four cities from 
                coast to coast are hosting official relay events, and 
                hundreds of communities are organizing additional local 
                events as part of this national celebration. The Spirit 
                of ADA's organizing theme is ``Renew the Pledge'' to 
                encourage individuals, organizations, and government 
                entities to reaffirm their commitment to the principles 
                of the ADA and IDEA. Vice

[[Page 41866]]

                President Gore and I are proud to join in the 
                celebration and to renew our own pledge to help advance 
                the cause of disability rights.

                Promoting disability rights not only improves the lives 
                of the 54 million Americans with disabilities, it 
                improves all of our lives. As President Franklin 
                Roosevelt recognized more than 60 years ago, in words 
                that are now inscribed on the FDR Memorial in our 
                Nation's capital: ``No Country, however rich, can 
                afford the waste of its human resources.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim July 2000 as Spirit of the 
                ADA Month, 2000. I urge government officials, business 
                people, community leaders, educators, and all the 
                people of the United States, to celebrate the 
                contributions people with disabilities have made, and 
                continue to make, to the progress and prosperity of our 
                Nation, and to renew our commitment to upholding the 
                nondiscrimination principles of the ADA and IDEA.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                first day of July, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand, and of the Independence of the United States 
                of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 00-17386
Filed 7-6-00; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P