Coalition
One of the legacies of the ADA is the way it involved a disparate, but highly motivated, group of people.
"Never before, and not since, has such a broad coalition of disability groups and activists united around a single issue. The goal was to pass a federal civil rights act to extend basic protections against discrimination, and thus ensure equality of access to employment and the public arena, to all Americans with disabilities. It might have sounded a simple-enough goal, but writing a bill that would do all this while garnering the support necessary to pass both houses of Congress, with their Democratic majorities, and the signature of a Republican president was a test of both the movement's savvy and its political clout." |
Disability rights activists frequently worked directly with legislators and their staffers.
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In the photo above, activist Justin Dart Jr. meets with Senator Bob Dole and Tony Coehlo.
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The direct and indirect involvement of people with disabilities in the ADA's creation was vital to the bill's comprehensive nature and effective language.
“But what was absolutely extraordinary to me, and what made an indelible impression upon all the members, [was that] the disability community came to that hearing, in wheelchairs, and packed that room, at one thirty or two in the morning. And what it said to every member of that committee, Republicans and Democrats alike was, ‘We’re serious about this, and we’re not going to take no for an answer. And it isn’t if we’re going to pass it, but when we’re going to pass it.’” |