DIDM ‘93 Platform
PLATFORM FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL DISABILITY INDEPENDENCE DAY MARCH Sunday, July 25, 1993
“I am strongly committed to full implementation and enforcement of the ADA, because I believe our entire nation will share in the economic and social benefits that will result from full participation of Americans with disabilities in our society…
My agenda for our country and for people with disabilities goes beyond full implementation of the ADA.
I am committed to fighting for a national health care system which provides universal access to affordable, quality health care, with more options for personal assistance services for the elderly and for persons who are disabled.”
(Letter from President Elect Bill Clinton to the ADA Employment Summit. December 1, 1992.)
The text of the ADA begins with the following “FINDINGS AND PURPOSES” (sec.2) which we, the community of persons with disabilities, wish to re-endorse and re-affirm.
- a. FINDINGS. - The Congress finds that -
some 43,000,000 Americans have one or more physical or mental disabilities, and this number is increasing as the population as a whole is growing older;
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;
discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education, transportation, health services, voting. and access to public services;
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;
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, and other opportunities;
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;
individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority who have been faced with restrictions and limitations, 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:
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
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 -
to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities;
to provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities;
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
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.
The avowed purpose of the Disability Independence Day March is:
to commemorate the third anniversary of the signing into law of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990.
to celebrate our emergence as a powerful political, economic, and creative force in the mosaic of the American mainstream; and
to signal our determination to continue to fight for equality at every level of this society. Our first Disability Independence March was held on July 26, 1992. It focused on “Employment”, Title I of the ADA, which went into effect on that date.
Specifically, we confronted the City of New York with its failure to modify its Affirmative Employment Plan to include goals and timetables for the employment of qualified persons with disabilities. Inasmuch as this issue has not yet been resolved, we are committed to continue the struggle.
The 1993 Disability Independence Day March has a two-fold theme.
One focus is UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATION.
Title IV of the ADA, “Telecommunications”, which goes into effect July 26, 1993, guarantees “to make available to all individuals in the United States a rapid, efficient, nationwide communication service”. This is a great victory, but it only begins to address the vast range of barriers to communication.
Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons cannot possibly be equal participants in the mainstream without access to a supportive network of services and of qualified and certified interpreters. Persons with cognitive, visual, verbal, and other disabilities also experience similar obstacles to communication.
Access to technology is one of the means whereby these barriers could be minimized. The theme of “Universal Communication” compels us to find ways of understanding each other both within the community of persons with disabilities and within society as a whole.
The other focus of the 1993 Disability Independence Day March is UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, which was purposefully omitted from the ADA.
We believe that the community of persons with disabilities has a critical role to play in the re-examination of the health care system. Our experiences with access, affordability, and adequacy of the private and public health care systems can provide consistent and valuable guidelines for policymakers.
Access to health care is a civil rights issue for people with disabilities. Lack of access to health care can create obstacles to full participation in employment, community activities, and family life.
The participants in the Disability Independence Day March take the position that “Universal Health Care” is a right not a privilege.
We place particular emphasis on the right to personal assistance services (PAS), and to self determination in all decisions concerning treatment and rehabilitation. We support health care reform based on principles of non discrimination, comprehensiveness, appropriateness, equity and efficiency.
It is time for all persons with disabilities to come together to develop a common agenda; to create a unified, coherent, all-inclusive vision of the future.
Without unity, the ADA will forever remain a hollow promise.
Without pride in our individual and common identities as persons with disabilities, there can be no progress. We can and will start the healing and the unifying process NOW.
We have a window of opportunity that will not open again in our lifetimes.
Let us join together, members of the disability community, business, labor and government. Let us work together to keep the promise of the ADA and the American Dream for all our citizens. (Justin Dart)