On July 26, 2017, millions of people with disabilities throughout this country celebrated the 27th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Unfortunately, many in the business community decided to celebrate the anniversary by diminishing this historic civil rights legislation through a letter of support for the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 620). Their letter supporting this extremely dangerous legislation, which was sent to Congress, was titled It’s Time to Restore the Integrity of the ADA (PDF).
NCIL has drafted a response to their letter, which will be sent to Representatives Paul Ryan (Speaker of the House) and Nancy Pelosi (Minority Leader). We encourage you to add your organization as a signatory. The deadline to sign on is Monday, October 2, 2017.
H.R. 620 was introduced by Representative Ted Poe of Texas in the 115th Congress. It would create significant obstacles for people with disabilities to enforce their rights under Title III of the ADA to access public accommodations and would impede their ability to engage in daily activities and participate in mainstream society.
Please join us as we fight this dangerous bill.
H.R. 620 would weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a critical source of civil rights for people with disabilities to be able to engage in their local communities and economies. The ADA is the difference between participation and exclusion on a daily basis. The ADA should not place the heaviest burden for ending discrimination on the very people the law is supposed to protect! H.R. 620 also gives the business owner 60 days to even acknowledge that there is a problem—and then another 120 days to begin to fix it. No other civil rights group is forced to wait 180 days to enforce their civil rights. Why should a wheelchair user be unable to join her family at a restaurant, just because the owner, who is in the business of providing a service to the public, has resisted installing a ramp for 25 years?
Some are born with a disability; others develop disabilities due to illness or injury. We will all have a disability at one time or other, be it temporarily or permanently. This is not a matter of “us” and “them.” If the ADA is weakened, we will ALL suffer.
We would like to add The Northeast Independent Living program, 20 Ballard Road in Lawrence MA as a signatory to the current NCIL letter opposing H.R. 620.
We applaud your letter!