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5 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
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9 1997 UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBILITY CONFERENCE
10 ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO
11 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
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15 Renaissance Hotel
16 999 9th Street, N.W.
17 Washington, D.C.
18 June 12, 1997
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 Thank you very much. It's a pleasure
3 for me to be at this conference today, and it's
4 a special privilege to speak before the
5 American Institute of Architects which has been
6 so helpful to us in this past year in our
7 efforts to rebuild churches which have been the
8 victim of church arsons across the country.
9 Through the AIA, architects have
10 donated their services free of charge in the
11 construction and the renovation of burned
12 churches. I would also like to thank the AIA
13 for sponsoring this conference. I think it is
14 just a classic example of how people should be
15 working together.
16 I have a very soft spot in my heart
17 for architects. My mother announced, when we
18 lived way out in about 21 acres of pinewoods,
19 that she was going to build a house because we
20 needed a bigger house. We didn't know quite
21 what she meant, but she drew plans and she
22 talked about it and planned, based on south
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1 Florida's wonderful southeast breezes. She
2 designed the whole house to avoid air
3 conditioning if possible. She put so much
4 thought into it, but we never believed it would
5 be a reality.
6 To see that house take shape from
7 those plans was to me one of the great
8 miracles. And to have lived in that house
9 since then, since 1951, and to have it survive
10 storms, and to have it continue to function
11 without air-conditioning, even in south
12 Florida, with cross ventilation is, to me, a
13 recognition of the architect in my mother. It
14 inspires me every day, and it also gives me a
15 very great regard for architects across this
16 land.
17 I will point out, however, that in
18 the last year or two of her life, she was in a
19 wheelchair quite often, and she hadn't designed
20 it to be accessible, and I cursed it every
21 single day.
22 This conference is a fine example of
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1 what our nation's disability rights laws are
2 all about. Private parties and government
3 working together to ensure that all Americans,
4 regardless of their disabilities, have full and
5 equal access to all that America has to offer.
6 I am so gratified to see design
7 professionals sitting down with people from the
8 access board, the Department of Justice and
9 disability rights advocates in a candid, good
10 faith effort to bring down the barriers. It's
11 an effort in the finest American tradition and
12 I salute you for it.
13 For there should be no doubt what's
14 at stake here. It is nothing less than
15 assuring that our nation's future is
16 barrier-free and open to all. It's about
17 assuring that every American has a full and
18 equal opportunity to make the most of their
19 talents, and to participate fully in our
20 nation's social, economic and civic plight.
21 Universal accessibility is not about
22 special designs to accommodate people with
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1 disabilities. It is about designing buildings
2 so that everyone can use them, both people with
3 disabilities and without them. When buildings
4 are designed from the ground up with universal
5 accessibility in mind, we all benefit in so
6 many ways at such very little cost.
7 The ADA and the Fair Housing Act
8 Amendments are forward-looking laws. They
9 place their most stringest requirements on new
10 construction, where incorporating accessibility
11 features is less costly and less burdensome.
12 If we ignore or we evade these requirements, an
13 immense opportunity is going to be lost, the
14 opportunity to make access a reality for all
15 Americans, an opportunity to change the face of
16 America for millions of Americans. And we will
17 have to undergo the costly and the painstaking
18 process of retrofitting our buildings to
19 include the accessibility features that should
20 have been included in the first place.
21 But if we take the requirements of
22 accessibility to heart, if we build our new
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1 construction in a genuine and in a sincere
2 attempt to comply with the law, then our
3 accessible future will be assured.
4 As we move forward, as new buildings
5 go up and old ones are renovated, we can change
6 the face of America. Our nation will become
7 more and more accessible to all people, and all
8 Americans will be more and more able to realize
9 their fullest potential as workers, as
10 consumers, as citizens, as people.
11 We've already begun to see it happen.
12 The ADA has been in effect now for nearly seven
13 years, and the Fair Housing Act Amendments for
14 nearly nine. In that time, we've reached out
15 to explain the law, persuade people to comply
16 with the law and to enforce the law if they
17 didn't comply. We've seen most people comply
18 voluntarily once the law's requirements were
19 explained to them. And as a result, we've seen
20 the barriers coming down across America.
21 Because of the ADA, because of people
22 in this room who are advocates, because of
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1 people in this room who are architects who
2 care, doors are opening to jobs, to stores, to
3 city halls, to courthouses. All those places
4 that are an essential part of the life of a
5 productive and an active citizen.
6 Doors are also opening to places of
7 rest and relaxation, places that are also part
8 of any well- rounded life. Places like movie
9 theaters, restaurants, hotels and sports
10 stadiums, and the vehicles necessary to get you
11 there. And thanks to the Fair Housing Act, the
12 doors are now opening to apartments and
13 condominiums as well.
14 As people with disabilities face
15 fewer arbitrary limits on where they can live,
16 all that this nation has to offer is becoming
17 more accessible every day. And it's happening
18 because Americans are coming together to
19 understand how important, and how simply
20 wonderful the ADA and the Fair Housing Act
21 really are.
22 Look at what we have seen in these
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1 seven years in terms of people gaining access,
2 of people in your workplace that couldn't get
3 around, that had limitation in what they could
4 do. Look at what is happening when you walk
5 into a courtroom and see how America has opened
6 up to blind people who are now prosecutors, and
7 doing a wonderful job.
8 Just look around you at family or at
9 friends, at workplaces, wherever you are, and
10 you will see what the ADA has done to open up
11 America and to make America richer and stronger
12 for having so many more people have access to
13 this nation and its heart.
14 So the disability rights laws are
15 already at work, and a great deal of the credit
16 goes to the very caring, conscientious design
17 professionals fully committed to designing
18 buildings that are open to everyone. To those
19 here, who by your participation here indicate
20 that you're one of those, I say, thank you.
21 We can build on the progress that
22 you, the advocates, the Department of Justice
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1 have made. And we can make accessibility a
2 lasting feature in our nation's design
3 landscape. We must all work together and we
4 must each do our part, and I pledge the
5 Department of Justice's best efforts to doing
6 our part.
7 But what is your role? You are the
8 people licensed by the state to design
9 buildings. You are the ones who builders look
10 to for guidance on how to construct the
11 facilities that they want to put up. You have
12 the power to explain to builders how to provide
13 full access for people with disabilities. You
14 have the creativity to make buildings fully
15 accessible while still meeting your clients'
16 design goals.
17 Your clients are not the only ones,
18 however, that rely on you. All of society
19 relies on architects. After Hurricane Andrew,
20 I walked out into the desolation that
21 surrounded our house. All the trees were down.
22 It looked like a World War I battlefield.
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1 Houses throughout the area were damaged or were
2 destroyed, but that house that my mother, the
3 architect, had designed had lost only one
4 shingle and some screens.
5 All of society relies on architects
6 who do their job. We rely on you to exercise
7 your best professional judgment to design
8 facilities that are safe and sound. We rely on
9 you to tell your clients when their plans would
10 be unsafe, and we rely on you to stick to your
11 guns.
12 If a client told you to design a
13 building with one fire exit when two are
14 required, or to use a design that was
15 structurally unsound, we'd expect you to tell
16 your client that you could not participate in
17 creating such a safety risk. If your client
18 insisted, we would expect you to stand firm.
19 Your unique expertise and the important role
20 you play in the community give you that
21 responsibility.
22 The same responsibility extends to
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1 accessibility. We know that new buildings can,
2 and all but the most exceptional circumstances,
3 be designed to provide full and equal access
4 and at little or no cost. You wouldn't design
5 a building that would be unsafe, nor would you
6 design a building with separate facilities for
7 black people and white people. And neither
8 should you design a building that shuts out
9 people simply because of their disabilities.
10 Whatever your client says, you have an
11 obligation to produce designs that provide full
12 and equal access to all.
13 In many ways, those responsibilities
14 exist independently of any law. The future of
15 construction in America is in many ways up to
16 you, and we as a society are relying on you to
17 help create an open and barrier-free nation.
18 You have the opportunity to make it happen, and
19 we want to work with you, not against you,
20 every step of the way.
21 I want to emphasize that we seek to
22 work with you, not to litigate, not to oppose
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1 in angry terms. At the Justice Department, we
2 have worked with architects as well as
3 governments and other businesses to achieve
4 voluntary compliance. Our plan is a very
5 simple one: educate people as to the
6 requirements of the law; educate people as to
7 how the law can benefit, not just with those
8 with disabilities but all Americans; explain
9 the law; provide technical expertise; get
10 information to people about how it can be done
11 reasonably and without a burdensome expenditure
12 of monies. Then, negotiate.
13 There may be disagreement, but
14 negotiate in the best of good faith using, when
15 appropriate, means of law, alternate dispute
16 resolution, so that we can come to a common
17 understanding that is in the best interest of
18 all concerned. And third, if we have to and I
19 don't want to, but I'm prepared to, we will
20 litigate and litigate as vigorously as
21 possible.
22 But we found that that's not
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1 necessary some of the time. We found that many
2 businesses will voluntarily comply with the ADA
3 and the Fair Housing Act once they know what
4 the law entails. I have had on two separate
5 occasions business representatives, industry
6 representatives come to the Department of
7 Justice. And when they first came, they said
8 that when they first dealt with the ADA, they
9 found the regulations terrifying. That upsets
10 me. I want to make sure that we make the
11 regulations, the requirements, as easily
12 understood as possible, and that we work with
13 you in that effort.
14 These are common sense laws. They
15 are flexible and they are reasonable. And as
16 businesses come to understand this, more and
17 more choose to comply on their own. You've
18 probably found that too, as you've explained
19 the requirements of federal law, local building
20 codes and other requirements to your clients.
21 That's why we've conducted a nationwide
22 campaign. We've done this, not just to
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1 familiarize businesses and local governments
2 with these obligations under the law, but also
3 to provide the tools for people with
4 disabilities to use in their attempts to
5 achieve compliance as well.
6 Our efforts have been extensive.
7 Over the past four years, we've been blanketing
8 the airways and filling mailboxes with
9 information about the law. We've put ADA
10 information files in 15,000 public libraries
11 across the country. We've mailed information
12 packets to millions of businesses. And we've
13 also put an ADA home page on the worldwide Web.
14 Both the Department of Justice and the
15 Department of Housing and Urban Development are
16 committed to providing technical assistance to
17 aid people who are attempting to comply.
18 One thing that many businesses and
19 architects have found particularly helpful is
20 our ADA information line, a toll-free phone
21 number that receives more than 75,000 calls
22 each year. But in the spirit of working
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1 together, I ask you -- and Mr. President, I
2 ask you -- let us know when we can do more,
3 when we can be more responsive in providing
4 information and explaining requirements, and
5 working together to make sure that this law is
6 a reality for all Americans.
7 We've also engaged in more long-range
8 educational efforts. We've been working with
9 architectural schools to help make
10 accessibility a part of the curriculum that
11 every design professional learns. As I said,
12 the disability rights law looks to the future.
13 And we see a future where universal
14 accessibility is truly a universal part of
15 architectural training, where accessibility,
16 like safety and structural soundness is a basic
17 element of all design and construction.
18 This conference is a further example
19 of how important education is. But not only
20 must universal accessibility be something every
21 architectural student learns, it must be a part
22 of the continuing education every practicing
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1 architect undergoes. This conference is a good
2 start, and I urge you to do more for education
3 is the key to our common goals.
4 Even if we work together, we may
5 still end up disagreeing, even after education,
6 even after negotiation, disagreeing about the
7 scope of your legal responsibilities. My view
8 and the Department of Justice's view should be
9 clear: the ADA requires that new facilities be
10 designed and constructed to be readily
11 accessible to, and usable by people with
12 disabilities. The Fair Housing Act Amendments
13 impose a similar requirement on new apartments
14 and condominiums.
15 Everyone involved in the design and
16 construction process has an obligation to
17 comply with these requirements, and everyone
18 involved in that process may be liable if a
19 building does not comply. This is a position
20 we feel strongly about. We have defended it in
21 court, and it is one that we will continue to
22 defend whenever necessary.
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1 The ADA and the Fair Housing Act are
2 both the law of the land. They're binding on
3 architects as well as developers. And we will
4 work with you to make sure that we seek
5 compliance, but we will take action whenever it
6 is necessary. I think, when I see the example
7 of this conference, that it will be less and
8 less necessary as time goes by.
9 But too often it's attitudes as much
10 as any structural obstacle that prevent people
11 with disabilities from contributing the
12 fullness of their talents. The only way to
13 change these attitudes is to increase the
14 opportunity for people with disabilities and
15 people without disabilities to interact with
16 each other.
17 Let me tell you what I mean. About a
18 year ago, a lawyer in the Department of Justice
19 came to me, claiming that people denied him the
20 opportunity to really seek courtroom work
21 because of his disability. About two years
22 ago, a person had come to me. His name was Joe
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1 Hartzler. Joe Hartzler could not get through
2 one door of the Justice Department with his
3 scooter because it was not accessible. Another
4 door just happened to be accessible.
5 Joe Hartzler is the person who, day
6 in and day out for the last two years, has
7 represented the United States in the McVeigh
8 case. And the opportunity for people to see
9 him, and the opportunity he has had to have
10 access to that courtroom and to contribute the
11 fullness of his talent is an example of how
12 important it is to break down the architectural
13 barriers, to give people like Joe Hartzler and
14 that other lawyer the opportunity to break down
15 the attitudinal barriers.
16 I don't expect the law to change the
17 world overnight. For far too long, the doors
18 remained shut. And in many places, they still
19 do. But one day soon, all the doors are going
20 to be open, and you're going to be holding the
21 keys. You've stepped up to this responsibility
22 by your presence here. You're helping to build
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1 a barrier-free America. By coming together, I
2 think we are well on our way to doing that.
3 We have a commitment too. The
4 Department of Justice and I, for as long as I
5 am attorney general and even after that, are
6 committed to working with you every step of the
7 way in a common effort to change the face of
8 America, and to give America access to
9 wonderful talents and wonderful strengths, and
10 wonderful people.
11 Thank you very much.
12 (Whereupon, at 11:25 a.m. The
13 PROCEEDINGS were adjourned.)
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