Upcoming Conference to Highlight the Rights of People with Disabilities

Over 55 million Americans—nearly 20 percent of our population—live with a disability. This year commemorates the 25^th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal law that requires businesses, public services, and telecommunications to provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities.

The ADA was the result of a civil rights movement that continues in full force today.  It was not so long ago that people with disabilities were regularly marginalized and separated from mainstream society, ridiculed as though living with physical or mental disabilities is not challenging enough.

Many trace the roots of the civil rights movement for people with disabilities back to World War I, when veterans returning with disabilities demanded that the government provide rehabilitation for the sacrifices they made in service to our nation.  World War II brought with it another wave of returning veterans who again made disability issues visible to a nation indebted to them for their service.

Without federal legislation, however, people with disabilities still lacked the basic rights necessary for independence and self-reliance, and they were not afforded fair employment and economic opportunities.

As the 1960s civil rights movement spread across the nation, disability advocates seized the opportunity to join other minority groups, and an organizational structure emerged that focused the movement toward national goals, such as federal legislation to address physical and social barriers.  In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was passed, requiring equal employment opportunities and prohibiting discrimination against people with physical or mental disabilities within the federal government.  These protections were extended to cover federally funded programs and public services.

In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed, guaranteeing equal access to public education for children with disabilities.  And in 1990, it was further refined into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which mandated full inclusion of children with disabilities.

With those successes in hand, the movement turned toward equal treatment of people with disabilities more broadly, seeking an enforceable right to full participation and integration in all levels of society.  When the ADA was signed into law in 1990, our nation made a bold statement to itself and to the rest of the world, that people with disabilities are entitled to equal access to employment opportunities, public services, places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunications services.

Of course, passing a federal law does not remedy problems overnight.  Over the years, many battles have been fought to enforce the demands of the ADA, and many still remain.

As the state’s chief federal law enforcement official, I am keenly aware that many question the federal government’s role and its priorities.  But this should be beyond dispute: ours is a nation committed to ensuring that people with disabilities are able to lead independent, satisfying lives.  Along with the Department of Justice, I stand by the commitment to enforce laws that foster that goal.

Please join us on October 21 at a Disability Rights Conference in Sioux Falls, which is free and open to the public. Speakers include Heather Abbott, a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, South Dakota native and Iraq War Veteran Corey Briest and his wife Jenny Briest, and South Dakota State Senator Billie Sutton and his wife, Kelsea Kenzy Sutton.  For more information, please visit the conference link at: www.avera.org/disabilitiesconference