History Of The Americans With Disabilities Act

Approved by the United States Congress in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the most comprehensive federal civil rights legislation that aims to protect the rights of people with disabilities. The ADA tries to help disabled people overcome the obstacles and discrimination they have had to face for long. The ADA has in its ambit employment access, state and local government programs and services, access to places of public accommodations, transportation, non-profits service providers and telecommunications. Amended many times since 1990, the ADA is still undergoing continuous review and interpretation in various courts.

If we look at the history of the ADA, we find that its seeds were sown during the Civil Rights Movements that took place in the 1960s. This movement produced other civil rights movements, the most notable among them being the Women's Rights Movement and the Disability Rights Movement. The United States Congress legislation passed in the 1960s protected the rights of minorities and women, but there was no protection of the rights of people with disabilities by federal legislation for long thereafter.

While examining the history of the ADA, we notice that during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement three major pieces of civil rights legislation were passed by the United States Congress. They were the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which covers fair housing for minorities.

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covered those receiving federal funds, employers, places of public accommodation such as bus stations restrooms and lunch counters, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion and national origin, the Act had nothing in it to protect the disabled. It was not until 1973 that discrimination against people with disabilities was addressed when Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 became law and again in 1990 when the ADA was passed by the US Congress.

One of the other legislations, i.e., the Voting Rights Act of 1965 protects the rights of minorities to vote in elections.

The third legislation or the Civil Rights Act of 1968 in its Title VIII prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin and sex in the sale and rental of housing. It recognized women recognized as a covered class, but the Fair Housing Act, like the Civil Rights Act of 1965, did nothing for the protection of people with disabilities. It was in 1988 that the Fair Housing Act was amended to add two new classes, people with disabilities and families with children.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibited discrimination on the basis of a disability towards otherwise qualified people with disabilities by recipients of federal financial assistance. However, this section too failed to protect people with disabilities from discrimination by employers, by public accommodations in the private sector, by publicly funded programs and by those providing federal financial assistance. It took the ADA in 1990 to address these areas not covered by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), all children with disabilities receive a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Public schools are under obligation to students with disabilities under IDEA and the ADA. So, even if is only nearly two decades old, the history of the ADA takes us back to the 1960s. And it keeps evolving even today through various amendments from time to time.

• Emma Bullock
• 17/04/2009, 8:59 AM
• 0 Comments