Well, apparently, according to associated press staff writer, Lara Jakes Jordan, the disabled civil rights movement has been able to do in just a bit over 15 years and with just one wee little law what the blacks, Hispanics, gays, women,etc. have not been able to do for thousands of years. In a little throw-away article covering a little blurb that G.W.Bush made last Thursday, she came up with this headline:
Really? We did it? It's all a done deal now, I guess. What great news! So we've attained access in employment? The 73% of us that are unemployed and want jobs have them with unemployment commiserate with that of our nondisabled peers? We've attained access to courtroom buildings? So now people in wheelchairs who have business in the courts no longer have to be carried up the steps? We've attained access to voting privileges? So now every one with a disability can not only get to a polling location but vote in private? We've attained access in health care? So people with disabilities are no longer discriminated against and denied by insurance companies because they are disabled? We've attained access to housing? So any person with a disability can have a choice in where they live just like the general population? We've attained access economically? So now our poverty levels reflect the national average? We did all this!!! Wow. I must have been in a coma when all this happened. I hope I wake up soon.
That's not really what the article says. It's not even what Bush said. But there are many inaccuracies in the article anyway, so obviously she wasn't going for the Pulitzer with this one. She fails to talk about the thousands of legitimate cases that have been thrown out due to the Supremes putting such a narrow and short reign on the ADA that a person with epilepsy who gets fired at an office job for having a seizure is not "disabled enough" to be covered under the law. Or in the courthouse issue, there are still pending cases where the states are pulling out the "States Rights" racket so they don't have to put elevators in their courthouses. She also implies by her statement that the law has forced businesses into complying without enforcing penalties that there are, in fact, penalties to be enforced. There are no government penalties, fines, punitive damages, etc. that can be garnered through the ADA. It is a law without any government enforcement agency. It is all done through private lawsuits with limits on punitive damages to next to nothing.
The ADA has taken a severe beating by the supremes, and the Bush administration and most of the judicial system still seem to see it as an entitlements/benefits package that you must cross over a certain line to qualify for. The line that the SSA decided means you are really, REALLY, bum-fucked disabled enough to deserve the "special treatment" the ADA entitles you to. People still do not see it as a civil rights law that is to level the playing field and cover anyone who legitimately and unfairly loses access to public services, employment, etc. due to a biological cause.
Anyway, the headline struck me as hilarious. It was like there was a little technical problem in the system and now, golly gee, its all taken care of. Like all these disability activists like Mary Johnson, Harriet McBride Johnson, Paul Longemore, etc. should just be clinking their little glasses of sparkling cider while eating hotdog hore d'oeuvres down at the City Hall because they successfully petitioned to get that new traffic light put in on that busy street.
If you tell a lie big enough or often enough... The technique has significant precedents.
Posted by: Gillian | October 12, 2006 at 01:00 AM
Now everyone can check that off their social responsibility list. All those people we don't like to think about are just fine now.
I walk around every day and see handicap signs at the tops of staircases with arrows pointing towards really narrow doorways. What does this mean? There is handicap access once you reach the top of the stairs?! I am going to take some pictures and put them on my blog just to show how rediculous it is. Thanks for posting this. I hadn't read the article or realized that the imbalances had been taken care of. I will sleep a lot easier now and not have to worry about the future of my disabled child! ARRRRRGGGGG!
Posted by: Kathryn | October 12, 2006 at 06:08 PM