This entry was written for a political science class at my school, as a guest writer. I have left it largely intact.
Y’all
recently read a blog post about customs in conflict in Saudi Arabia (women wearing head coverings). I’d like
to ask you to think about another area of conflict today, one that is closer to
home. The Americans with Disabilities Act is twenty-five years old this year.
It provides legal protection for a variety of civil rights related to people
with disabilities.
The Census
Bureau states that 1 in 5 people live with a disability. This number may be
low—many people do not want to consider themselves “disabled.” Sometimes this
is because a chronic illness, such as asthma, does not interfere with life most
of the time, or can be controlled through medication. Similarly, conditions
such as poor eyesight, readily corrected with glasses or contacts, don’t cross
our radar as disabilities. And some people just don’t want to be labeled that
way because of perceived social stigma.
The ADA has
meant a lot to me. I was a difficult birth and then apparently contracted
polio. When I was older, I was in accident that injured my back. Yet I have
been a photographer (including for several fire departments), photo lab
manager, and have attended college and graduate school. Now I teach at our famous Art Institute of Indianapolis and as an on-line teaching assistant at United Theological
Seminary. These days, people who do such things get media coverage that goes
viral on Facebook or YouTube. But many of us were doing these things long
before they became fashionable.
Some of
these activities have been a struggle. I ended up attending a local college,
even though several top-ranked colleges sought me out—but that was before the
ADA, and the invitations disappeared when I asked about stairs and the like. Even
after the ADA was passed, schools dragged their feet on physical accessibility.
One listed the ability to carry 50 pounds up a flight of stairs as an essential
part of being a professor (and thus not subject to accommodations). Another
wouldn’t take me on to teach history because the position also required
coaching football (even though that wasn’t stated in the announcement).
And it
continues. As I’ve often remarked in my classes, laws just show the points of
need—they don’t change hearts. And, something I’ve mentioned in my classes:
there are often unintended consequences. I have an example of each that we’d
like to ask you to comment on.
The first is
with businesses that continue to be slow about accommodations—or don’t have
their heart in it. You may have heard of “serial” lawsuits, where a lawyer and
person with a disability file several lawsuits in a particular geographical
area. While these are presented as overblown or picky, how would you feel if
you went to board an airplane and were either denied boarding (after paying for
a non-refundable ticket), forced into a seat assignment that you can’t
physically get to, or find that your wheelchair was damaged by handlers, and
the airline refuses to pay for the repairs? Or, rather than being seated in a
convenient front area of a restaurant, you’re herded through a maze-like trail
to a seat next to the take-out door and kitchen? Or you need to use the
restroom and can’t get through the door? Just to finish the sequence, then your
shuttle comes—and you have to crawl in because it doesn’t have a lift. All of
these have happened to me. And it’s been 25 years—will a police officer let you
out of a ticket because the speed limit changed 25 years ago?
An emerging
problem is with service animals. The ADA provides that service animals may go
anywhere their human does. Yet I hear every week of someone who is denied entry
to some business because of their dog (and by the way, the law does specify
dogs, you can’t claim a snake or rat as a service animal).
Yet what
happens if I should someday need a service dog (they can pull wheelchairs, pick
things up, carry bags, and so on) and one of you in the class is allergic to
dogs? Or, since no documentation or certification of status is required, what
if someone buys a fake service dog vest on the internet and shows up in class?
Managing
conflict and dealing with unexpected consequences are important skills in life.
How can we best handle them?
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