AAPD will release a video a week leading up to July 26, the 20th anniversary of the ADA
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Andy Imparato, and I am the President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities based in Washington DC.
Where and what were you doing when the ADA was being passed?
The ADA was passed on July 26 of 1990. I graduated from law school in May of 1990, and like a lot of people with disabilities in this country, I was not aware that the law had passed when it did pass. I had just graduated from law school, I was working at Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services and I was actually helping people qualify for disability benefits. I also had recently experienced depression and what ultimately became diagnosed for me as bipolar disorder. So when the law passed, it was protecting my civil rights right at the beginning of my legal career, but I had no idea that it was happening and it wasn't until I had worked in the disability field for another year or so before I even was aware that the Americans with Disabilities Act had passed.
What does the 20th anniversary of the ADA mean to you?
The 20th anniversary of the ADA for me is an invitation to look at what Congress established as their goals when they passed the law and then ask ourselves the question 20 years later, how are we doing in terms of achieving those goals. So when Congress passed the ADA in 1990, they established four goals for public policy; equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency. If we fast-forward 20 years later, it's crystal clear to me that we have made some progress on some of those goals. Certainly our infrastructure is much more accessible, which makes it much easier for people with disabilities to participate fully, it makes it easier for their families to participate fully in lots of segments in society. But we still have a lot of issues around poverty and unemployment and underemployment for people with disabilities. So to me the 20th anniversary is a chance to celebrate the good things that have happened in the last 20 years, but also recommit ourselves to continuing the work so that people with disabilities actually have full participation, equality of opportunity, independent living and economic self-sufficiency.
What changes do you think need to be made to the ADA?
I think the ADA as a statute doesn't need to be changed. Couple of years ago we had to go back in and amend the statute because the Supreme Court had interpreted the definition of disability so problematically that we had no choice but to go back in and overturn four Supreme Court decisions. We did that with the ADA Amendments Act. To me lots of other statutes needs to be changed, new laws need to be passed but I think the ADA continues to be a very solid foundation on which we can build our public policies. So I think we need a new law that would make it clear that accessibility applies to the Internet and applies to a lot of the new technologies that are coming online. Many people are watching television programming on their mobile devices, we are trying to pass a piece of legislation, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act that would take the accessibility requirements and the laws like ADA and the Telecommunications Act, and modernize them, so that to me is important and I would argue that it's even more important for us to take our most expensive programs, Medicaid, Medicare, Supplementary Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance and modernize those programs so that they are most consistent with the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Loading...
5:20
AAPD Overview Videoby AAPDvideo669 views
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)