On Monday, the U.S. Chamber "and friends" were up to no good, faxing every Member of Congress with a message that ADA Restoration goes too far with civil rights - that it expands protections beyond what Congress ever intended and, in essence, that the ADA was only ever truly intended for the "severely disabled."
Their mischaracterizations of the legislation are not new (they've sent letters before and testified at hearings with these same claims), but the list of signatories on this particular communication has grown to include numerous others.
When we're all back from the holidays, expect renewed fervor and be ready to join us in the fight to see this bill passed into law and the promise of the ADA fulfilled in the New Year!There are a few things we can all do over the holidays to show support of ADA Restoration:
1) Visits & Calls during the Recess
Members of Congress are preparing to leave for the recess. If possible, arrange for visits with Members and their staff, and make sure the message from the disability community is heard loud and clear - the ADA is NOT protecting scores of people with disabilities from illegal discrimination on account of narrow court interpretations of the law. People Congress clearly intended to cover under the law are being told they aren't "disabled enough" to have civil rights!
Review other talking points (pdf) (doc).
2) Opinions / Editorials
Local op/ed pieces written by advocates that highlight real life stories of discrimination to show the need for restoration of the ADA would also powerfully impact Members of Congress while they're home.
Review "real life stories" of discrimination by state (pdf) (doc) for ideas of stories to highlight.
3) Letters to the Opponents
Advocates can also write the signatories of this latest opposition letter (the list is below), expressing disappointment for their opposition as well as their failure to contact people with disabilities - those most affected by the law - about why they feel restoration is necessary. After all, many of us are employers, too, and we embrace the ADA!
Read the letter of response from the House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) to the original letter of opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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If you are able to meet with Members or their staff over the holidays or to get any op/ed piece published, please notify AAPD at aapdanne@earthlink.net so we can share this information with national coalition members.
Opposed to The ADA Restoration Act:
Associated Builders & Contractors
Food Marketing Institute
HR Policy Association
International Foodservice Distributors Association
International Franchise Association
National Association of Convenience Stores
National Association of Manufacturers
National Council of Chain Restaurants
National Federation of Independent Business
National Restaurant Association
National Retail Federation
National Roofing Contractors Association
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Society for Human Resource Management
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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5 comments:
For the organizations in this list -- do you have addresses for them? (email by preference, or snail mail) If you want people to write them to express their concern, it would be helpful to know how to reach them!
Thanks!
In reviewing the list of organizations actively opposed to the ADA Restoration Act, I'm not surprised that the list includes many of the organizations that have a history of opposition to the union movement. And their opposition to ADA restoration is for many of the same reasons they've long opposed labor unions ... mostly the fear that treating people decently might cut into their profits.
By all means, encourage your Senators and Congresspeople to support the ADA Restoration Act ...
And while you're at it, you might also consider boycotting local businesses that belong to these various organizations.
And when you do, be sure to TELL them -- AND the organizations, AND people you know in your community, AND people in your church, AND your local politicians, AND your local news media -- why you won't be doing business anymore with people who don't care about your rights as an American with disabilities.
In most communities, there are at least a few decent business people around who do care about the rights of their customers -- and who do value your business.
And those are the people with whom you should be doing business!
Dan Rothenhoefer, National Director,
BarrierFreeChoices.com
I've gone to the websites of these associations to view their position statement opposing the ADA Restoration Act. Not all sites allow non-members open access. The Food Marketing Institute, FMI, states its position as "strongly supports the basic tenets of ADA...opposed to any legislation which would dilute the original purpose of the ADA and expand ADA protections to individuals with minor or temporary impairments." My suggestion for the best rebuttal arguments, go to the response letter to the US Chamber from Sensenbrenner/Hoyer, dated 9/27/07.
I am a person with many disabilities including total blindness, moderate hearing loss, nonverbal learning disabilities and recurrent depression. I agree that the courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, have too narrowly construed the definition of "disability" in the ADA. However, I also feel strongly that the ADA Restoration Act as currently drafted trivializes what it means to actually have a disability and instead covers people with minor impairments including people who wear glasses having 20/20 vision. Almost every American has some type of medically-diagnosable impairment. So does that mean that almost everyone in the country really has a "disability"? Bullshit! It should mean something to wear that label. A person who has a true disability will have to take some form of compensatory measures, many of which will not be wholly effective or easy, in order to function at least in some areas of life. It is true that many of the barriers we face as people with disabilities are socially-created. Indeed, it is society's inappropriate reaction to disability based upon myths, fears and stereotypes which all disabled people experience in common--it is the glue which binds us together. However, disabled people in general do have some functional limitations which are not all going to be eliminated by accessibility measures and accommodation. It is not possible to have a "disability-blind" society as it is conceivable to have a "color-blind" one. Every society, country, every culture and every generation require and reward people with certain abilities which differ culture by culture, country by country and generation by generation. For example, the vast majority of Americans lived and worked on farms or in farming related activities in the 1700s. Physical strength, endurance and agility were abilities that were at a premium for the common person. In contrast, such qualities are much less important in the age of communication and information. Now, education, interpersonal skills and creativity are much more important abilities than brute strength if one wishes to advance in an information and service based economy. Disability and ability are two sides of the same coin. How disabled one is depends upon the activities or tasks one is called upon to perform. For example, it is far easier to be a blind person today with all the access technology than it would be to live in the 1700s without sight.
The drafters and proponents of the ADA Restoration Act's "everyone is disabled" approach ignore reality in favor of ideology. They want to make disabilithy anti-discrimination law to be like other civil rights laws prohibiting race and sex discrimination, etc. In those other civil rights laws, one never gets tangled up in definitional issues like whether one has a race or a sex because we all do. And, it is far easier to prohibit discrimination on those bases because skin color and gender are irrelevant to "ability." But, is "disability" irrelevant to "ability" in the same way? Of course not. True, we also are discriminated because of untrue stereotypes, fears and myths and in those cases, our experience is similar to a person of color or a woman--if--we are qualified for the job, that is, if our functional limitation(s), if existing, do not impair our ability to perform the tasks required. In those arenas where our particular form of disability is irrelevant, then we are just like other victims of discrimination based upon irrelevant characteristics. But if civil rights law applicable to persons with disabilities only required that we be treated just like everyone else, there would be no reasonable accommodation or barrier removal obligation and we would never be able to achieve true equal opportunity under the law to any meaningful degree. This is why it never made sense to simply add "disability" as another protected class to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Proponents of the ADA Restoration Act, however, want to protect everyone from discrimination based upon impairment so they must cover everyone with any impairment under the law. I worked on the original ADA and oversaw the development of the EEOC's ADA employment regulations and Technical Assistance Manual and know that the original ADA was never intended to be that all encompassing in scope. The legislative history amply supports this view.
We can adequately address and overturn negative and harmful court decisions quite effectively, as some states already have done through amendment to state human rights laws, without going so far as saying everyone is disabled. Thank you. Chris Bell
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