There is, deservedly, much talk this ADA anniversary of the broken promise that the ADA guarantees people can live in “the most integrated setting” and how Obama just signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) while continuing to ignore long-term care (and the CRPD’s article on community choice).
But what about the most basic accessibility? The most fundamental provisions of the ADA involve a guarantee of disability access to buildings open to the public. But we’re not there yet. Even in the Big City™ steps block wheelchair access to businesses.
19 YEARS after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) enshrined accessibility in federal law, we’re still dealing with this crap!
They’ve had almost two decades to build basic and inexpensive ramps, but haven’t.
It is UNJUST that we can’t access restaurants just because we’re disabled. These are some of the injustices that the ADA was primarily written to rectify. But the law is moot when unheeded and unenforced.
Does the ADA matter if businesses aren’t listening?
Nick