This week marks the 30th anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act. The ADA is civil rights legislation that guaranteed the rights of Americans with disabilities by prohibiting discrimination based on a disability, requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, and ensuring accessibility options for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations.
On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the bill that was crafted and recommended by the National Council on Disability to include both mental and physical disability.
Representative Geran Tarr of Anchorage released a statement discussing the importance of the ADA to Alaskans: “This landmark civil rights legislation changed the world for Americans with disabilities by ensuring basic human rights in employment, housing, and accommodation. While we have made leaps and bounds, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure full compliance with the law. For example, accessible entrances and safe travel on city streets are still needed. Anyone trying to maneuver an Anchorage street in a wheelchair still struggles with accessibility every day. This is unacceptable, and we must invest in these improvements for our neighbors.”
Tarr specifically talked about her neighbor, Linda, a woman struggling with mental and physical disabilities who also battled symptoms of blood sugar problems for two decades. Linda feels she was never taken seriously in her claims. According to the Health and Wellness Initiative, this is common among disabled patients seeking help for symptoms unrelated to their disabilities. The phenomenon is known as ‘diagnostic overshadowing,’ where new symptoms take a back-seat to a larger preexisting disability.
Linda discusses the frustration of having symptoms, but not feeling heard: “Nobody cared. Nobody would say anything. Nobody cared about what was going on with me. It was just, like, I felt ignored all of those years. All of my physicians would talk to, I’d have spells right there, they’d just never do anything. They never asked questions, never bothered, never said anything.”
According to Robert L. Burgdorf Jr., who drafted the ADA, the law was written in response to “widespread, systemic, inhumane discrimination against people with disabilities” that were described by a New York judge in 1971 as “the most discriminated [against] minority in our nation.”
Alaskans experiencing disabilities often face difficulty in finding employment, housing, and adequate medical care. In medical care, this can result in delay of treatment leading to more serious health conditions and in some cases premature death.