ANY OBITUARY OF THE 41ST
PRESIDENT THAT FAILS TO HIGHLIGHT THE ADA ACT OF 1990 IS ADDING TO THE
TREMENDOUS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.
From
the beginning of time, people with disabilities have been considered half
human.
Even in
the 21st century, a half century past the passage of the 1964 Civil
Rights legislation and more than a quarter century since the ADA as adopted,
people with disabilities face harrowing discrimination.
Fewer than
one percent of single family housing units are even minimally accessible to
those who use an assistive mobility device, such as a wheelchair.
Millions
of public spaces contain barriers to mobility.
Tens of
thousands of brand new civic buildings and spaces are built in ways that segregate
people with disabilities – forcing them to use humiliating side or rear doors
to enter a facility.
The
press, usually a bastion of championing civil rights, continues to use pejorative,
100 percent inaccurate phrases such as “wheelchair bound” and "confined to a
wheelchair.”
The
press, which I was a member of for nearly two decades, is embarrassing itself
again today – in print, on TV, on radio and online.
Very
few stories, even the super-lengthy ones reserved for the retelling of the life
of a U.S. president who has died, have made any mention of Bush’s role in adopting
the ADA.
The
stories that mention it, make the most far-reaching civil rights legislation
created for people with disabilities in the western world – sound like the
1,000th most-important thing George H.W. Bush did as a leader.
I am an
Independent and a Progressive.
But I
take pause today to hope that our 41st president is in a peaceful
place and that his family takes comfort in the grace that he put into his
career as a public servant.
Shame
on any news organization that fails to list the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act as one of George Bush’s greatest accomplishments.
Far
reaching-civil rights for all is very important.
Failing
to see how important it is, tells us that the mainstream media still sees people
with disabilities as largely worthless and deserving to remain marginalized.
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/recollections/george-bush-and-the-americans-with-disabilities-act/
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