At 34th Anniversary of the ADA, Advocates Cite Some Progress for People with Disabilities

The ADA - signed into law on July 26, 1990 - was a significant achievement, guaranteeing civil rights protections to people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. For example, parking lots now have the familiar blue-and-white signs designating accessible parking spaces and where curbs and sidewalks have cuts and ramps to accommodate those in wheelchairs or with other mobility issues. Most new buildings are now designed with ADA-compliant doors and elevators and hallways and bathrooms. There are also required accommodations in classrooms and public spaces, nondiscrimination in employment, and more accessible housing.

On many metrics of ADA compliance, Maryland stands above other states. The law, which guarantees equal access for people with disabilities, has lived up to its promise in many ways in the state. Over 1.1 million adults in Maryland had a disability of some kind - almost 25% of Marylanders in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some 16% had disabilities in 2021.

Maryland's major remaining disability-related problems are in the delivery of needed services. Advocates for people with disabilities believe that there has definitely been progress since the ADA's passage, but see the need for some  improvements. The executive director of the Arc Maryland said acceptance of people with disabilities has increased and the negative stigma has declined, but not consistently. She believes that Maryland “has a reputation of treating people with respect and having services” to help people with disabilities, factors that draw families to the state. A Disability Rights Maryland spokesperson said “It’s possible that more people are comfortable with acknowledging or self-identifying as a person with a disability.”

Maryland was third best for its health care among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and eighth best overall for someone with a disability in the April 2024 report from Policygenius, an insurance broker organization, which rated the best states for living with a disability. With major medical centers in the region, such as the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland has become a destination. Maryland also is a leader in equal pay for people with disabilities, after the General Assembly in 2016 phased out 14(c) certificates, which let employers to pay subminimum wage to people with disabilities. As of 2020, employers must pay the same minimum wage to workers with disabilities and those without.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) recently signed an executive order requiring state agencies to use “plain language,” in documents and on websites. This will especially benefit persons with disabilities, who sometimes have trouble accessing state websites to receive available support and services. The transition to plain language on all state documents and sites probably will not happen until early 2025, according to Information Technology Secretary Katie Savage.

Maryland has other problems that face people with disabilities. In 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office notified the Maryland Transit Administration that its paratransit service - MobilityLink - was not in compliance with ADA protections. The major issue is long delays for service.

Also, people with disabilities are “still an underserved population” because there are waitlists to receive services and administrative turnaround time for services, as well as many restrictions and limitations that mean years of waiting to access services.

Read the July 26, 2024 Maryland Matters article.

U. S. Supreme Court Case would Curb Use of ADA and Fair Housing Testers

 Supreme Court Case to begin Oral Arguments on October 4th

Beginning October 4, 2023,  the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) case with critical implications for individuals enforcing federal civil rights laws. The case involves a challenge to over 40 years of precedent establishing that civil rights “testers” – people who intentionally investigate and challenge discrimination – can bring a lawsuit to enforce civil rights laws, like the ADA. Civil rights advocates have long used testers to uncover unlawful discrimination in areas like housing and transportation. Read the friend-of-the-court brief.

The case regards Deborah Laufer, a woman from Florida who uses a wheelchair and has a visual impairment. As a civil rights tester, she reviews hotel websites looking for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that hotels disclose sufficient detail on the features of their properties so that people with disabilities can know whether they can safely access them. This includes whether a person in a wheelchair can get in the door to the hotel, or into the room itself; whether the room has an accessible bathroom with grab bars and a roll-in shower; and whether the bed be at the height that it is possible to transfer to.

Laufer sued Acheson Hotels, which operates a small hotel in Maine, after finding that the hotel’s website did not identify accessible rooms, provide an option for booking an accessible room, or include sufficient information on the hotel’s accessibility. Acheson Hotels moved to dismiss the case, arguing that Laufer lacked standing to sue because she had no intention of visiting the hotel. A federal district court agreed, but the decision was reversed by the First Circuit. The U. S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that Laufer had standing to sue in federal court and had standing to pursue injunctive relief. Acheson Hotels asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the First Circuit’s decision. On March 27, 2023 the Supreme Court announced that it would consider the case beginning October 4th. 

The Legal Defense Fund, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and 17 other disability and civil rights organizations - including the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Maine, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Lambda Legal -  have just filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief in this case that defends testing as essential to the enforcement of the ADA and argues that eliminating tester standing would frustrate the ADA’s goal of equal opportunity. The brief discusses how unequal treatment has long been recognized as the sort of harm that can be remedied in court and explains how an individual’s motive, or status as a “tester,” does not change that. 

If successful, Acheson  Hotel’s case in the Supreme Court will make it even harder for people with disabilities to enforce their rights and bring businesses into compliance with the ADA. 

*****

Sources:

Read the August 10, 2023 ACLU article.

Read the March 27, 2023 SCOTUSblog article.

Read the Ballotpedia case details & summaries.

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 Celebration of ADA's 33rd Anniversary

MARYLAND CELEBRATES ADA'S 33RD ANNIVERSARY WITH TOWN HALL

US Access Board Town Hall

Celebrate the ADA- Americans with Disabilities Act 33rd Anniversary! The U.S. Access Board will hold a public town hall meeting on Tuesday, July 25 from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. (ET) at the national headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland. Presidentially appointed Access Board members and representatives from other federal member agencies will be present to hear from the local community about the state of accessibility in Baltimore and the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area.

The Access Board is an independent federal agency that promotes equality for people with disabilities through leadership in accessible design and the development of accessibility guidelines and standards. Created in 1973 to ensure access to federally funded facilities, the Access Board is now a leading source of information on accessible design. The Access Board develops and maintains design criteria for the built environment, transit vehicles, information and communication technology, and medical diagnostic equipment under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and other laws. Share your experiences with accessibility at the town hall meeting! To register, send an email to events@access-board.gov with your name and organization. The Access Board invites in-person oral comments on accessibility. Registrants who wish to make in-person oral comments must indicate their request to speak when emailing events@access-board.gov. Public commenters will be allotted two minutes to make their comments.

Following the town hall meeting, members of the public will be able to meet and speak with Presidentially appointed Board members and representatives from other federal agencies at the networking reception from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. (ET), sponsored by the Maryland Department of Disabilities.

Maryland Department of Disabilities Voice 410-767-3660 Toll Free ⁄ TTY ⁄ Voice 1-800-637-4113 www.mdod.maryland.gov

 Civil Rights Obituary

Judy Heumann, Disability Rights Advocate, 75

Judy Heumann advocated for the inherent dignity of people with disabilities, campaigning for federal civil rights legislation while organizing sit-ins, marches, and other nonviolent demonstrations. Heumann, who was paralyzed from childhood polio, filed  a lawsuit to become the first New York City public school teacher to use a wheelchair (teaching at a Brooklyn elementary school). 

She was among the nation’s most prominent champions for disability rights, and advocated for disabled people as an official in the Clinton and Obama administrations, as an adviser for the World Bank, and as the first director of the D.C. Department of Disability Services. President Joe Biden described her as “a trailblazer - a rolling warrior - for disability rights in America,” adding that “her courage and fierce advocacy” contributed to the passage of landmark legislation including the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which outlawed discrimination based on disability. She also wrote an autobiography (reviewed in the Interesting Books section of this issue).

Heumann also ran the San Francisco Center for Independent Living, worked for the U. S. Education Department as assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, and helped start several disability nonprofits. Heumann was probably most known for her advocacy for the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, an ADA predecessor banning discrimination against disabled people in programs receiving federal funds. When President Richard M. Nixon vetoed an early version of the act, she organized a sit-in on Madison Avenue that stopped traffic in New York City.

After the legislation was voted into law, successive administrations delayed implementing Section 504, the key regulation. So, in early 1977, Heumann - and over 100 disabled protesters, interpreters, and care aides, including activists who were blind or deaf, and others who had development disabilities or used motorized wheelchairs - staged a nearly four-week-long sit-in at a San Francisco federal office building pushing for the regulations to be approved. This 504 Sit-in, as it became known, was a turning point in the disability rights campaign, later called the movement’s Stonewall or Selma, and one of the longest nonviolent occupations of federal property. The HEW secretary signed off on the regulations, a victory to Heumann and her fellow demonstrators. The activists occupied the office building for two more days to celebrate and clean up.

When young, she attend Camp Jened, a summer camp for people with disabilities. The camp, which became the focus of the Oscar-nominated 2020 documentary “Crip Camp,” served as a “playground,” as she put it, for future disability rights movement leaders. 

President Barack Obama appointed her the State Department’s first special adviser for international disability rights. In that role, she pushed for the nation to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, a United Nations treaty that failed to pass the U.S. Senate.

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Read the March 6, 2023 Washington Post article.