The Americans with Disabilities Act (Ada)

The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is considered a civil rights act because without its passage, the liberties of those with disabilities would be seriously violated or ignored. One of the major findings cited by Congress, which led to the passage of this act was: “historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities, and despite some improvements, such forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem,” (ADA of 1990, Titles I &V).



The fact that this act did not pass until 1990 is a clear indication that national policy makers themselves, for too long, failed those with disabilities. Not modifying the laws to provide those with disabilities a chance to compete with the so-called “normal,” and in the act help themselves, amounted to irresponsibility and negligence on the part of past congress. The negligence of policy makers had significantly contributed to the ills of those with disabilities. Policy makers made laws that categorized the people into one group, fundamentally ignoring those in the disabled community. By rating the normal and disabled people the same—as if the normal and disabled community had the same capability level—something was fundamentally wrong. This type of policy making, which ignored the physical limitations of some members of our society, created both physical and psychological barriers in the disabled community.



An earlier passage of this act would have ridded the disabled with many of society’s ills or discriminatory practices, but that did not happen. I will have to call this action (or inaction) an intolerable negligence by the lawmakers. It was this congressional negligence that further empowered some heartless individuals in the government and in other sectors of the society to violate the rights of the disabled, essentially doing so with impunity.   By not passing a clear law that protected...