Happy Birthday, ADA!
The ADA is about access. Accessing an education, employment opportunities, safe and affordable housing, comprehensive medical care, civil rights, and justice. The ADA has been monumental in empowering individuals with disabilities to fight for their right to be citizens with the law on their side. The ADA is also about giving disabled folks autonomy, agency, dignity, safety, the right to make choices, and championing the fact that we are all interdependent.
The ADA is also about hope and progress. The fact that disabled voices were heard, their needs amplified, and changes were made on a federal level showed people with disabilities that society was invested in their inclusion. But so much more work needs to be done! Disabled folks have the highest rates of unemployment and underemployment which can sentence them to a life of poverty. Individuals with disabilities — especially intellectual disabilities- experience staggering rates of emotional, physical and sexual violence. People with disabilities are discriminated against in all areas of life and ableism is an “ism” so many Americans don’t even recognize since disability oppression has always been the status quo. But the ADA has made disability visible and this representation helps protect disability rights.
Disability is the largest minority group in the world and we will all become disabled one day. When we can’t walk, see, or hear suddenly we’ll be living disabled lives because our able bodied privilege to having access to every day life will be restricted and eventually erased all together. We need to enforce the ADA, we need to make inclusive communities, we need to make sure our neighbors and politicians know that disability rights are human rights. The ADA is not enough but it’s a triumphant start. It’s not just about our rights today but what our rights will look like in the future.
As a proud disability advocate I am thankful to those who fought before me because they had the hope that drove their efforts to make our world better. I’m proud to say that same hope drives me to continue dedicating my energy to improving not just today, not just tomorrow, but all the future tomorrows — especially ones I won’t even live to experience. I applaud the ADA, embrace my resilient and fierce disabled peers, and I am optimistic that one day access will be a protected right for everyone #disabledandproud #disabledandloud
