Happy birthday to ADA

On July 13, 1990, Senator Tom Harkin delivered the first speech in American Sign Language in the history of the U.S. Senate. The occasion was the Senate's passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which had been championed by Senator Harkin and would be signed into law two weeks later on July 26. This week, Linn County celebrates its 25th anniversary on Saturday at the Veteran's Memorial Stadium beginning at 3 p.m.

Senator Harkin dedicated his speech to his brother Frank, who was born deaf, and who, as he said, 'taught me at an early age that people with disabilities could do anything that they set their minds to do.”

While Frank Harkin may have been the Senator's inspiration, he knew at the time that his work would impact countless Americans who live every day with both mental and physical disabilities. He was correct.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, today nearly one in five Americans have a disability. Some, like Frank Harkin, are born with a disability. Others develop a disability at a later point in our lives. I am one of those people.

Seven years ago, I was diagnosed with a physical disability. If this had happened before the ADA, it would have been incredibly difficult for me to find a job. But the ADA forbids discrimination based on disability, and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities. Because of this landmark legislation, I am able to teach ESOL part-time at Northeast Iowa Community College. I am able to give back to my community.

That's why the ADA is so historic. It's not just about handicap parking spots and curb rails and closed captioning and wheelchair accessible public buses - although those are incredibly important to the disability community.

What makes the legislation so monumental is that it empowers people with disabilities with the confidence to know our contributions matter. That people with disabilities are judged, as Sen. Harkin said 25 years ago, 'on the basis of their abilities, and not on the basis of their disabilities.”

That's the biggest success of the ADA, though there are many others as well. Between 1996 and 2005, the percentage of students with disabilities who graduated with a high school diploma increased from 43 percent to 57 percent. Products, public buildings and spaces are now regularly designed for the most people to be able to use them.

Still, there is more work to be done. Two-thirds of Americans with disabilities are unemployed. And we can do more to ensure individuals with disabilities are able to live independently in homes that meet their needs.

But because of the ADA, I know we can tackle these challenges and accomplish these goals. Because what Senator Harkin and his fellow disability advocates changed forever is the notion that Americans with disabilities were in any way limited in what we could do or who we could be.

As Senator Harkin said in his final speech on the Senate floor:

'Not one nickel or dime in the ADA is given to a person with a disability. But we broke down barriers, opened doors of accessibility and accommodation, and said to people with disabilities - Now go on, follow your dreams, and in the words of the Army motto, 'be all you can be.”

Thank you Tom.

' Judy Schmidt, of Dubuque, is the Chair of the Iowa Democrats' Disability Caucus. Comments: flowerlady47@yahoo.com

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