Today, it will have been 30 years since President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, creating a law to protect the rights of people with disabilities and bringing discussion about those rights into the mainstream.
“I think the ADA, the fact that it spoke about Americans with disabilities, gave people awareness that there was a group of people who may not have been represented or recognized. It was an awakening in its sheer presence,” said Julie Hartman, community projects coordinator at the Association for Community Living, an independent advocacy organization for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities that was founded in Boulder in 1962.
But three decades later, advocates say the goal of inclusivity for disabled people remains very much work in progress. Here’s where they say there’s still work to do:
Stigma around disabilities is still a big issue
The visibility of people with disabilities has increased in the past three decades, said Nick Butler, an advocacy coordinator at the Association for Community Living. “And visibility is important, but it hasn’t gotten to the point where it has increased inclusivity. We see people with disabilities, but we don’t necessarily interact with people with disabilities. It’s not just being in the same room, not just being alongside, but being with people with disabilities.”
Hartman of the Association of Community Living added it’s time to move beyond the idea of “special and different.” It’s not about special education or special programs, but inclusion and access to the whole community via education, jobs and activities: “I think people still think there’s something special out there” for people with disabilities, she said.
The association offers training and other ways to get to know people with disabilities, she said, adding spending time with people with disabilities is the best way to know their potential.
Another barrier is a lingering belief that people with disabilities are somehow “less than,” said Anna Stewart, communications coordinator at the Association of Community Living.
That perception is often magnified for people of color or members of the LGBTQ community, she said.
Stewart’s daughter, 22-year-old Sabrina Wilsdon, recently graduated from an occupational training program at the University of Eastern New Mexico. Wildson, who has an intellectual/developmental disability, said her goal is to work and live on her own. Her mom said she “rocked” the program, but Wilsdon shrugged that off as her just completing the program to achieve her goal.
That modesty about her success in the program aligns with her belief that “just because we have a disability it does not mean we’re not equal. You should not be looking at someone differently because they have a disability.”
Eugenia Brady, an advocacy coordinator and diversity specialist at the Association of Community Living uses a wheelchair since having the lower half of her left leg amputated almost three years ago. She said acceptance is the first step to overcoming perception barriers.
“Allow people to be themselves without having this common misconception that we are broken, that we are not complete, that we are not enough,” she said, adding there are so many things people with disabilities can do and the community can benefit from their participation.
Craig Konnoth, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Law School who focuses on health and civil rights, said it is important to remember that everyone could become disabled in the course of their lives.
“In general, as everyone gets older, becomes infirm, as life happens … there’s a good chance you become someone with a disability. It’s important to see people with disabilities as one of us and us as one of them.”
The coronavirus pandemic has created even more isolation
The COVID-19 crisis is isolating people with disabilities, said Association for Community Living Executive Director Ailsa Wonnacott.
The groups they often leaned on for advice, camaraderie and friendship can’t meet right now.
People with disabilities are not receiving school services and can’t participate in adult day programs, she said, and they typically are not able to transition to working from home because of the types of jobs they have.
“We’re finding people just can’t participate. They work so hard to be part of the community and COVID has just turned that on its head,” Wonnacott said. “Many services to people … had to be stopped entirely due to stay-a-home/safer-at-home order. Families, if the person has family, became the only source of support for some people.
“… All of these things have been a huge struggle since the day we went to stay at home. I worry about how we will rebuild.”
Technology is leaving some people with disabilities behind, especially in the pandemic
Technology, while helpful, is not a silver bullet, and the pandemic has made that clearer than ever.
“When systems and services went remote this digital divide became a very obvious barrier. Either they did not have the needed tech skills, the right kind of device, internet access, software, and ongoing access to tech support,” Wonnacott said.
“Provider agencies got creative and tried Zoom classes and they work for some people, but the digital divide is wide for people with (intellectual and developmental disabilities) because we failed to see how important it was to bridge this gap, how vital it might be to people’s health and safety, or acknowledge how much we rely on it and question whether it is fair and just or sensible to have denied people access to technology up until now.”
People with disabilities still struggle to access information, said Rebecca Novinger, CEO of Imagine!, which provides support and services to people with developmental, cognitive, and physical challenges in Boulder and Broomfield counties.
While technology has changed many things for the better, including for her as a deaf person, Novinger said it also has left out people with disabilities as it has evolved. She pointed to websites not being fully accessible to people with vision impairments, and said assistive devices such as Alexa or Siri are not always accessible to people with speech difficulties.
“The challenge ahead of us is working toward universal accessibility; when things are designed in such a way that they don’t require modifications,” she said
Accessibility vs. inclusivity
It comes down to accessibility vs. inclusivity, Novinger said.
“Inclusivity work is work that is transformational” that touches not only on policy but culture and values, she said. “That is what really changes the experience of an individual with a disability.”
Wonnacott said the ADA never really defined accessibility as inclusively and expansively as it should have.
“It made sure a municipal building has a ramp, but it doesn’t help people navigate the building or the system,” she said.
Inclusivity, Wonnacott said, is about “what is the biggest barrier you face? Is it the biases of those who designed the buildings?”
Inclusive design doesn’t specifically target people with disabilities, but considers the needs of as many people as possible. And services designed in such a way and provided seamlessly can help everyone, CU Law’s Konnoth said. “Those kinds of universal forms of assistance and participation are what we should be looking to more broadly in society.”
