The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on July 22, 2010, observed the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by exploring the landmark law’s past, present and future in the fight against disability discrimination.
Under the law enacted July 1990, a job applicant or employee with a disability still had to meet the general qualifications for a job, but it became unlawful for employers to discriminate against someone whose disability is so substantial that it limits or restricts a major life activity such as walking or seeing.
“The ADA was the most revolutionary civil rights act since the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
He was one of 10 speakers that included EEOC officials and authorities on disability law and practice, a complainant in an EEOC disability rights case, and former commission staff members who were instrumental in the development and passage of the ADA and its 2008 amendment.
“It helped dismantle a system that relegated an entire category of people to second-class status,” Henderson added, noting that similar work is needed on behalf of other groups, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Henderson referenced former U.S. Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod, a black woman who days earlier had been forced to leave her job. Sherrod had been “mischaracterized as a racial bigot,” he said, when her words from a March 2010 speech were taken out of context and circulated.
Days later her firing was rescinded and she was offered another, better job with the Obama administration.
“It’s just a cautionary tale … that things are not always as they should be [or] appear to be, and one should not make snap judgments,” Henderson said, adding that it’s a concept that applies to issues of disabilities as well as other groups.
Under the agency’s theme, “Celebrating the ADA: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” the EEOC also recalled its legal victories on behalf of workers with disabilities, and the amendment to the law that expanded its scope.
“The ADA did not erase all of our challenges, but we have learned over the years, as we also celebrate the 45th anniversary of the EEOC’s founding this month, that the American workplace has changed for the better,” said Jacqueline A. Berrien, EEOC chair.
Much work remains to be done, though, noted Andrew J. Imparato, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities and one of the speakers at the observance.
“Too many people with disabilities are eager to work but still excluded from our workforce,” he said.
Unemployment rates for people with disabilities continued to outpace the unemployment rate of other workers during the second quarter of 2010, according to the Allsup Disability Study: Income at Risk released July 22, 2010. Allsup is a nationwide provider of Social Security disability insurance representation and Medicare plan section services.
The EEOC presented awards to current and former EEOC commissioners and staff who played key roles in the ADA’s passage, regulations, guidance and enforcement.
Among the people it recognized for playing key roles in the ADA’s passage was the late Evan J. Kemp Jr., who was the EEOC chair when the ADA became law. Kemp, who had had a degenerative form of spinal muscular atrophy and used a wheelchair, had been rejected by 39 law firms before landing a job with the federal government.
Christopher Bell, a former special assistant to Kemp, and visually impaired, also was recognized. The Society for Human Resource Management worked closely with Bell during the two years leading up to the ADA’s enactment.
A recording of the webcast of the event can be found by clicking here.
Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News.
Related Articles:
SHRM’s Role in ADA Recalled 20 Years Later, HR News, July 22, 2010
Has the Americans with Disabilities Act Made a Difference? SHRM Online Diversity Discipline, July 7, 2010