From: Julie Dawson 
Subject: Equality of Opportunity -- HISTORY.TXT  (fwd)
mental retardation, that he is incapable of independent living? 
Will he be denied access to transportation?  Will restaurants
refuse service?  Will hotels refuse accommodations?  The Pipers
viewed the ADA as a much- needed extension in disability policy:
 It is now time to expand handicapped antidiscrimination to the
private sector so that Dan s and our visions for his adult life
and the lives of many others can finally become a reality. 
     Judith Heumann s polio resulted in paralysis.  Despite her
remarkably successful  career, she was burdened by the
psychological impact of discrimination.  She described how she
could not enter public school as a child because she was
considered  a fire hazard.   When she graduated from high school,
the principal tried to prevent her from accepting her diploma on
stage because of her wheelchair.  In college, she was denied her
elementary school teaching credentials because of her paralysis:
administrators did not think she could teach from a wheelchair. 
On one occasion, officials at an auction house attempted to
remove Heumann and a friend because they were allegedly
 disgusting to look at.  People do not emerge unscathed from
these experiences, concluded Heumann:  this stigma scars for
life. 
     Belinda Mason knew stigma first-hand.  At the age of 30,
Mason had been diagnosed HIV- positive after a blood transfusion. 
Moreover, a stroke left her partially paralyzed.   I have learned
a terrible truth about America,  she said of her subsequent
experiences,  that it is not a good place to be different or to
be ill, in spite of what we teach in government class.   She
related that her 75- person town closed the community pool for a
week after she entered it, ostensibly because of a cigarette
butt.  One neighbor carried around a petition demanding that she
move out.  Mason described another woman who lost her job simply
because she decided to have her son, who had AIDS, live at home. 
She also told of one occasion where police locked a man with AIDS
in his car overnight, rather than take him into jail.  The next
day, people peered through the windows at him as if looking in an
aquarium.  Mason acknowledged that one cannot simply legislate
attitudes and behavior.  But she poignantly added:  The truth is
that sometimes legislation precedes and enhances humanity.  
Mason was the first person with HIV ever to testify before
Congress.  And her moving testimony earned her an appointment to
the President s Committee on the Human Immunodefi ciency Virus
Epidemic.
     Congressman Owens organized the field hearing in Boston at
the request of Dart and others from the New England disability
community.  The purpose was to solicit an even more extensive
demonstration of citizen participation.   It was an unforgettable
day,  said Owens, for the range of disabilities represented, the
racial and gender diversity, and the united spirit of those in
attendance. Everyone wanted the chance to address Congress.  To
accommodate as many people as possible, the subcommittee met
nonstop from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.: over 80 witnesses testified
in rapid-fire succession, each having but a few minutes to relate
his or her experiences.
     William Cavanaugh, a consumer of the Massachusetts mental
health system, spoke about the  abusive treatment practices and
human rights violations  of persons in mental institutions. He
described one man, Vincent Veletia, who suffocated and died after
being restrained with  a full sensory deprivation hood,  replete
with ear phones emitting constant static, and being forced into a
fetal position with his hands cuffed behind his knees.  Bonnie
O Day described how a prominent disability advocate from
Charlottesville, Franz Stielfried, died because of poor
accessibility. Impeded by an intersection without curb cuts,
Stielfried tried to cross a dangerous, grassy area next to a
50-foot drop.  While trying to lower himself over another curb,
however, he lost control of his wheelchair and fell over the
cliff to his death.  He had been traveling to a meeting to demand
for greater accessibility.
     You know, sometimes I almost wish a person would hate me for
being disabled. Then at least I would know they knew I was
alive. 
          Anonymous Nancy Husted-Jensen described how
fully-registered disabled persons were turned away from voting
booths because they supposedly did not look sufficiently
 competent  to vote.  Eileen Healy Horndt similarly recounted how
one man with mental retardation was barred from opening a savings
account at a local bank because he  did not fit the image the
bank wants to project.   She spoke of another gentlemen with
quadriplegia who joined her in visiting a presidential campaign
office to discuss accessibility, but there was no handicap
parking space wide enough for the van lift.  Horndt also
described her own frus tration of having to use a calling card at
pay telephones because she could not reach the coin slot.
     Only after the Disability Law Center of Boston threatened
legal action did Barbara Waters avoid leaving college when
administrators said her epileptic seizures represented a
 liability risk.  Eleanor Blake was not so fortunate.  After
being hospitalized for manic depression, college officials denied
her graduation from the human services program because, they
said, she was not  psycho logically fit.   Later, after switching
majors, she graduated summa cum laude.  
     Patricia Deegan further illustrated the excessive
discrimination persons with mental illness face, including  the
assumption that what we say about our own experiences is an
expression of a disordered mind and can therefore be ignored.  
Presumed to be crazy, one s basic civil rights were readily
violated.  Deegan related how one woman reported to mental health
workers that she was pregnant, but the professionals dismissed
her claim as delusional.  Later she visited an emergency room
only to be met with the same response. That evening, while
roaming the streets in desperation, the woman miscarried and
suffered from serious hemorrhaging.
     We are not asking for pity.  We are not even asking for your
sympathy. All we ask is that you make real the promises and
opportunities that America strives to offer everyone. 
          Denise Karuth  These examples capture only a small
fraction of the testimony presented about lost education and
employment opportunities, physical and transportation barriers,
social stigma, and violation of basic human rights.  But the
problem came not only from actions committed, it also came from
simple avoidance.  Michael Oestreicher related how one
frustrated, member of a group discuss ing beach accessibility
poignantly declared:  You know, sometimes I almost wish a person
would hate me for being disabled. Then at least I would know they
knew I was alive. 
     In a discrimination diary presented to the committee,
Cynthia Miller captured the exasperation evident in these
sentiments and those of many other persons with disabilities.   I
got home late this evening and did the things most Americans do
like cooking, cleaning, feeding the cat,  Miller wrote.  Then she
prepared a list of things she thought needed to be changed to
improve the lives of persons with disabilities.
I thought of doing all these things, but the list seems to grow
every day.  Instead, I got angry and depressed.  I got angry and
depressed because after I work all day, fight the barriers to get
to work, [and] fight the barriers to do the things all Americans
do like shop, I have meetings and phone calls and letters and
other things I have to do to fight for my equal rights as an
American with a disability.  I m tired of being tired,
frightened, angry and depressed every day, fighting for my
rights.  And now, I m writing a stupid diary until 2:00 in the
morning to prove that discrimination exists to my Congress.  Why
does Congress think so many Americans are fighting this battle if
discrimination doesn t exist?   Does Congress think we enjoy or
prefer to fight for equal rights before we eat or sleep
sometimes? . . . I would like to watch The Cosby Show, with
slippers on my feet, and time on my hands, like other Americans. 
I don t want to be Rosa Parks.  I just want to be Cyndy Miller.
     Denise Karuth, who used a wheelchair because of multiple
sclerosis and was legally blind, eloquently stated what people
like herself and Cyndy Miller were fighting for.   We are not
asking for your money,  she explained.   We are not asking for
pity.  We are not even asking for your sympathy.  All we ask is
that you make real the promises and opportunities that America
strives to offer everyone: the respect and dignity we deserve as
free and responsible citizens. 
     The hearings were captivating and televised on C-Span. 
Savage used a copy of the proceed ings to edit a 30-minute
version and make it available all around the country.  She became
known as the  Girl Scout Cookie-Lady  for her persistence in
pushing the video on people.  Dart also played a crucial role in
spreading the edited hearings by taking copies with him as he
traveled around the country for his public forums.  People could
use the video to explain what disability discrimination was all
about and draw on the testimony for examples of how to describe
their own experiences.
              The ADA on the Eve of the 1988 Election
     The ADA of 1988 fulfilled its mission.  The goal was to get
the ADA on the legislative agenda as a congressional
priority.Although no further action was taken on the ADA in 1988,
the ADA did not  die,  as some people claimed, when Congress
closed its 100th Session on October 22.  On the contrary, the ADA
of 1988 fulfilled its mission.  ADA sponsors never intended it to
come to a vote that year.  The goal, rather, was to complete the
process begun by the National Council on Disability in getting
the ADA on the legislative agenda, not only as a token measure,
but as a congressional priority.  The disability community
reached this objective with a pronounce ment from Senator Edward
M. Kennedy (D-MA) at the joint hearing.   I just want to give the
assurance,  he asserted,  that this will be the first order of
business  when Congress convenes for the 101st session in 1989.
     The disability community had begun its education process,
both internally and with members of Congress and presidential
candidates.  Members were learning more about what it meant to be
disabled.  They were being exposed to scores of people with
disabilities for the first time.  Many declared their support by
becoming cosponsors of the bill.  The disability community was
also becoming much more optimistic at the close of 1988.  The
1980s had been a decade of struggle against encroachments.  But
the Civil Rights Restoration Act symbolized the new alliance
formed with the civil rights community.  And the Fair Housing
Amendments Act broke new ground by extending disability policy to
encompass the private sector.  The Reagan administration was
winding to a close, and the tide was apparently turning.  Both
presidential candidates had vowed to support legislation akin to
the ADA.  By the end of 1988, the compelling problem of
discrimination had been fused with the solution crafted by the
National Council on Disability.  The political climate was also
changing in a way that would invite, rather than impede, future
action.

4
Creating a Workable ADA:
The Senate and the White House
On November 8, 1988, George Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in the
election for President of the United States.  Bush s strong
statements in support of the disability community, and
particularly civil rights legislation for people with
disabilities, had swayed many disabled voters, including many
Democrats.  In fact, a poll of voter intentions on the eve of the
election, conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, suggested
that the wide margin of persons with disabilities support ing
Bush was a deciding factor in the election.  Although many
persons with disabilities had campaigned for Dukakis and were
disappointed by the outcome, Bush s election clearly offered an
opportunity to the disability community.  His attentiveness to
disability issues signaled a change in the political climate and
made passage of the ADA seem more promising.   Moreover, two days
before his inauguration, Bush avowed his intent to follow through
on his pledges and push the ADA toward passage.   I said during
the campaign that disabled people have been excluded for far too
long from the mainstream of American life,  Bush noted.   One
step that I have discussed will be action on the Americans with
Disabilities Act in order, in simple fairness, to provide the
disabled with the same rights afforded others, afforded other
minorities. 
     In another respect, however, the election of 1988 was
damaging to the ADA cause.  Senator Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
(R-CT), a long-time supporter of persons with disabilities and
the Senate sponsor of the ADA in 1988, lost his bid for
reelection to Joseph Lieberman.  As one senate staff member said,
Weicker was  one of the 5ive-hundred-pound gorillas  in Congress. 
His leadership in the area of disability was consistent and
strong.  Now someone else had to fill the void he left. The chief
cosponsor of the 1988 ADA was Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who had
worked closely with Weicker, the National Council on the
Handicapped (NCD), and the disability community in the
development of the ADA.  Weicker and Harkin had even discussed
whether Harkin s position as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the
Handicapped placed him in the best position to be the original
sponsor in 1988.  Harkin also had a personal understanding of the
need for the ADA because of his brother, who was deaf.  It was
therefore natural for Harkin to assume Senate leadership.  But it
was not a foregone conclusion. 
     I didn t get elected to get re-elected.  My brother is deaf. 
I understand discrimination. . . . We are doing this
legislation. 
          Senator Tom Harkin  Sponsorship of the ADA was a risky
endeavor for the first-term senator.  He was up for reelection in
1990, and no Democratic senator from Iowa had ever won a second
term.  As a relative newcomer to disability policy, Senator
Harkin would have to begin his relationship with the disabil ity
community by making compromises with respect to provisions in the
ADA potentially alienat ing the people he was trying to help. 
Moreover, failure to pass the bill rapidly might lead some people
to compare the leadership skills of Senators Harkin and Weicker. 
By sponsoring the ADA, Harkin would also become a target for the
opposition, which included employers, transit operators, owners
of public accommodations, railroads, telecommunications
providers, and state and local governments.  Finally, the
prospects for successfully expanding civil rights protec tions to
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