From: Julie Dawson 
Subject: Equality of Opportunity -- HISTORY.TXT  (fwd)
November 14, 1989
Mark-up: House Committee on Education and Labor; H.R. 2273
reported to the House as amended.
February 22, 1990
Hearing: House Committee on Small Business.
March 1, 1990
Mark-up: House Subcommittee on Surface Transportation; H.R. 2273
reported to the House Committee on Public Works and Transporta
tion as amended.
March 12, 1990
 Wheels of Justice  campaign sponsors march from White House to
Capitol; scores of persons with disabilities climb the Capitol
steps.
March 13, 1990
Participants in  Wheels of Justice  campaign demonstrate in the
Capitol Rotunda, demanding for immediate passage of the ADA.
Mark-up: Committee on Energy and Commerce (House Subcommit tee on
Transportation and Hazardous Materials discharged); H.R. 2273
reported to the House as amended.
April 3, 1990
Mark-up: Committee on Public Works and Transportation; H.R. 2273
reported to the House as amended.
April 25, 1990
Mark-up: House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights;
H.R. 2273 reported to the House Committee on the Judiciary as
amended.
May 1, 1990
Mark-up: House Committee on the Judiciary.
May 2, 1990
Mark-up: House Committee on the Judiciary; H.R. 2273 reported to
the House as amended.
May 14, 1990
Committee report filed: House Committee on Public Works and
Transportation.
May 15, 1990
Committee reports filed: House Committee on Education and Labor;
House Committee on Energy and Commerce; House Committee on the
Judiciary.
May 16, 1990
Committee report filed: House Committee on Rules; H.R. 2273
reported to the House as amended.
May 17, 1990
House floor deliberations.
May 22, 1990
House floor deliberations; House passes H.R. 2273, 403 to 20,
substituting the text of H.R. 2273 for S. 933.
May 24, 1990
House requests a conference with the Senate; House appoints
conferees.
June 6, 1990
Senate appoints conferees; Senate passes motion to instruct
conferees to support the Chapman amendment.
June 25, 1990
Conference meeting held.
June 26, 1990
Conference report filed for consideration in the House and
Senate.
July 11, 1990
Senate floor deliberations; Senate recommits conference report
with an amendment and a motion to instruct conferees about Senate
coverage.
July 12, 1990
Conference meeting held; Conference report filed.
House floor deliberations; motion to recommit conference report
fails; House passes conference report, 377 to 28.
July 13, 1990
Senate floor deliberations; Senate passes conference report, 91
to 6; final amended version of S. 933 submitted to President Bush
for approval.
July 26, 1990
President George Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act
into law P.L. 101-336.
                           Appendix E 
                     Discrimination diaries
The following documents are printed as written, without stylistic
or technical changes.  Minor editorial insertions have been
provided to identify selected abbreviations.  Addresses and phone
numbers have been withheld.  All diaries, petitions, and other
documents presented to Congress by the Task Force on the Rights
and Empowerment of People with Disabilities are currently stored
at the President s Committee on Employment of People with
Disabilities in Washington, D.C.
Get Involved!  Help the ADA with this petition!
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is designed to provide
full civil rights protection to Americans with disabilities. 
This legislation, (S.2345/H.R.4498) is expected to be the first
order of business for the 1989 Congress, and members of Congress
have asked for concrete evidence that Americans with disabilities
need full civil rights protection.
We must begin that process now.  Help enact the ADA by:
1.)  Writing a letter to your Senator(s) and Congressional
Representatives indicating your support for the ADA and asking
them to become cosponsors...
2.)  Recruiting others to write such letters your family, your
friends and neighbors, members of your various organizations,
clients, business contacts just about everyone you know...
3.)  Circulating the petition supporting the ADA.  Make copies of
this page and circulate every where.  Send completed petitions
to: Justin Dart, Chairperson, Task Force on the Rights &
Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities, 907 6th St, S.W.,
Suite 516C, Washington, D.C. 20024.
A Petition for Equal Rights for Americans with Disabilities
Whereas: There are more than 36 million individuals in this
nation whose basic life activities are limited in some
significant way by physical disabilities, mental impairments
and/or the effects of age; and
Whereas: Millions of these potentially productive persons are
forced by traditional discrimina tory paternalistic attitudes and
systems to exist in situations of unjust unwanted dependency,
segregation, extreme deprivation and second class citizenship;
and
Whereas: Disability is a universally common characteristic of the
human condition and there is a substantial probability that most
humans will experience significant disability at some point in
their lives; and
Whereas: People with disabilities have the same inalienable
rights and responsibilities as other people; and
Whereas: The forced segregation and dependency of millions of
individuals with disabilities in this country constitutes a gross
violation of their constitutional and basic human rights, a devas
tating waste of productive potential, a totally unnecessary and
increasingly unaffordable drain on public and private budgets and
a significant failure of the great American promise of liberty
and justice for all; and
Whereas: Individuals with disabilities form the nation s largest
severely disadvantaged minority not specifically covered by
federal legislation guaranteeing comprehensive civil rights
protection and equal opportunities to participate in society,
Therefore, Be It Resolved that we, the undersigned advocates for
justice, urge the Congress to immediately enact, and the
President to sign, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1988,
in order to effectively guarantee that all persons with
disabilities will be protected against discrimi nation on the
basis of handicap.
A vote for justice
i urge the congress to enact, and the president to support and to
sign, legislation such as the Americans with disabilities act of
1988, which will effectively protect all persons with
disabilities against discrimination on the basis of handicap.
I furthermore urge the establishment of those basic services and
human support systems necessary to make rights real in every day
life, and which will enable all people with disabilities to
achieve their full potential for independence, productivity and
quality of life in the mainstream of society.
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
A vote for justice
          . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     People with developmental disabilities and their families
are torn apart because Medicaid dollars are paid to buildings so
the only way needed services can be obtained is for the person to
be institutionalized where there is no way to live as an equal,
participating member of their community.  Please we must reform
Medicaid and pass the Medicaid Home and Community Quality
Services Act. 
     Do you want to live and learn in an institution of 100's of
strangers or your family? Would you like to work for subminimum
wage in a sheltered workshop or do you like your real job and
paycheck?  What makes you think that people with developmental
disabilities are less valuable?  Take a stance, take action if
you wouldn t choose the life of institutional living and working.
Vickie Ferklic      
Golden, CO
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     When I was a senior at college at the U of SD I was denied
the opportunity to practice teach in the public schools and
therefore was not able to get a SD teaching certificate.  The
Dean of the School of Education at that time and his successor
were convinced that blind people could not teach in public
schools.
Arnold Auch
Sioux Falls, SD
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     I work with adults diagnosed as chronically mentally ill. 
The major problems that my clients face stem from the stigma
associated with mental illness.  Employers are reluctant to hire
them in the first place because they (the employers) do not
understand mental illness.  They think of my clients as being
violent or slow, which they are neither.  I believe more
resources need to be allocated to educate the public about mental
illness and reduce the myths associated with it.
Lynn N. Culey
Vocational Coordinator
Community Support Program
Sioux Falls, SD
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     I fully support ADA.  It is legislation whose time has come. 
It would be a serious injus tice if ADA was not passed.
Phyllis Geldzalh
Salt Lake City, UT
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     I had some friends who had an apartment that I really loved. 
They moved out.  Three months later I was in the market for a new
place.  That apartment had been vacant the entire time. I
applied.  Everything was going great until they asked how do you
get your money.  I said  I m disabled .  They asked what s your
disability.  I told them  I am psychiatrically disabled .  They
then said  we won t rent to your kind.   The apartment remained
vacant for six months after they refused me the place.
Gary Janski
Salt Lake City, UT
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
-    very hard time finding a job.
-    people treat you like you can t do a thing.  It makes us
feel better to [do] things on our own instead of having
everything done for me.
-    when your crippled everyone must think you re deaf too
because they yell.
-    you get treated like your a two year old and can t do
anything
Sheila Sorenson
Sioux Falls, SD
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     I have been denied entry into graduate school because I have
Cerebral Palsy.  At the time I applied I was a staff  aide to
Governor Daniel Evans, and told by the Graduate School of Public
Administration that my disability would prevent a career in
public affairs.  Since then, I have been employed steadily in the
public sector, and now am State Prog[ram] M[anager] for the DVR
I[ndependent] L[iving] program I still don t have my M[asters] of
P[ublic] A[dministration].
Donald F.  Kayton
Redmond, WA
A vote for justice
     . . .
I have personal experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     I am an interpreter in sign language for deaf people.  One
client related his experience in attempting to contact the U of
Wis.  hospital by use of a TDD (Telephone Device for the Deaf)
The hospital has one  the client has one Hospital employees are
not trained to receive calls. The telephone rings there is no
voice they hang up.  The deaf person tries again again 
again each time.  Eventually the one person that is aware and
trained answers the phone and the communication takes place. 
Placement of TDD s in many agencies is needed but also people
must be trained.
     Other clients report similar experiences one missed a court
date and was fined even though he called and reported via TDD to
the sheriffs office that has a TDD but also has employ ees that
didn t even know they had one.
Ree Steidemann
Madison, WI
A Vote For Justice.
     . . .
I have personally experienced and/or observed the following
discrimination against people with disabilities:
     I had 5 pg letter of grievances written down, but I thought
it better to summarize some of them.  My daughter Maureen is now
24 a quadro C.P. wheelchair bound.
     1.  At 18 months she was taken to the best neurologist in
the country, Dr. Spitz.  I was told she had high intellect.  He
was right.  In regular school she always maintained a A to B+
average.
     2.  So called educators branded her retarded.  Never tested
properly.
     3.  Wheelchairs overpriced never fitted properly, she now
has a bad back problem. [and] all prosthesis over priced.
     4.  Regular schools would not accept her.  Finally found a
school, Berlin Elementary in VT, who would   but was placed with
emotionally disturbed children.
     5.  Teachers in Elementary and College not willing to change
classrooms for her.  In college she was exempt from a course
because one teacher felt she was thorn in his side. Refused to
deal with her.
     6.  Some teachers unwilling to give her more [time] during
test.  I had to fight for this one.
     7.  Educators telling her (in elementary school in Ct.) that
she was not college material. This almost destroyed her.
     8.  Restaurants refusing us admittance or telling us to sit
only in certain areas because it was a fire hazard.  If we wanted
to stay, we had to sit where they told us or we could leave.
     9.  College does not have a van w/ a lift.  I ve always
transported Mimi to [and] from school.
     10.  Pres. of Johnson State College refuses to give her a
full [time] aide so that she can achieve her course of study.  He
has overlooked accessability re: bathrooms, cafeteria, etc.  He
has however spent money on new brass door openers, building a
million dollar gym etc. yet will not hire a full [time] aide.
     This is only a few of some of the things happening with
Mimi, Maureen) she can only write her name, and a few sentences
w/ much difficulty.  Yet, last semester she was on the Pres. list
4.0 average.  If this isn t an injustice I wonder what is.
     She is now going to take a leave of absence from school
because the stress [and] frustra tion is getting to be to much
for her.  I am truly angry, yet, nothing I do can change the
minds of these so called educators.
     Please, please help us.  I m at my wits end trying to fight
these people alone.  If you want to hear more, I will gladly talk
to anyone who will listen.  My sweet, loving daughter deserves
better than this 
Very truly yours,
Frances Murtagh
Eden, VT
12/28/88
Mr. Dart:
     I have enclosed a copy of a letter I wrote to our area
newspaper.  These incidents really happened to me.  And, I
thought you may like to include them in your diary.  Good luck!
     Letters to the Editor
 They Have Feelings Too 
     I have been trying to complete my Christmas shopping in
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