Category: ADA News

Alot of what we talk about here revolves around the ADA being a potential tool for certain individuals to hurt businesses. While that may be true, it must not be forgotten that the ADA does much good and helps many people who would otherwise have a worse quality of life. In this way, at least for business owners, being accessible (especially if you’re the only one in town) is GREAT for business.

Hi. I’m Walking Bob and one of the joys of this blog is being able to highlight the people, places and events that make Davis a special place to live. I experienced one of those events, along with about 125 other people, at the July 31 Disability Pride Parade in Central Park, celebrating twenty years of the Americans with Disability Act.

Read more on Disability Pride Parade in Davis, CA

We must also not forget about the challenges which face many of our peers. We may assume in our everyday life that ‘we don’t see people like that’ or ‘people like that never come here’ but ask yourself, do you not see them because they do not exist? Or do you not see them because it’s hard for them to get around so many of them don’t brave the sunlight and the structural, attitudian and architectural barriers which lie around them?

You see, Richard was born without arms or legs. But he never allowed this disability to limit him. From the age of two, when he first began turning pages in books on his own, his commitment to independence has driven his personal and professional life.

Richard’s daily routine isn’t all that different from mine or yours. A video produced during his time at the California Department of Rehabilitation shows how he lives on his own, gets to work, and exercises regularly:

A day in the life of Richard Devylder

A related article, too. The Department of Transportation celebrates 20 years of the ADA.

As we’ve been touting, the ADA is about equal access, or atleast reasonable accommodation. In the Amazon/Apple war (Kindle vs iPad/iPhone) over who is going to be the next reader of digital media Amazon moved the Kindle to put textbooks online for students. Not a bad idea, considering the cost of text books and the weight of lugging all those heavy books about. But in doing so, Kindle did not allow for their product to be readable for the blind — there is no way for a blind person to access the text-to-speech on the Kindle without the help of a sighted person.

No matter what you do, no matter what goods or services your business, or any business participates in — please make sure you include everyone — that you think of providing everyone with a means to participate in some equitable manner…

Last year, the schools — among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve — wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and less costly than traditional textbooks. The environmentally conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of paper students use to print files from their laptops.

It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, now under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez, telling them they were under investigation for possible violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Kindle Violates the ADA

His comment reveals something profound about the way we view disabilities in this country: Disability is seen as a private matter, a personal problem that a disabled individual struggles to negotiate in a world of “normal” people, rather than a social or political issue.

From a very young age, Adam intuited that it would be better for him to obscure his ailment than report it, risking the marginalization that might result. Hiding it until he physically couldn’t seemed the best way to protect his normality.

As he grew and became a man, fully capable of expressing himself in the world, his resolve to keep quiet was only strengthened. Though his physical symptoms had been manifesting for years, they became a “condition” only when others were aware of them, at which point he began to get a complex emotional bundle of pity, sympathy and fear from friends and family.

(Read more on the becoming-public of the ADA)

You can also catch more about what the nature of what it means to have a disability and the notion of “non-disabled” is actually a kind of subset of “disabled”. This term has less to do with interpreting the statement as a prediction that every abled bodied individual will someday become disabled but more

to offer a more inclusive expression that recognizes the diverse spectrum of disabilities, allowing individuals who are able-bodied to identify with the reality that disability affects us all. The term forces able-bodied people to put aside our own fears of becoming disabled, and focus on that which unites rather than separates us as people with a range of experiences and aspirations who face innumerable challenges.

You can read more about temporarily abled bodied here.

Interesting Article on an accessible theme park.

Those with disabilities are having fun this summer at a new Texas theme park designed with their needs in mind.

Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, the brainchild of the father of a daughter with special needs and billed as the world’s first ultra-accessible family fun park, features rides and attractions easily enjoyed by those in wheelchairs or with cognitive disorders. Admission to the 25-acre park is free for those with cognitive or physical disabilities; family members and friends pay $5 a person. Kids 3 and under are free. Cost for those without a disabled patron in their party is $15. Reservations are required to visit, click here to make them.

The park (its website is morganswonderland.com) includes rides, interactive exhibits, playgrounds, gardens, a fishing lake and amphitheater. It has Braille signage.

Seminars on ADA Awareness are useful to help small and local businesses.

From the Business Journal:

Many restaurants, bars, salons and other service businesses overlook a requirement in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that signs be mounted exactly 60 inches above the ground.

They may also forget that hot water and drainpipes underneath sinks need to be insulated to protect against contact, particularly from those in wheelchairs.

Those are some of the things that were learned at a recent workshop put on by the City of Clovis to help local businesses come into compliance with the 20-year-old law in response to the large number of recent lawsuits.

Around 50 businesses needed the help since San Jose lawyer Randy Moore began targeting the Central Valley around two months ago on behalf of clients. El Gallo restaurant in Clovis, for instance, was forced to close its doors after being penalized up to $88,000 for 22 different violations.

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