It’s the 25 Year Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It’s hard to believe just how impossibly limited life was for people with disabilities a mere few decades ago and the sizable impact this law has had.
One of the fascinating stories in the long quest to to secure such legislation was the so-called Capitol Crawl. If you’ve never heard of this or seen footage, the short clips below show why it was such an effective action.
On Monday, March 12, 1990, more than 1,000 frustrated disability rights activists amassed in Washington DC to advocate for passage of the ADA. The law had passed in the Senate but languished in the House of Representatives for more than a year. Later in the day, a few dozen of the protestors staged a powerful dramatization of the barriers they faced in accessibility by abandoning their wheelchairs and literally crawling and dragging themselves up the 83 Capitol steps. It made for powerful TV footage and news photos. The bill passed shortly thereafter and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990. See more at It’s Our Story Project
The following are some resources to mark the anniversary and some tools that can be useful to employers and job seekers.
Department of Justice – Disability Rights Section
DOL Wage & Hour Division – Employment of Workers with Disabilities