Listen to Show 55

A little bit of this and a little bit of that, along with a submission from Day Al-Mohamed of the Day in Washington podcast (www.dayinwashington.com) explaining the ADA Restoration Act. Websites mentioned in this episode include the High Tech Center Training Unit (www.htctu.net) and Disaboom (www.disaboom.com).

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

Disability411, Show number 55

Beth Case: Hello, and welcome to the Disability411 podcast. I'm your host, Beth Case, who is home unexpectedly today because of tropical storm Edouard. Fortunately, he did not decide to turn into a full-blown tornado and the weather is not as bad as it could have been, but it was threatening enough that they decided to close our campus today just in case. So I'm spending a nice, rainy day at home, catching up on my podcasts. Unfortunately, the interview that I had planned for today had some technical difficulties, so I'm going to need to recontact that interviewee and see if we can reschedule to record again. Which means that today I'm going to touch on a variety of different things that I've been meaning to talk to you all about and just haven't had the opportunity to.

First, I want to say a couple of things about the AHEAD conference I went to a few weeks ago. That's the Association on Higher Education and Disability, and you know, I think I say this every year, but that was the best conference ever. I learned so much. I really focused on the technology track, looking at assistive technology and how to use technology. I learned about some new equipment that I didn't know about before, some software I had not known about, and just some techniques. For example, how to make math formulas more accessible to screen readers. You know, it's not perfect, but there's a lot of things in there I didn't know how to do that could help.

One of the best resources for technology accessibility, if you're not familiar with them, is the High Tech Center in California. Their web site is www.htctu.net. And it stands for the High Tech Center Training Unit. And really, their goal is to provide support and training to the California Community Colleges, but if they have a training going on and not all of the seats are full, there's a chance you could get to go to one their trainings, and they're just so incredible. Of course, you would have to go to California. But they also have a lot of resources on their website, lots of manuals, lots of guides, just incredible stuff. I downloaded so much from their website it's going to take me years to read it. It's just amazing.

Ok, my power just went out, so you're getting a little of an experience of what it's like to be in Houston during a tropical storm. I'm just going to keep recording and we'll see how this goes. Where was I? Thank goodness for batteries on laptops, which is how I'm recording today.

Anyway, the High Tech Center. Definitely a great resource. You should definitely check them out.

A couple of other exciting things that happened at the conference is I got to meet Marcus Engel, who is a speaker and author. In fact, Ron Graham did an interview with him for the Disability411 podcast a while ago. And Marcus is interested in becoming part of our Disability411 family and he'll be doing some contributions. Whether we're actually going to get him in front of a microphone or not, I'm not sure, but he did mention he might be interested in writing some articles that would be posted on the web site. So, it's very exciting.

I also met and talked to some people from Disaboom, which is another incredible resource. You know, there's a lot of unreliable information on the Internet, but if you really want some good information, then go to Disaboom.com. It's a very reliable source for all kinds of disability-related information. Anyway, we're going to see if there are some ways that Disaboom and Disability411 can't collaborate on some things. So that's very exciting.

So our little family just continues to grow and that's great. And there's always room for more. So if you're interested in becoming part of Disability411, there are lots of different ways you can do that. I did create a volunteer page on our website of some ideas of what you can do. Now, if you don't feel like becoming a reporter or contributing a segment or writing an article, there are some other ways you can help. For example, I've always provided transcripts for all of my shows, but over the almost three years that I've been doing this, those transcripts have come from a variety of sources, and therefore some of them are better quality than others. I would really like to clean up those transcrips and get them as accurate and consistent as possible. So if you would be willing to listen to an episode or two or three, or however many, and compare it to the transcripts and make any corrections to the transcripts so it's more accurate and to help clean up the formatting, that would be great. If you're interested in doing that, if you would email me at disability411@jinkle.com and let me know if there's any particular episodes that you're interested in working on, then I will let you know the guidelines and the format and so forth that I would like to have them in. I want you to email me with which shows you're interested in because I don't want to get, like, ten people editing the same show. That's just redundant.

Anyway, that's just one small way that you can help if you're interested. There are some other things listed on the web site and if you have another idea of how you might be able to contribute or help out that's not listed there, just write me. I'd be glad to have any of you involved that are willing.

Since the timing seems to be pretty good, I do want to comment on a news article that I saw. There are places around the country that have a sort of automatic calling system for when there are emergencies, like tropical storms and hurricanes or other emervgency situations where you might need to take cover or evacuate. I got a phone call this morning just making sure I was aware of the flash floods and so forth. It's just an automated recoring, it just automatically calls your telephone and you listen to a pre-recorded message. Well, the problem is, if you're deaf, you can't hear the pre-recorded message and if you have a TTY that answers your phone, the recorded message doesn't know it's talking to a TTY. Until now.

There is a company called Twenty First Century Communications and they have developed a way that their calling system can recognize if there is a TTY answering the phone and if so, delivers a message the TTY understand. Not just just playing the audio recorded message. There have been services, and I talked about one of these before, I think, on this show, where you can register as a person is deaf or blind and get a message sent to your cell phone or whatever device you tell them to contact you at. But this is the first time, apparently, that the same system that's used for everybody else can automatically detect if you have a TTY and deliver a message at the same time, without any pre-registration. Well, I jhave mixed feelings about this. Of course, I am thrilled that there is a system that can automatically detect a TTY and deliver a message to people who are deaf and could not hear the recorded message. However, my experience has been that people aren't using TTYs that much anymore. They're really switching more to text messaging, you know, using a pager or cell phone with text messaging, or they're using video phones and video relay and that sort of thing. So while I applaud the efforts and I'm never going to criticize someone for trying to increase safety and accessibility for people with disabilities, I just wonder if it's a little bit too late and I'm curious if they have something in place or are working on something that will provide a similar service to people using video phones or other devices.

One more thing I want to comment on before I get to a recording that was submitted for today's show, if that I've been emailing back and forth by the name of Simon Booth. He has given me permission to share his name and some information from our emails. I was going to read some things but they're really long, so I'm gonna kinda summarize.

You know, on this show, I try to be very positive. I try to focus on the solutions to problems that are out there. I try to keep you all informed about legal changes, but basically, I try to focus on the positive, I try to focus on ways we can provide better access. I don't consider this like an advocacy show, but more of an informational show. And I guess, I don't often refer to the problems that are out there.

Simon wrote to tell me that while you might expect to face some discrimination from the non-discrimination community that he has found that he's been discriminated against from within the disability community and the disability services community. And after several emails back and forth, I think one of the conclusions that we came to that was because he has a degenerative condition, he did not always need the assistance of a wheelchair or other kinds of assistance. He was very independent. But as time went on and his condition worsened, he did need to start using a wheelchair, and did need to start asking for support services. He felt that the reaction he got was that he was using his wheelchair for attention, to try and get things, and that he was not truly disabled. At a time when he was becoming more and more limited in what he was able to do for himself and trying to adjust to that emotionally ans psychologically and just really hoping and expecting to get some support from other people with disabilities and from people who work with individuals with disabilities, he felt very rejected by them. Only in later years was he able to come to the conclusion that it was because he was not seen as being as disabled as some of the other individuals. And it kind of reminded me of the situation a lot of hard of hearing people are in, where they don't hear well enough to really function in the hearing world without some sort of assistance, but at the same time, they hear too well to be part of the Deaf community. So it's often a very difficult place to be in where you don't really fit in either place. And I think that's a lot of what Simon was dealing with, where he needed support, he wasn't exactly able-bodied, he needed some help and support, but yet, because he didn't need that support his whole life and perhaps he didn't need as much as someone else, that he was not accepted by people who had perhaps been severely disabled their entire lives.

So, why am I talking about this? One, because I want you to realize I don't think everything is rosy because I focus a lot on the positive on this show. It's not that I'm completely naive and unaware of some of the problems that do exist. The only solution I can sort of come up to with this one is that we really need to be introspective. We need to take a look at ourselves. Do we make judgements about others based on the severity of their disability? Do we pay more attention or give more focus to people who are more severely disabled to the detriment of those who perhaps don't need quite as much, but still need something.

I'm also talking about this because I want you to know that I am responsive to your emails and I do care about what you have to say. I welcome your comments, positive or negative at any time.

Ok, now I want to get to a recording from our new contributor, Day Al-Mohamed, host of the Day in Washington podcast. I asked her if she would talk a little bit about the ADA Restoration Act. This seems to be a pretty divisive issue in the disability community. I'm a variety of mailing lists and listservs and so forth on disability issues and it seems to be that for every post or email I see saying what a great thing it is and we should back it and we should support it, I get another one that says, well, it's ok, but it's not that great, we've compromised too much and we should not support. In fact, one mailing list that I'm on sent me two messages in one day, two “call to action” types of messages. One was “Call to Action: Support this Act” and the other one was “Call to Action: Vote Against It”. So I've asked Day to just sort of give us the tun-down on it and what's going on and what does it say. And hopefully, however you feel about it, maybe this will help you know more about the issues so you can make up your own mind.

So, Day, thanks for recording this for me and let's see if we can learn something.

Day Al-Mohamed: Hello, this is Day Al-Mohamed from “Day in Washington” bringing you a Disability 411 policy update.

Life has gotten very exciting in Washington DC this year. The reason – the efforts to create a “fix” for problems with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Eighteen years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA was passed. If you think about it, this has been THE “Civil Rights Act” for people with disabilities. It promised an end to the exclusion and inequality for the 20% of Americans with physical or mental impairments – it has changed the way programs and services are provided, it has removed barriers to integration and inclusion into society; it has literally changed the very face of this country.

But the ADA the story doesn’t end there. In the 1990s, there was a series of court cases and Supreme Court decisions that have made it difficult and even impossible for individuals with certain health conditions to establish that they have a disability under the ADA.

People with epilepsy, diabetes, HIV, cancer, psychiatric diagnoses, and other conditions who manage their disabilities with medication, prosthetics, hearing aids, or other disease management strategies are basically, dismissed as “not disabled enough” to be covered by the ADA. The emphasis is placed on the qualification rather than on the discriminatory action.

In response, a significant portion of the disability community has been working to amend the ADA to bring it back to its initial intent.

The idea to amend the ADA has been around Washington for the last 4-5 years. In 2004, the National Council on Disability (NCD), the same independent federal agency that drafted the original ADA, published a report called “Righting the ADA”, which harshly criticized the Supreme Court decisions and gave recommendations on how to “fix” the ADA to and take care of the problems created by the Supreme Court’s interpretations.

Over the years there has been significant concern about “opening up the ADA” for fear that an unfriendly Congress would take away the rights available to people with disabilities. In addition, the legislative “fix” that was proposed only looked at two specific issues – the definition of disability and the concern of mitigating measures.

After much strategy discussion and back-and-forth about whether or not this was the best time to push for change, in the fall of 2006, Senator Sensenbrenner, with support from the disability community, put forward H.R. 6258, the ADA Restoration Act of 2006. It was proposed late in the session, and was really intended as a way to “test the waters” and see how Congress felt about the need to address the ADA problem. Considering that about 60% of supporters of the original ADA were still in Congress, the significant amount of evidence available showing how bad things had become in the court system, and the enthusiastic support of House Majority Leader, it seemed to be a good opportunity.

On July 26, on the 17th anniversary of the enactment of the original ADA, Representatives Hoyer and Sensenbrenner introduced H.R. 3195, the ADA Restoration Act of 2007. Disability advocates had been contacting congress and working to educate them about the problems with the ADA and it would seem that Congress listened - the bill had 143 original co-sponsors. On the same day, a Senate companion bill, S. 1881, was introduced by Senators. Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter. That number quickly grew to over 250 co-sponsors.

However, in addition to gaining supporters, the bill was also gaining opposition. Members of the business community and even some within the education community expressed concern that the changes suggested by the legislation went too far and would actually be a detriment to business. That the ADA restoration Act, far from helping people with disabilities would actually harm them because ANYONE would then qualify.

Right or wrong, whether you agree or disagree, those concerns resonated with Congress and there was considerable concern that legislators might be convinced to block or amend the bill in a way that truly would negatively impact people with disabilities. So, in early 2008 the disability community was strongly encouraged to meet with the business community and try to negotiate a deal.

The idea was to create legislation that both sides could agree on that could make it through congress. Negotiated bills generally tend to move forward faster and with wider support through the legislative process. However, they ARE a compromise, which means all sides are equally unhappy. After 3 months of negotiations between the disability community and the business community, the proposed deal language was drafted.

As I said earlier, the ADA is THE civil rights bill for people with disabilities. It is at the heart of almost all legislation relating to discrimination and people with disabilities – so it is also going to be probably the issue to bring out the most passion in the heart of any and all advocates for disability rights. This compromise legislation was not easy and there has been a lot of general unhappiness regarding it.

Let me be clear, the vast majority of groups do support this compromise bill and it is moving forward amazingly fast in Congress but initially, there was a lot of skepticism. Was the disability community giving up too much? Was it truly necessary to compromise with business? Couldn’t this wait until next year for a different administration? There were a lot of questions and on an issue that draws as much passion as the ADA, opinions can and did differ.

Never-the-less, even though there existed unease regarding the legislation, the disability community overall was willing to accept the negotiated bill and began lobbying Congress. What was interesting was that the lobby teams were of business and disability groups going to House congressional offices – together. I have heard from many, many advocates that that has NEVER happened before. Not even with the original ADA. And the response from the House offices reflected that. The joint teams were received positively and drew a lot of support.

Now remember, it was the House’s Congressional leadership that had originally urged both communities to work together. I have to admit, that although many groups were supportive of the compromise language, there was a lot of unease that this would work or even be a good thing for the disability community. On June 25th, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 was introduced as a replacement for the original H.R. 3195 which was called the ADA Restoration Act. The name change was to prevent confusion. It was then voted on in the House. It passed 402 to 17. I would have to check but I believe that is an even higher vote than the original ADA.

The bill is now in the Senate and the Senate is a whole different animal. This side of Congress has always preferred to do things their way. As a result, they again, would like to make changes to the legislative language. And again, there is a lot of uneasiness in the disability community. Are we giving up too much? What exactly does this mean? Is it not better to wait until after elections and try again next year? Every single word in the bill has been gone over and argued over. Every possible change, not just in the law itself, but also in the definitions, the report language and even the findings section…all of it to make sure that we aren’t doing harm to people with disabilities. But this is difficult to gauge.

On July 31st, the Senate version of the ADA Amendments Act was introduced in the Senate (S. 3406) with 57 original co-sponsors! It might seem that the Congressional leadership was correct in urging a compromise. Such strong support in both the House and Senate would seem to indicate that this compromise has a VERY GOOD chance of passing.

As to whether this negotiated deal language to fix the ADA was the right thing to do…whether the disability community should have stuck to their original ADA Restoration language and tried to push it through with the business groups’ opposition? Or whether too much was sacrificed for the compromise? Or whether the Senate changes really make a difference or not? All of that, in some ways now…to know if we were right or wrong…only time will tell.

It has been 18 years since the passage of the original ADA and I imagine many people look back and say, that was the way to do it. We did things differently then and we did it right. But I have no doubts in my mind that it was just as contentious, just as nerve-wracking…just as down-right scary when the original ADA was being passed through Congress. And the same questions and concerns were brought forward. Is this going to be enough to help people with disabilities?

Time will decide. But for now, the current language is out there and it is strong language and it will make a difference. It is moving forward quickly and those congressional votes, both in the House and Senate tell us that Congress is more than willing to accept it.

Personally, I’m something of a pragmatist. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or next year. I don’t know whether I’ll like whatever new language comes up next time or if the business community will support or oppose ADA changes in the coming administration. What I do know, is there is legislation on the Hill right now that has a chance of positively changing the lives of people with disabilities. That is something concrete I can hold on to and work for. There are no guarantees as to the future but I can do something about that legislation now.

I’ve looked at the legislation language, spoken with the legislators, seen the votes and continue to work with the groups, both business and disability. What you have, is the decision I came to (and a decision that I’m sure many other individuals and groups have made). But I think that a clear honest evaluation and decision is something each person is going to have to make on their own.

As to whether any of us are right or wrong…we shall just have to wait and see.

You can find out more about this legislation in the show notes.

Stay tuned for more policy updates on D411 or check out Day in Washington for legislative and disability policy.

Thank you.

Beth: Thank you, Day, for that overview. I hope that that clarifies a little bit of confusion in our listeners. As always, I encourage everyone to find out the facts, make up your own mind, and then contact your elected officails and let them know what you think. You can't complain about the government if you don't partake in it.

And with that, I'm going to wrap things up for today. This podcast, the fact that it has gotten finished in a minor miracle. It has suffered lost files, a tropical storm, a power outage, and now me losing my voice. I started recording this yesterday and I'm finishing it up today. It's taken me two days to record and I think we need to just put this puppy to bed before anything else bad happens!

So don't forget to check out our website at disability411.jinkle.com and email me if you'd like to volunteer for the podcast or with any comments, questions, anything, at disability411@jinkle.com. So until time, this is Beth Case with the Disablity411 Podcast.

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The Disability411 Podcast is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license, which means you can share our podcast, you just can't make any money off of it. Visit our website at disability411.jinkle.com to find show notes, past shows, and transcripts of all the episodes, as well as useful links, blogs and much more. Email us at disability411@jinkle.com. Music by the Brobdingnagian Bards is used with permission.