News & Advocacy in Disability Rights

The meaning of all the push and pull

By William G. Stothers

A recent series of contradictory events in our nation's capital have left me pondering the meaning of it all.

You may have heard about the Congressional hearing on H.R. 2020, the Medicaid Community Attendant Services Act, also known as MiCASA (See Newsline). It has drawn wide bipartisan support, including Speaker Newt Gingrich, who sponsored the bill, and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.

The Clinton Administration is lukewarm to MiCASA, although not too long ago, President Clinton told a person with a disability: "Get me a bill and I'll sign it." I guess it depends on the bill.

Eight years after the signing of the ADA, the federal Department of Transportation finally in March issued proposed regulations for over-the-road bus services; Greyhound is the big dog here. They're seeking public comment before making the rule permanent later in the year.

Comment of a sort came swiftly from the Congress. One day, one day, after DOT issued the proposed regs, House Transportation Committee chairman Bud Shuster and other members moved to completely exempt Greyhound and other over-the-road bus companies from the ADA.

Also in March, President Clinton signed an executive order creating a Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities. And legislative efforts began in the House and Senate to reduce disincentives that keep thousands of people with disabilities from even trying to find a job.

But wait a minute. What about the President's Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities? It's been chugging along for 51 years. Isn't it supposed to be doing what this task force is supposed to do? Tony Coelho, the current chairman of the President's Committee, was named vice chairman of the new task force, and a bunch of folks from his agency will be working for the task force.

I'm not sure this is a good sign. This task force, which isn't due to report until mid-2002, may accomplish something, but right now it looks like another bureaucratic exercise in paper and policy shuffling.

Meanwhile, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is rumored to be under another sneak attack design to discourage the Department of Education from issuing final regulations, or, if they are issued, to water them down substantially.

And, finally, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that centers on the definition of disability under the ADA and who it covers.

Yin and yang. Push and pull. Pass laws like the ADA, but drag out the issuing of crucial regulations that apply the law in practice, and waffle on enforcement or make it tough for anyone to seek compliance.

Let's face reality. Politicians are like the majority of people in society, burdened by stereotypes and negative attitudes toward people with disabilities. They went along with a well-organized campaign for civil rights laws like the ADA, but they didn't all necessarily like it.

In a new book, Claiming Disability (New York University Press), Simi Linton talks about the "enormous energy society expends keeping people with disabilities sequestered and in subordinate positions."

Hidden away in attics and basements, confined in "special" schools and segregated transportation, we have been assiduously screened from mind and sight. As Linton says, "The public has gotten so used to those screens that as we are now emerging, upping the ante on the demands for a truly inclusive society, we disrupt the social order. We further confound expectations when we have the temerity to emerge as forthright and resourceful people, nothing like the self-loathing, docile, bitter, or insentient fictional versions of ourselves the public is more used to."

Not only are we disrupting the social order, we are re-making the entire world. We insist on being included. Full membership in society. And we want as much access to the world as anyone else.

That means knocking down walls, stairs, curbs, narrow doorways, barriers to education, work, housing, play, whatever. Equal access and equal opportunity.

All this has erupted in the past 25 years. There is a deeper, richer history of disability, of course, but the explosion of disability rights around the world in the late 20th century is phenomenal. The audacity of this outburst for liberation -- and its amazing successes -- is truly staggering.

No wonder politicians give and take; they are ambivalent and under pressure from us and from those who would roll back the ADA and other access laws that spell money spent. The politicians don't quite understand people with disabilities or the full implications of our movement.

Most non-disabled people are confused as we shatter and throw off traditional expected roles. They are having a tougher time keeping us at arms length. Because we are embracing the world. It makes them nervous. Isn't it wonderful?

William G. Stothers is editor of MAINSTREAM.

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