This election, we are seeing a lot of buzz about how the disability community has finally “broken through” and is being seen in electoral politics. This statement certainly isn’t false. During the Democratic National Convention, we saw Anastasia Somoza take to the stage and represent the fierce disability advocates that fight for our rights daily, and former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin teach the crowd the American Sign Language sign for “America.” We’ve seen campaigns like #RevUP by the American Association of People with Disabilities and #CriptheVote take off, bringing attention to the disability community’s policy priorities.
Anastasia Somoza’s Democratic National Convention Speech
The one thing that we’ve seen pop up again and again in mainstream media is the clip of Donald Trump mocking disabled reporter Serge F. Kovaleski. We’ve seen it in television ads, we’ve seen it at the DNC, and we’ve seen it for a good reason: it reinforces the fact that Donald Trump has not been kind to the disability community and has resorted to mocking one of its members.
However, with this clip being played over and over again, it has led me to wonder how much mainstream media and those who are not disabled know about the policy priorities of the disability community. True, we want to be respected by our potential political candidates, but what are the substantive issues that affect the over 58 million disabled Americans and their families?
I’ve decided to lay out just a few important priorities here which will not serve as an exhaustive list of the many interests within the disability community, but will help nondisabled Americans to acquaint themselves with our interests. The three topics I will be covering today are the Disability Integration Act, ADA Notification Bills, and ending subminimum wages.
The Disability Integration Act
The Disability Integration Act, or DIA, is one of the most important pieces of legislation that is currently in the interest of the disability community. How important is it? When the DNC released their 2016 national platform that did not have language supporting the Disability Integration Act, fierce activists from the grassroots disability rights group ADAPT continued to fight for inclusion of language that would support the rights of people with disabilities who require long-term care to live in their communities instead of institutions such as nursing homes. While this language is not an explicit endorsement of the DIA, the inclusion of this language affirms a commitment to the right to community-based services and supports.
The Disability Integration Act was introduced by Senator Charles Schumer to Congress on December 18, 2015. It is a fundamental piece of civil rights legislation for the disability community, as its passage would prohibit discrimination against “individuals with disabilities who need long-term services and supports.” Under the DIA, states and insurance providers would be required to first pay for home and community-based services, and to offer to pay for home and community-based services for people who currently reside in institutions or nursing homes. This means that it will be easier for disabled people to get the care they need without ending up in institutions, segregated from the larger population, that strip them of their freedom to live an independent life.
It is recognized within the text of the DIA that when disabled people are impeded from living in the community and instead housed in institutions, their civil rights are negatively impacted and they are placed in isolation and segregation. Passing the DIA is an essential protection and affirmation of the rights of persons with disabilities to choose independent living and to be provided the home and community-based services that make it possible.
Preventing Passage of ADA Notification Bills
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) just recently celebrated its 26th anniversary as perhaps the most important piece of legislation for protecting the rights and affirming the equality of disabled Americans. The ADA makes discrimination against persons with disabilities illegal in jobs, transportation, education, and other public arenas. While discrimination against the disabled is illegal, the creation of the ADA didn’t magically make all inaccessibility disappear. Take buildings, for example: although new construction is required to be accessible and in compliance with the ADA, buildings that were created prior to 1990 didn’t all necessarily get rid of structural barriers. Under the ADA, when there is a structural barrier in place that negatively impacts a person with a disability, a civil action can be filed against the business that has violated the ADA’s public accommodation requirements.
However, there are three bills, known as ADA Notification Bills, that will weaken the ADA by limiting people’s power to file a lawsuit against businesses that have violated the public accommodation requirements:
- H.R. 4719: Correcting Obstructions to Mediate, Prevent, and Limit Inaccessibility Act (COMPLI Act)
- H.R. 241: ADA Compliance for Customer Entry to Stores and Services (ACCESS) Act of 2015
- H.R. 3765: ADA Education and Reform Act of 2015
All three of these laws are slightly different but have the same underpinnings: when someone with a disability encounters a structural barrier that qualifies as a violation of the ADA’s public accommodation requirements, prior to filing a civil action, they are required to send a formal, written letter to the business owner that specifically identifies the barrier, and then wait a designated time period (such as 90 days) to see if the owner will take steps to remove it themselves. If the owner does not remove it, or identify plans to remove it, only then will they be allowed to sue.
These laws would weaken the ADA by implementing lengthy waiting periods on persons who wish to file a lawsuit alleging a violation of the ADA’s public accommodation requirements. This means that if a person is physically barred from entering a business, something that has been illegal for 26 years under the ADA, they would now have to provide a specific written notice and wait for months in hopes that the owner will finally take action before they could use the power of the ADA to pursue justice.
Ending Subminimum Wages
Did you know that it is legal for some companies to pay workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage? Under the Fair Labor and Standards Act of 1936, Section 14(C), it is legal for companies to obtain special wage certificates to pay workers with disabilities a lower wage that would be determined by production benchmarks. This law has been used for decades by sheltered workshops that legally segregate workers with disabilities. Workers in these programs are rarely transitioned into fully integrated work, with only around five percent ever being transitioned out of these programs and into competitive employment.
Employees with disabilities have been exploited and mistreated under this law, as employers may disregard the importance of proper job matching, which undermines an employee’s ability to produce at the same level. In one example, a blind worker employed by Goodwill Industries earned around 3 dollars for nearly 25 hours of work because she was given visually-oriented tasks, like hanging clothing. Research has shown that workers with disabilities who are employed under these wage certificates are not properly trained to transition to better-paying work, and being deprived that training undermines their opportunities to perform to the best of their abilities.
Around 420,000 workers continue to earn subminimum wages under Section 14(C), a law that was created in the 1930s, when disabled people were considered to be charity cases and their capacity to work was underestimated. Legislation such as the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act, H.R. 188, would phase out Section 14(C) over a three year period, during which employers who benefited from these certificates would be required to create programs that would transition workers of any disability to competitive employment. The phase-out approach of this legislation ensures that workers currently employed under these programs would not be jeopardized by the possibility of abruptly losing their employment, and would ensure that they would be properly trained and supported so that they can achieve true meaningful employment.
Disability Policy Priorities
These three policy priorities are far from the only issues that affect the disability community. There are so many issues of interest to the 19 percent of the population that has disabilities: transportation, employment initiatives, health care, Social Security, and so much more. Like the rest of America, we are diverse, we have diverse interests, and we intend to show up at the polls in November to make our voices heard.