The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 - Case Study Example

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is a legislation that was passed bythe US Congress, with the aim of achieving equal rights and opportunities for the people with disabilities in the USA (DeLeire, 697). Thus, the key focus of the law was to ensure that the people with different forms of disabilities were not only treated equally with the non-disabled people in terms of their human rights, but also that such people with disabilities would gain access to employment at the same level as the non-disabled people in the USA. Disabled people are faced by numerous challenges when it comes to accessing employment opportunities, owing to the fact that their primary disadvantage draws from lack of equal access to educational opportunities (Acemoglu and Angrist, 921). Thus, when they are unable to access educational opportunities like their non-disabled counterparts, the disabled people are subsequently disadvantaged when it comes to access employment and other socioeconomic opportunities, due to the limitation of both their physical state and their educational disadvantage. Thus, when the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was enacted and signed into law, the disabled got a new glimpse of hope that they would now be able to access opportunities equally with the non-disabled. This is mainly because the ADA prohibited any form of discrimination against the disabled people (DeLeire, 696). The ADA did not only offer for equal access to opportunities for the disabled in the USA, but also went a step further to require that special considerations and accommodations be made for employment and also for facilities accessibility of the disabled on all public institutions and buildings. Thus, 2015 being the 25th anniversary of the passage of the ADA, this discussion seeks to take the stock of the impact of the ADA on the lives of the people with disabilities in the USA, for the last 25 years. The first and critical aspect of evaluating the impact of the ADA over the last 25 years is on the issue of employment status. Among the major objectives of the enactment of ADA, was to give the people with disability an equal chance at employment, owing to the fact that people with disability had been discriminated in the workplaces for long (DeLeire, 694). There is no doubt that the passage of the ADA has had a positive impact on the employment of the people with disabilities. Thus, according to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 24.5% of the population of the people with disabilities in the USA has been employed, and out of this population, 22.7% have been employed on full time basis (usccr.gov, n.p.). This is a positive move that has been brought about by the implementation of the ADA, considering that it is not only the population of the people with disability that has been favored by the law, but also those with severe disabilities that could not have accessed any employment opportunities before the law was passed. Currently, this most vulnerable group of the society has been able to access employment opportunities courtesy of the provisions of this law, considering the fact that according to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 7.9% of the population with severe work disabilities is currently employed, with 2.7% of such population being employed on fulltime basis (usccr.gov, n.p.). Nevertheless, while the impact of the ADA as regards employment has been positive, most especially for the people with severe working disabilities, most of the studies undertaken to measure the effect of ADA in the employment of the people with disabilities have indicated that it has led to a decline in employment. For example, according to a Harris Poll released in 1998, the population of the people with disability that was employed in the United states was 29%, compared to 34% of the population of the people with disability that was employed in 1986 (usccr.gov, n.p.). This decline in the employment of the population of people with disability has been attributed to the passage of ADA, with most economic commentators observing that its requirements for employers to make special accommodation arrangement for the people with disability is making their employment more expensive for the employers, than the employment of non-disabled people (DeLeire, 695). However, this argument has been countered by other economic commentators, who observe that the 1990s are the years that were characterized by economic recession which hindered the employment of the whole American population, and also caused loss of jobs for some of the already employed population (Acemoglu and Angrist, 922). Thus, it cannot be argued that the ADA passage has caused the decline of employment of people with disability, but rather it has improved their chances of accessing employment opportunities. The other major impact of the ADA on the lives of the people with disabilities has been the increase in their access to public facilities, both buildings and transport means (usccr.gov, n.p.). The implementation of the ADA brought with it the requirements for designing of the public building and facilities of transport in such a way that they comfortably accommodate the needs of the people with disabilities. Consequently, almost 60%of the public accommodations, retail and commercial investment facilities have been designed tailor-made to meet the needs of the people with disabilities to have an easy access to the facilities (Acemoglu and Angrist, 927). Further, community integration for the people with disabilities has been greatly improved, considering that presently, the people with disabilities can easily and comfortably access restaurants, sports grounds, theaters, shopping malls and clothing stores. The effect is that it is now easier to have the disabled people integrated with the rest of the community and participate in the same forums as the non-disabled people, which is the a major improvement on the quality of lives of the people with disabilities (DeLeire, 712). The successful integration of the people with disabilities into the mainstream life of the society through enhanced accessibility to facilities such as hospitality, entertainment and leisure facilities does not only make the disable people feel appreciated as part of the society, but also helps to enhance their self-esteem and self worth (DeLeire, 696). Therefore, the implementation of the ADA has played an important role in enhancement of the quality of life of the people with disabilities in the USA, through increasing accessibility to facilities that they were normally unable to access before the passage of the law, not only through ease of access but also through creating their independence of movement (DeLeire, 693). Previously, people with disabilities required the assistance of others in order to access such public facilities, which did not only inconvenience them, but also lowered their self-esteem due to lack of independence of movement. Nevertheless, while the passage of ADA has had a significant effect on the improvement of the lives of the people with disability, it has not made as much progress in the area of making the people with disability more economically independent (DeLeire, 941). In this respect, while the general conditions of life and the environment for the people with disability to access quality life has been improved by the passage of ADA, the ever increasing expenses and costs of living, coupled with the difficulty of accessing employment for the people with disabilities, has resulted in the limited chances of the people with disability improving their economic conditions of life (Acemoglu and Angrist, 927). Further, for people with other disabilities other than physical disabilities, ADA has not made a major impact in transforming their lives, owing to the fact that the people considered as beneficiaries of the ADA are mostly people with physical and visible disabilities. Works Cited Acemoglu, Daron and Joshua Angrist. "Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act." Journal of Political Economy 109 (October 2001): 915-957. DeLeire, Thomas Charles. "The Wage and Employment Effects of the Americans with Disabilities Act." Journal of Human Resources 35 (Fall 2000): 693-715. usccr.gov. “Sharing the Dream: Is the ADA Accommodating All?” Chapter 2: The Effects of the ADA.” Web. April 14, 2015. Accessed: < http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/ada/ch2.htm> Read More