PROGRESS?

In July of 2025, the Americans With Disabilities Act turned 35 years old and there were a bunch of posts all over the place celebrating this landmark legislation that made it possible for wheelchair users like me to have ramps so I can get into buildings that have heavy doors that I can’t open, and elevators that don’t work.

The law (ADA) made it necessary to have large restroom stalls in public bathrooms with doors that don’t swing open, get jammed, and have toilets really far away from toilet paper. It’s awesome. The law made it possible for me to use curb cuts that have potholes, broken pavement and angled that require the flexibility of a Cirque du Soleil performer.

Have you noticed the Braille on the inside of elevators or on ATM’s at the bank drive-up? I’ll be blind people love it. It must be like a scavenger hunt. Deaf people must not need to explain what they need on the job, since the ADA came into law: I have worked with several deaf colleagues, haven’t you? Many wheelchair users in your workplace? Ahh, the Americans With Disabilities Act changed the landscape.

In all fairness, it did….In 1990. Now, in 2025, society has confused compliance with accessibility and we have led the majority of humans to believe that both of these concepts mean equity. The law did some great things when it was passed, but now….it’s up to us to do better.

I met a gentleman last fall at a conference about improving air travel for wheelchair users. He works for Boeing and is a very smart guy. I’m stealing his words for my next few paragraphs. His name is William Harkness and he writes:

“The ADA was designed as a corrective tool, not a design principle. It responded to discrimination; it did not systemically prevent it. It offered a legal mechanism to request access, but not a universal standard that guaranteed it. As a result, the country has spent thirty-five years retrofitting ableist infrastructure, rather than building systems that expect and embrace human diversity from the start.”

Nailed it. When I read that, I was reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King saying that it’s useless if all of us can sit and be served at the same lunch counter, but some of us still don’t have enough money to afford a hamburger.

It doesn’t end with the ADA; think about how many voices, debates, arguments, and votes are taken before any laws can be passed. I have learned that THEN the fun begins when we try to figure out how to implement and enforce them. That’s one law at a time…..the system that we have created in society is also all over the place. You know this…..try and get a permit to add on to your house….or obtain permission from people in power to cut down a tree that stand next to a lake……even better, just for fun, try to CALL the IRS. See how far you get. Sludge? Sure, I wrote about that, but how about we steal from my friend Mr. Harkness again?

“The broader legal landscape for people with disabilities in the United States is a maze of fragmented statutes. The Air Carrier Access Act governs air travel. IDEA covers education, but only up to age twenty-one. The Fair Housing Act applies to multifamily construction, but not single-family homes. Section 504 applies only to federally funded programs. Section 508 governs federal websites but excludes private digital platforms. The Telecommunications Act applies only “where readily achievable.” Voting access is managed separately. None of these laws operate together. None speak a common language of accessibility. Instead of a unified rights-based framework, we have a jurisdictional patchwork, where your legal protections depend entirely on where you are and what service you’re trying to access.

Even when these laws apply, they often operate reactively. ADA Title I requires “reasonable accommodations,” but never defines what “reasonable” actually means. Enforcement is complaint-based. There is no proactive audit. In the workplace, Deaf professionals are often provided inconsistent or unqualified interpreters through third-party agencies. There is no mandate for continuity, no performance metric for effective communication, and no accountability for disruption. ACAA allows airlines to remove passengers from their own wheelchairs and place them in aisle chairs, still treating mobility devices as luggage. IDEA ends with adulthood, creating a cliff where services simply disappear. Websites are accessible only if challenged. Access is always contingent. Usability is always an afterthought. And participation is still viewed as an exception rather than an expectation.“

Harkness makes strong arguments. So can we do?

First, we stop thinking and saying that the ADA is the greatest law in the history of disabled people. It was…..35 years ago. We don’t need individual compliance or more fines, we need a society where ALL of us are included because it is the right thing to do. I used to tell my students: “The world needs all of us. It needs all of you. You don’t even know why yet, since you are still young, and that’s the exciting part. The canvas is blank and the future is unwritten. One of you in here may become the person who first walks on Mars. One of you may cure a disease, become a CEO and support hundreds or thousands of people who work for you to realize a shared dream. One of you might be an architect who designs some kind of building that doesn’t leave a carbon footprint. One of you might become an electrician, and revolutionize some part of the gig that no one has thought about. Many of you will have kids. What will you teach them about other people and society? What do you want others to value? It’s all ahead for you.”

Accessibility is not just the handicap button outside the door that is set too high for me to push while I am sitting in my power chair. Maybe it’s raining outside while I sit and try to push the button AND make it inside before the door closes on a timer……but maybe it doesn’t have to be that way.

It changes when enough people want it to. Think about how heavy that door in the public space is next time you pull on it. Why did we build it like this? Ask your company why more disabled people don’t work there. Keep your eyes open. I need to know that you are observing the world and learning who is systematically being left out. Don’t even get me started on the fact that many of our elected officials have encouraged division among us all. Maybe that’s next week’s blog.

Stay safe, stay awesome, and stay included.