ADA Blog: From ADA to Here 28 Years Later
by Dr. Timothy Miles
What have we really achieved in 28 years of far-reaching fights for legislation that secures our rights to equal access to all goods and services like those enjoyed by our non-disabled counterparts? Sure, we see a few stores with automatic doors to allow us in to shop, but how do we maneuver a wheelchair through a narrow aisle? How do we navigate an aisle with misplaced goods, ladders, utility carts and stacks of boxes that drastically alter our pathway of travel?
Some of these places are still unwilling to provide a personal shopper, which leaves us to either fend for ourselves or to purchase expensive equipment or phone applications that will assist us with shopping.
Why do we still have to worry about how we will be assisted by a service provider if the receptionist doesn’t acknowledge that we are standing there? How about the times when you need to fill out forms before you are seen and they say, “We don’t do that” or “We’re not able to take the time out to assist you” or “Can’t you bring someone with you?” Some of us will just choose to take our business elsewhere. Others of us, however, are compelled to sit and suffer in sickness or in sadness because of an unwillingness of said entity to accommodate us.
Who holds the professors accountable when they refuse to meet the reasonable accommodations for a student to complete a class? Sure, there are disability access services in many of the colleges; but it seems as if they continue to have the habit of stepping in when the damage is done. What happened to “no one left behind?”
It is evident that we cannot legislate attitudes. We can, however, educate minds and shape those attitudes and those perspectives to increase the acceptance of people with disabilities in even more aspects of society. I challenge you, my colleagues, to chime in with answers to build a meaningful agenda through advocacy and education. After 28 years of slow progress, let us all continue to work together to help justice reach its peak for people with disabilities.
Dr. Timothy Miles
Triangle Disability Awareness Council (TDAC)
[email protected]