I sent Joe the link again and asked why he didn't send the post to the list.
He wrote back briefly, saying that he couldn't get back on the list and had
no time to explain.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 10:12 AM
To: joe harcz Comcast
Cc: Penny Reeder; Charles Crawford
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Fw: ada not in my lifetime
Thanks Joe,
I sure wish you could get yourself back on Blind Democracy.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/27/15, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
insult against all PWD here.
----- Original Message -----
From: joe harcz Comcast
To: David Robinson NFB MI
Cc: terry Eagle ; Mark Eagle ; Darma Canter ; eleanor canter ; MARK
MCWILLIAMS MPAS ; Elmer Cerano MPAS ; Sarah Gravetti MISILC DNM ;
Rodney Craig MISILC ; BRIAN SABOURIN ; Laura Hall ; Scott Heinzman
ADAPT ; Norman DeLisle
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 8:24 AM
Subject: ada not in my lifetime
The ADA is not realized in my experience and especially in Michigan
which thinks, or its public officials think that they are beyond the
ADA and that includes the very agencies and other entities that should
and do "know better" but flaunt our civil rights while cashing
paychecks for perportedly abiding by our rights. That is absurd and an
enforced.
It is like the KKK running civil rights programs.
Joe
Former Sen. Tom Harkin discusses what is ahead for the ADA
BY
BRENT GRIFFITHS |
JULY 27, 2015 5:00 AM
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
The Daily Iowan Ethics and Politics Initiative spoke to former Sen.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, on July 24 about the background, legacy, and
future of the Americans
with Disabilities Act. Harkin was the lead author of what became the
ADA 25 years ago and has been honored by numerous organizations for
his advocacy on
behalf of people with disabilities.
DI: I spoke with Marca Bristo's, Access Living CEO and former head of
the National Council on Disabilities, and she told me that in her
opinion that the
ADA could not be passed in today's political environment. Is that
something you agree with?
Harkin: I do. We had celebrations all week this week and last week and
will continue on for a couple of days next week celebrating the 25th
anniversary
of the ADA and sort of looking back and seeing how far we've come and
sort of taking stock and seeing where we need to go to in the future.
A lot of the meetings I've been in with like [former] Sen. [Bob] Dole,
[R-Kan.] and [former] Sen. [Lowell] Weicker, [R- Conn.] Republicans
[former] Rep.
Steve Bartlett [R-Texas] another Republican - it was unique point in time.
First of all, we had a president of the United States that put his
full weight
behind it. In fact, when George H.W. Bush campaigned for president in
1988, he committed himself to this. If elected president, he was going
to support
a civil-rights bill for people with disabilities, and he followed
through on that.
So here we had the president putting a lot of his support behind it.
We had at that time a minority leader Bob Dole helping us on it. We
just had Republicans
and Democrats coming together to get this thing passed. I just think
that today that just wouldn't happen.
We had the business community opposed to it, but we worked with the
business community, and we got it worked out. So rather than the
Republicans saying,
"We're opposed to it, because the business community is opposed to
it," a lot these of Republicans said, "Let's work this out; we want to
get it done,
what are your objections?" They went right back to the business
community and said, "What can we do to make it acceptable?"
I think today if the business community came out opposed to something
like that, a lot of these people on the other side of the aisle would
say that's it,
we're not going to support it.
So we had conscientious people on both sides of the aisle, Republicans
and Democrats that came together. I just don't think that in the
today's atmosphere
the ADA could be passed.
DI: Do you think that any challenges or obstacles could rise up to the
ADA with the current political climate?
Harkin: Well, we're still having obstacles in expanding the ADA and
making it a reality. A lot of those are just inherent in changing this
vast system that
we have. I think we've overcome most of them. I think the law is
well-settled. Now, we have regulations coming out to enforce the ADA,
and that's where
the stumbling blocks might be in the future - that is as with any law,
you have to have regulations on how the law is to be implemented and
That'sworkforce.
usually when we run into problems with people not wanting to support
the regulations.
DI: There has been some push back from American Hotel and Lodging
Association and the motion-pictures industry [specifically the
National Association of
Theater Owners] to some of the most recent ADA regulations. Do you
foresee that happening more so down the road as the [Justice
Department] rolls out
more regulations?
Harkin: There probably well be, but every time objections are raised,
we find that it does not require much to comply with the regs. A lot
of it is just
an immediate reaction and in just about every case I have seen in the
past, once the business community adopts those regs and complies with
them they actually
do better in terms of their own bottom line - in terms of hiring
people with disabilities and employing people with disabilities. That
is the big challenge
of the future, jobs for people with disabilities. Understand this,
more than 60 percent of adult Americans with disabilities are not in the
mean.
That is just a blot on our national character - everything we are
doing now is to try to overcome that and to get more people with
disabilities in the
mainstream workforce of America.
DI: Do you need affirmative action type policy to overcome that?
Harkin: Of course. Take one example, section 503 of the rehab act.
[Rehabilitation Act of 1973], one portion of that, section 503, says
that government
contractors have to make sure they practice diversity in hiring - not
only including race, sex, and religion but also disability. But it did
not say what
they had to do - it was sort of there. And so all these years we have
been pushing to get a regulation out to tell businesses, this is what we
Withinsociety.
the last couple of years, finally came out with a regulation that said
that businesses that contract with the government should have a
minimum of 7 percent
of their workforce being people with disabilities. Now, there may be
some of exceptions to that depending on the size of the business, of
course, but that
is the floor. Since 20 percent of Americans are people with
disabilities, one of out every five, then the workforce in any given
situation ought to reflect
that. So 7 percent is not the end at all; it is sort of a floor, and
it should be as we go forward a heck of a lot more than that. That was
just one regulations.
And there are other regulations that people have to have
affirmative-action programs to make sure that they comply both with
the Civil Rights Act of
1964
but also the ADA.
Take an example like the Civil Rights Act; you can't discriminate
against people of color. Let's say you employ, let's use an extreme
example, let's say
that you employ 100 people, but in your pool, you only have one person
of color who works there. Are you complying with the Civil Rights Act
because you
have one person out of 100? Let's say you just have one woman; are you
complying with the mandate on no discrimination of the basis of sex if
you have
one woman? No. It has to be reflective of the cross section of our
employment].
It is the same way with disability. You can't say, "Well, I've got one
disabled person out of a 100. Well yeah, but 20 percent of the
American people are
disabled. You've got to do a little bit better than that.
DI: The [Rehabilitation] act only applies to government contractors
[and federal agencies, programs receiving federal money, and federal
Whatthat.
do you think is best to do in terms of trying to get people with
disabilities hired by private employers?
Harkin: First of all,getting private employers to follow the lead of
some companies that are doing a very good job of employing people with
disabilities.
Walgreens, for example, has a tremendous affirmative-action program to
hire people with disabilities. And it is doing it. It has a goal of
hiring at least
10 percent of all people at all of its stores will be people with
disabilities. I visited a Walgreens distribution plant in Hartford,
Connecticut, a couple
of years ago; 40 percent of the people that work there were people
with disabilities. Forty percent. And the CEO said, "I don't do this
out of the goodness
of my heart," he said, that this is my most productive distribution
center in America. Other companies have to start looking at this and
understanding
that sometimes the best workers they will ever get are people with
disabilities.
Again, there is always the backstop of legal action.
For example, if I'm a person with disability and I go down to apply
for a job for which I'm qualified. Now, I always want to make sure
that this is well
understood. Neither the ADA nor I ever asked an employer to hire
someone who is not qualified for that job.
You meet all the qualifications. They may have to make some minor
modification to the workplace.
So you are a person with a disability and you apply for a job for
which you are qualified and you don't get hired - you might want to
take that case on.
The courthouse door is open.
DI: What are your thoughts in terms of making the online marketplace
more accessible and what role do you feel the government should have in
closed.
Harkin: Well, it's interesting you would ask me that, because I'm
calling from Google's headquarters here in Washington. And we just had
a breakfast with
people with disabilities and people who have been advocates in the
past. I said this not only to Google but to others, information and
communications technology
is going to be a big growth area in the next 25 years - it's huge. The
platforms that are designed for both the Internet and the intranet in
companies
have to be designed from the ground up to be fully accessible to people.
Google is basically taking quite a good lead in this area. It asks for
ideas and
suggestions about what it can do. To me, that is one of the key
elements to getting more jobs for more people with disabilities is
adaptable technology.
Sometimes, a workplace can use technology to make sure that a person
with disability can work there - using technology to get their job
done, for example.
Information and commutations technology can be the gateway to mass
numbers of people with disabilities being employed in the future that,
but the Internet
not designed from the ground up to be accessible; that gate could be
That is why it is so important for these high-tech companies to beginand 30s:
to think
about what their platform design is like.
DI: You spoken a lot with, and in the Senate, talked a lot about the
ADA generation. Do you see people in that generation stepping up and
filling the shoes
of those who made the ADA possible?
Harkin: Oh sure - that is why I am so optimistic about the future.
This ADA generation that grew up under the ADA, they are now in their 20s
they've
gone to school and through higher education, college graduates. This
morning I was with the young woman who was the first deaf woman lawyer
in America
and she is African American. These young people, let me tell you, are
not going to take a back seat. They are going to continue to push
these frontiers
of employment, accessibility and adaptability. One of the young women
here this morning was Maria Town, and she works at the White House.
She was in charge
of putting on the whole White House celebration on Monday. There are
persons with disabilities that are in key positions. There are going
to be business
leaders, social-type leaders and government leaders in the next 10 to
20 years, and they to will send powerful signals to younger people
about what is
possible. I just think this whole new generation they are going to
take the Americans with
Source:
Disabilities Act to a new higher level.
http://www.dailyiowan.com/2015/07/27/Metro/42627.html
