Used and abused: the ADA today

By Brian Bard

Now that the ballyhoo behind the silver anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act has died down, please allow me (with considerable regret – believe me) to voice this uncomfortable truth: The ADA, landmark legislation though it is, capable at any turn of protecting the rights of people with disabilities, continues to spawn negative consequences.

As Dr. Ronald Meinert and Francis K. O. Yuen noted in their book, “Controversies and Disputes in Disability and Rehabilitation,” the ADA trivializes real disabilities by the inclusion of marginal ones. The book is available at Amazon, but it’s expensive. You can read the first chapter for free on Google books.

Let me speak to my own experience as a quadriplegic for the past 29 years – humor me if I call it a “real disability.” The first thing I notice anywhere I go, anywhere, is that I usually can’t get an accessible parking spot for my van with a wheelchair lift. Those nice wide spots are usually taken by folks who seem to walk just fine. Oh wait: They have invisible disabilities, right? Well, some do, but for so many others “invisible disabilities” are just a convenient excuse. The ADA says that anyone with a permit can take these nice wide spots even if the spot is marked “Van Parking.” The ADA doesn’t worry about wheelchair users who are forced to park without accessible spots.

As a vocational rehabilitation client and counselor, I also have noticed a change in VR customers over the years. There are now emotional disorders including a behavioral disorder for students who refuse to listen, and I was skeptical when athletes came in with learning disorders and all their parents wanted was tuition for college. I’ve heard them recite their child’s rights under the ADA more than once.

Now perhaps most egregious of all is when people with what I consider a marginal disability take non-competitive state or federal jobs (https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employment/hiring/) because of their disability. There are people out there with real disabilities who need these non-competitive jobs; instead they have to compete with people who could do other jobs.

Let’s face it: The ADA gets used and abused by selfish people and through frivolous lawsuits. In Wenzlaff v. Nations Bank, someone filed in a U.S. District Court for protection under the ADA based on pregnancy. Isn’t reproduction participation in a normal life activity? (I have two children – I’m pretty sure it is.) But wait: In Bragdon v. Abbott, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that infertility is a disability! Which is it? Come on: Some conditions are not disabilities, especially if they’re temporary in nature or if they are completely ameliorated with treatment or medication.

The ADA has given people with disabilities their long overdue rights. But for selfish people without real disabilities (you know who you are) who wish to take advantage, the path is well worn. For people with real, challenging disabilities needing assistance, sorry: Resources are dwindling and the line is getting longer … each day, and with each lawsuit.