The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

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Recommended: History essay on disability rights

The path to enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the history of the disability rights movement and its struggle to attain a better chance for equality not unlike other minority groups. The Disability community came to realize that the problem they were fighting was discrimination. The Disability community came face to face with some of the same problems and challenges that every individual who is in the minority faces. However, a disabled individual was not considered to be in a minority therefore could not be afforded the protections under the Civil Rights Act. A growing sense of unrest or change in mood galvanized and empowered the Disability community to fight for its civil rights. Federal laws that were enacted prior to the ADA gave precedent for giving disabled individuals rights as a minority group under the Civil Right Act of 1964 such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Fair Housing Act of 1988. The 60’s, 70’s and 80’s was a period of growth for the Disability movement building its way to comprehensive disability rights legislation in incremental steps.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) programs to assist the aged and people with disabilities. The thinking concerning programs like SSI and SSDI near the time of enactment of the ADA was that these programs created “disincentives” for the disabled to enter into the workforce (NCD). In fact in administrations beginning with President Nixon’s administration programs were targeted such as these for deregulation. President Nixon vetoed the Rehabilitation Act in 1972 and signed a weaker version of the Rehabilitation Act in 1973. It took until 1978 in the ...

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Gale Document Number: GALE|CX2687400149

“H.R. 2273--101st Congress: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.” www.GovTrack.us. 1989. December 1, 2013 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/hr2273

“S. 933--101st Congress: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.” www.GovTrack.us. 1989. December 1, 2013 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/s933

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and Labor. Legislative History of Public Law 101-336, the Americans With Disabilities Act: Prepared for the Committee On Education And Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1990.

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