SANTA ANA : Leader of Disabled Praises New Law

Within 20 years, Orange County and the rest of the United States will be changed dramatically by recent federal legislation that will do for the disabled community what the Civil Rights Act did for minorities, the national director of United Cerebral Palsy Assn. said Friday during a visit to the organization’s Santa Ana office.

A powerful expansion of rights for disabled people--the Americans With Disabilities Act signed into law last summer--strengthens anti-discrimination laws in the workplace and will require almost complete equal access to public transit by 1995.

“The ADA is a profound law,” said Jack Kemp, who became the first disabled person to head the Washington-based group in June. “For people with disabilities, this is our very first major civil rights legislation.”

On his first visit to the West Coast since being appointed executive director, Kemp said Orange County compares favorably to many East Coast cities in providing access to buildings and transit systems.

But from coast to coast, the attitude toward disabled people in the job market remains “a tragedy,” said Kemp, who was born without arms or legs but is mobile through the use of artificial limbs.

Of the 30 million adults in the United States who are disabled, about 10 million “are willing and able to work, but are unable to do so because of the barriers that discrimination puts in front of them,” Kemp said, citing statistics compiled by the United Cerebral Palsy Assn.

Overall, 25% of all disabled people live at or below the poverty level, compared to about 10% for the non-disabled, he added.

“That is offensive for any group of people in the country,” Kemp said, although the new federal law “will change the way America treats people with disabilities.”

The Americans With Disabilities Act not only puts explicit anti-discrimination laws into effect, but also requires employers to adapt working conditions to accommodate their disabled employees. Businesses with 25 or more employees must comply by July, 1992, while firms with 15 to 24 workers have until July, 1994.

The legislation requires all buses and rail cars ordered after Aug. 26 to be handicapped-accessible and existing rail systems must have one accessible car on each train by July, 1995. New train and bus stations must be handicapped-accessible and Amtrak has until 2010 to bring its public facilities into compliance.

New standards for accessibility to public buildings were enacted and telecommunication systems also must make access easy for disabled people.

A disabled rights advocate since his graduation from law school in the mid-1970s, Kemp said he helped push the Americans With Disabilities Act through Congress.

And now that the laws are in place, work must continue on the “attitudes toward people with disabilities in this nation,” he said. “We have a whole lot of educating to do.”