Disabilities Act and Mental Illness

We enjoyed George Will’s article about the Americans With Disabilities Act (Commentary, April 4), but perhaps a middle ground can be found.

When I was a young woman some agency of the federal government paid my psychiatrist for six months after I had a nervous breakdown. The object was to help me get to a state where I could hold down a job closer to what my education and abilities would merit. At the time I was working as a clerk at low pay while holding a degree in physics. At the end of the six months I was working at the National Bureau of Standards and could pay my doctor myself. (Thirty-six years later I was diagnosed as manic depressive.)

It seems to me that if this law can be used to get these disturbed and disturbing people some help so that they can learn how to behave appropriately and to solve some of their emotional problems, that would be excellent. However, to use it to try and teach their fellow workers how to accommodate them while leaving the disturbed ones in pain is ridiculous on its face!

HELEN D. BALDWIN

Torrance