Ruling Is a Blow to Disabled but It’s Also an Opportunity

In the wake of last week’s Supreme Court rulings on disability law, both business and disability spokespersons must reexamine their hostility to change. The court, in a review of three disability-related employment discrimination cases, has dealt a blow to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. But, at the same time, it may be an opportunity for progress.

The response of business groups to the decisions has been elation, while some disabilities spokespersons have taken the near-hopeless view that any success in Congress will be reversed in the courts.

But what exactly have the disabled lost? President Clinton recently confirmed a 12% increase in unemployment among working-age people with disabilities since the vaunted 1990 law. The administration has made the legislation toothless by not enforcing it. Yet disabilities spokespersons nearly universally have opposed modification of the law to increase its effectiveness, fearing that any change would weaken it.

The disabled make extremely good points: the need for a strong civil rights statute, business’ unreasoned opposition to the law and the destructive role of the conservative domination of the courts. Discrimination against some people with disabilities continues nearly unabated. And the deep poverty of millions of disabled people is de facto discrimination against their participation in society.

But agencies and lobbyists representing the disabled have refused to consider the concerns of many that the definition of disability is too expansive and could endanger the fiscal stability of both the public and private sectors. The professionally disabled--those who make their living from the existence of the disabled--have consistently promoted the expansion of the definition of who is to be included among the disabled and entitled to protection and benefits.

They ignore that many people want to be seen as disabled when there is a material reward for being defined in that way. They contend that the courts will deal with false claims, so business need not worry. But they forget just how many resources must be invested in fighting groundless claims. That is what strikes fear into most businesses.

These spokespersons also forget that when they demand that everyone be entitled to protection under the ADA, no one will be protected. Worse, those with severe disabilities will be pushed out of the way by those people with minimal or nonexisting disabilities who are often in a stronger position physically and financially to sustain a fight for privilege.

A good parable for the tragedy of the law is the way disabled parking privileges have evolved. These special parking privileges mainly have become the province of the well-off, the less-disabled or apparently nondisabled, who are in a better position to own vehicles and have cooperative private doctors who will sign the necessary papers. It is infuriating that so many people getting out of cars in the scarce wide spaces intended for the severely physically disabled appear perfectly able. Those with severe disabilities who are fortunate enough to have a vehicle often find themselves in the far edges of parking lots looking for two adjacent parking spaces to diagonally park, so that they can lower the lift on their vans.

The message is clear: Unless the government defines and enforces the definition of disability and who needs what privileges, any right or program will be perverted and those who most need the services will be the last to get them.

What the Paralyzed Veterans of America in Florida have done may be instructive to the formulation of future rights. It has managed to define disability to emphasize the original intent of the laws: to increase the mobility of the severely disabled.

The disability community should see the genuine blow to all disabled people perpetrated by the Supreme Court as an opportunity to hone the Americans with Disabilities Act into a law that will benefit those who most need protection, and to enforce a refocused act more intensively. Self-governing, grass-roots organizations must be revived on the obvious theory that no law will ever be effectively enforced without the power of organized citizens.

The business interests and their conservative puppets in the courts must stop viewing every attempt at leveling the playing field for the disabled as a blow to their solvency. Millions of working disabled persons would mean more business and lower taxes.

Unless the American people demand that no one be left out, the horrendous unemployment, poverty and undereducation of disabled people, particularly those with severe disabilities, will continue to challenge the moral claims of this alleged land of opportunity.

MONDAY: The picture doesn’t look much brighter on the horizon.