Another Bush Offers Help for Disabled

A decade after his father signed the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act, Texas Gov. George W. Bush on Thursday outlined an $880-million, five-year plan to further improve the lives of people with handicaps.

The proposals rely heavily on technology to allow people with disabilities greater freedom at work, home and school. They include low-interest loans for individuals to purchase computers and an increase in government funding for the research and development of so-called assistive technology.

Although the ADA has helped the disabled to make great strides and “old attitudes are passing away,” Bush said, “our goal now is clear: to speed up the day when our country has removed the last barrier to full, independent, productive lives for every person with or without a disability.”

Bush gave the speech--at 12 minutes, likely his shortest policy address to date--at an organization that serves the disabled, where he was surrounded by men and women in wheelchairs.

It was his first campaign stop after a five-day working vacation at his family’s compound at Walkers Point on the Maine coast, where he jogged, fished and strategized with his advisors about the upcoming Republican National Convention.

The disability speech also was the main news event of a three-day fund-raising trip, during which his staff projects that he will bring in nearly $5 million in hard and soft campaign contributions for the Republican National Committee and the party organizations in Maine, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Ohio and Florida.

“Soft money” refers to the largely unregulated and unlimited campaign contributions by individuals, corporations and labor unions to political party campaign committees. “Hard” dollars are contributions to federal candidates that are limited to $1,000 per election from individuals and $5,000 from political action committees.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president said he fully supports the disabilities act, which banned discrimination against the disabled, “and I am really proud that it was my father’s signature that made the law become reality.”

Because of that law, he said, America is now a more hospitable country for the more than 70 million men, women and children who rely on walkers and wheelchairs, guide dogs and hearing aids, medications and personal attendants to help them with the basic activities of daily living.

“But the banning of discrimination is just the beginning of full participation,” he said. “Barriers remain. There are steps we can and should take to remove these barriers.”

Bush’s plan would also provide funding for small businesses to help them comply with the disabilities act and would support improved access to polling places for people with disabilities. And he would provide $10 million in matching funds to help organizations that are exempt from the federal act--such as churches and civic groups--to make their facilities more accessible.

Sid Wolinsky, director of litigation for Disability Rights Advocates in Oakland, lauded the candidate for raising the issue of access for people with disabilities but said the proposal falls far short of what is needed.

“All the emphasis on improved access to technology is essential and is absolutely a step in the right direction,” said Wolinsky, whose legal advocacy group will soon release a survey showing that computer use among people with disabilities is half that of the general population.

Bush’s plan “recognizes there’s a need but it doesn’t begin to address the depths of that need nor to fashion effective solutions.” One area that the plan does not address, Wolinsky said, is the more than 70% unemployment rate among working-age Americans with significant disabilities.

Douglas Hattaway, spokesman for Bush’s opponent, Al Gore, said the vice president and the Clinton administration have already supported and enacted a variety of measures aimed at improving the lives of disabled people, including a package of regulations they call the disabilities act “for the information age.”