Bush Initiative Targets Barriers to the Disabled

President Bush on Thursday announced a major new effort to integrate more people with disabilities into the workplace and society with the latest tools that technology has to offer.

Using a combination of tax incentives, low-interest loans and grants, the $1-billion “New Freedom” initiative would expand access to an array of “assistive technologies.” These include text telephones for the hearing-impaired, infrared computer pointers for those unable to use their hands and lighter artificial limbs and wheelchairs.

Bush said he also will ask Congress to create a fund to help people buy telecommuting equipment and provide tax incentives to encourage businesses to provide such equipment.

“We must speed up the day when the last barrier has been removed to full and independent lives for every American with or without disability,” Bush said during a White House ceremony.

The president’s proposal also has a tie-in to the major theme of his second week in the White House: encouraging faith-based organizations to expand their social services, in part by making the groups eligible to compete for federal funds.

Bush’s proposal would make federal funds available to help churches, synagogues and mosques meet requirements of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, which exempted such entities. The act was signed by his father, President George Bush.

The president also intends to seek additional funds from Congress to escalate research and development of “assistive technologies.”

In unveiling his proposal, Bush did not put a specific price tag on it. But Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, told reporters later that Bush’s campaign proposal would serve as “a good rough guide.”

During the recent political campaign, Bush said that his “New Freedom” initiative would cost $1.025 billion over five years.

Bush’s plan was warmly hailed by advocates for people with disabilities, including liberal Democrats such as Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), both of whom attended the East Room event.

“This is great stuff,” a beaming Harkin said afterward. “I’m very impressed.”

Alan Reich, president of the National Organization on Disability, added:

“Having the president address our concerns in such a comprehensive way early in his administration augurs well for the one-fifth of the population who live with disabilities.”

And as he has during many of his public appearances since taking office on Jan. 20, Bush displayed his crowd-pleasing skills.

For starters, the stage in the East Room was unusual in that it had a ramp to accommodate the three people in wheelchairs who shared the platform with the president.

Instead of using the traditional stand-up podium, Bush sat at a lowered podium--a symbolic show of solidarity with his guests.

Before he spoke--also while sitting down--the president greeted Jim Mullen, a Chicago policeman who was left a quadriplegic after a 1996 shooting, with a kiss on the cheek. Then Bush bantered with Mullen’s 4-year-old daughter, Athena.

The president and Mullen met during the campaign.

After the event, Bush waded into the crowd of several hundred guests. “Kennedy!” he barked at Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.).

When Kennedy began to introduce his wheelchair-bound colleague, Rep. James R. Langevin (D-R.I.), Bush brushed Kennedy off, saying: “I know who he is!”

Bush, a man who does not hide his emotions, clearly was moved by the event.

“I am proud that the last great reform in this cause, the Americans With Disabilities Act, bears the name of my dad,” he said.

According to the White House, there are an estimated 54 million Americans with disabilities, and their unemployment rate is about 70%. Their home ownership rate is in single digits.

Bush also signed an executive order to create a National Commission on Mental Illness Treatment Services, with a goal of improving the availability and delivery of services.

Earlier in the day, both he and Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. There, the president made another pitch for his faith-based charitable giving proposal.

“Government cannot be replaced by charities, but it can welcome them as partners instead of resenting them as rivals,” Bush said. “The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end.”