Law helping people with disabilities

One day in the 1980s, Marshall Mitchell, who has used a wheelchair since a diving accident in 1968, had a layover in Dallas. As Marshall waited for his connecting flight, an airline employee asked him if someone was traveling with him. Nope.

Well, slight problem, he was told rudely. The employee who helped Marshall transfer from the airplane’s narrow “aisle wheelchair” to Marshall’s regular wheelchair hurt his back. So Marshall was stuck in Dallas until the airline could find another employee to assist him.

Two years ago, Marshall flew through Dallas again. The lift to carry him and his chair to the door of the small commuter plane was broken. Airline employees apologetically offered Marshall hotel accommodations during the repairs.

The first airline incident happened “Before ADA.” The second happened “After ADA.” ADA stands for Americans with Disabilities Act. It took effect 12 years ago this summer.

Marshall, a column regular, teaches disability studies at Washington State University. To mark the upcoming Labor Day holiday, Marshall gave out letter grades measuring society’s response to this landmark legislation. The ADA requires equal opportunities for people with disabilities, especially in employment.

Let’s start with the good grades. Transportation garnered an A- from Marshall. The folks who run our nation’s buses, trains and airplanes have done a good job accommodating riders with disabilities. Every fixed bus route must also provide a door-to-door system for people with disabilities. If you are plugged into the system in your hometown, you can use it anywhere. Before ADA, Marshall and others paid ridiculous sums hiring accessible vehicles in the cities they visited. Now it costs about a buck.

“It’s a huge difference,” he says.

The public accommodations section of ADA requires accessibility in restaurants, stores, movie theaters, recreation facilities and other places people go in the course of daily life. Marshall gives this a B+. Concert halls no longer ghettoize into one area people with disabilities, assuming they’ll automatically bond because they use wheelchairs. And restaurants are much better at offering menu assistance for those who are blind.

Hotels and motels built spacious rooms for people with disabilities, but most contain only king-size beds. So when Marshall, 52, travels with an aide, he often can’t find rooms with two double beds. And an extra hotel room is expensive. “The law says you should have the same choices as everyone else,” Marshall says.

The employment section of the act prohibits medical exams as a condition for employment. It protects those who are disabled as well as those who are regarded as disabled, such as someone with a facial deformity. It also protects those who are associated with a person with a disability, such as a father whose chronically ill daughter will cost the employer a lot in health-care expenses. And ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations so that people with disabilities can do their jobs competently.

Marshall gave society’s compliance with the employment section a C-.

“We’ve done very poor in this department,” he says. “The courts have made people jump through hoops to prove they have a disability. You don’t have to prove you are black or a woman if you are being discriminated against.”

Marshall shared the example of a worker who got carpal tunnel syndrome from the repetitive motion of working on a factory assembly line. She asked for a job that didn’t require extensive use of her hands. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that she wasn’t truly disabled because she could still use her hands for everyday activities, such as brushing her teeth.

“The court has interpreted the law in ways that have weakened its impact,” Marshall believes.

Marshall and I know that business owners who groan under the red tape necessary to comply with ADA might disagree with Marshall’s report card. Let us know.