"True Accessibility" is NOT Just About being ADA-Compliant!!!


	It may be "ADA-Compliant" ... but how accessible is that place for You?

Illustration: A woman calls a restaurant to make sure it will be sufficiently accessible for a disabled family member.
How "Accessible" is That Place?

Being "ADA-Compliant" does not guarantee that any particular store, or restaurant, or doctor's office, or church, or other facility will be sufficiently accessible to accommodate your particular disability.

However, it doesn't guarantee that it won't either.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) defines general standards of accessibility. Under this Act, Federal Law requires that all public facilities, including retail businesses and professional offices, be fully compliant with ADA specifications now.

The ADA is a Civil Rights Law, and a conviction for failure to comply with the ADA could result in a fine of $55,000 for the first offense — and $110,000 for each subsequent offense — if the ADA is enforced strictly.

However, many places are not "ADA-compliant" now, and some of those may not become ADA-compliant for a long, long time – if ever ...

So there is NOT any "one size fits all" answer.

The Most Important Question —
Will That Place Be Truly Accessible For You?

Maybe your particular disability doesn't require that you limit your travels to "fully-accessible" places that provide ADA compliance in all respects. Since people's individual disabilities tend to vary considerably as to both nature and degree, official "ADA standards" may be more stringent than necessary to accommodate some people's disabilities – or not stringent enough to accommodate the disabilities of others.

Currently the folks at the ADA are not strictly enforcing many of their requirements, because over the years they have come to realize that strict compliance with all the provisions of the ADA could be prohibitively expensive - or impossible - for some businesses and professional offices. Instead, they simply encourage non-compliant businesses to make gradual changes to improve accessibility as they are able.

The ADA folks call this their "readily-achievable barrier removal" policy.

"Readily-Achievable" Barrier Removal:

We're always glad whenever we see Government shun the heavy-handed tactics that have become far too common in recent years. However, while this policy certainly eases the immediate burden for businesses, and will gradually improve things for people with disabilities, it doesn't help people with disabilities to feel very confident OR safe right now, because they know — or soon learn — that barrier removal at some places may NOT be "readily achievable" ... or that some business owners (or their employees, or their landlords) really don't care about trying to accommodate prospective customers who don't fit the "norm."

For many people with disabilities, a simple shopping trip can be a fearful — and potentially dangerous — adventure unless they already know that their intended destination is going to be sufficiently accessible ... for them!

Without the information that Disabled Americans need to navigate to wherever they want to go, America's grand promise of "equal opportunity" is an empty promise ... for them!

BarrierFreeChoices helps fulfill America's promise by gathering and providing detailed consumer information that disabled Americans (and their families) need, in a practical, objective and usable format that helps to level the playing field for all Americans.

But achieving "Equal Treatment" doesn't always happen overnight:

When the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed by Congress and signed into law in 1990, it was heralded as a major legislative victory for America's largest minority group. The ADA was the first Civil Rights legislation in the World for people with disabilities. And the ADA has helped many of us who are disabled to achieve a greater measure of "equal treatment" since it became law.

However, like any other Civil Rights legislation, the ADA does have its deficiencies when viewed from the standpoint of those whom that legislation was intended to benefit. And sometimes achieving a true measure of equality can take an extremely long time indeed.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
— Quote from "Animal Farm", by George Orwell (published in 1945)

Here are a few quick historical examples that illustrate how long it has taken for several other so-called "minority groups" to achieve a greater measure of equal treatment in America:

Example #1: The Women's Suffrage Movement

Today it's hard for us to imagine a political system that excluded more than half of America's population. But it hasn't been that many years since America's women won the right to vote, through passage of the U.S. Constitution's Nineteenth Amendment (1920).

Depending on whom you ask, or which history book you read, the Women's Suffrage Movement began in America in 1848, or perhaps it started in 1637. So it either took 72 years, or 283 years, for Female Americans (actually not a "minority" at all) to finally gain their voting rights. Here are a couple of interesting timelines:

Timeline excerpt from A History of the American Suffragist Movement, by Doris Weatherford.

U.S. Suffrage movement timeline 1792 to the present.
from the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership, University of Rochester.

Example #2: The Black Civil Rights Movement

Most people regard America's modern Civil Rights movement for Black Americans as having begun with the 1954 Supreme Court decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" which overturned the 1896 ruling in "Plessy v. Ferguson". However, the civil rights movement began long before 1954, and it's not over yet. Here are some more interesting timelines:

From FactMonster.com, Civil Rights Timeline 1954 to 2005.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's Guide to Black History includes a comprehensive timeline that begins some 1700 years earlier, during the second century after the birth of Christ.

So how long has all this been going on for Disabled Americans? After all, we're America's largest "minority group" (about 22% of the U.S. population in 2009), comprised of people of all races, nationalities, sexes, and ethnic backgrounds. When did our struggle begin?

For most individuals with disabilities, their individual struggle for independence usually begins the moment they become — or realize that they are — "disabled" in some way.

Example #3: The Independent Living Movement

In our Barrier-Free Planet section, accessible from our Main Website's Navigation Page, you will find a wealth of resources that discuss the modern history of the Independent Living Movement. Here are a couple of quick histories of that movement that you might find of interest:

Around 1982, Maggie Shreve, a consultant for independent living centers, wrote A Brief History of the Movement for Independent Living, which discusses the role of disabled people in society going all the way back to Ancient Greece.

In 1988, the Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL), University of Kansas, published Chava Willig Levy's People's History of the Independent Living Movement. Written two years before passage of the ADA, this document traces the modern-day independent living movement back to the 1920's.

Compromise vs. Confidence:

So why does civil rights legislation (like the ADA) take so long, or only partially succeed, in achieving its intended "equal treatment" goals?

Because in the final analysis, almost all legislation requires some degree of compromise. And compromising on what one instinctively senses should be a basic human right doesn't tend to instill a high degree of confidence in the "system."

Creating (or amending) any kind of Law inevitably requires compromise. This is especially true of Civil Rights legislation. As Congress (or any legislative body) tries to create new laws to help any particular group of people, they also must try to avoid stomping too hard on the rights of other people.

Legislators often walk a tightrope, trying to "do the right thing" while also trying to make sure they get re-elected. Consequently, they must attempt to weigh the needs and wishes of each of the various special-interest groups that may be affected by proposed legislation, and try to strike a balance that will more or less satisfy everybody somewhat.

The result of this process is usually pretty good "common sense" legislation, even though it doesn't give anybody everything they want, and probably never will.

So the only way disabled consumers can truly feel safe and confident is to have as much reliable and uncompromised information as possible available beforehand so they will know whether a particular store or restaurant or medical facility will be accessible – for them.

BFC Can Help Provide the Reliable and Uncompromised Information You Need

BarrierFreeChoices helps locate facilities that are accessible for the majority of the disabled population. We provide detailed consumer information regarding each of the facilities that are listed with our service, which can save you days of research and frustration. Each facility we approve (such as an individual restaurant, retail store, etc.) has been carefully researched and pre-screened for a variety of accessibility factors.

However, you must always be the final authority in determining whether a particular facility will meet your specific accessibility requirements.

Develop Your Own "Personal Accessibility" Checklist:

Spend some time thinking about, and making notes on, exactly what building features and/or services you might need that will make a particular place accessible for you. Your relatives and close friends can probably help with this project, because they have been around you in various situations, and their familiarity with your particular disability should enable them to provide you with practical insight.

Then make a personalized accessibility checklist. Print out several copies of your personalized checklist. Then, armed with that checklist, you can call ahead — before you go — and ask them specific questions related to those accessibility factors that will be necessary to accommodate your particular disability.

That way, you can be sure that a specific place you want to go will be truly accessible for you!

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