Transcripts For CSPAN3 Americans With Disabilities Act 27th Anniversary 20170820

Of the ada, past, present, and future. President George H W Bush signed the americans with disabilities act into law on july 26, 1990. That was 27 years ago. The ada was one of the First Federal civil rights laws, focused on protecting persons with disabilities and against discrimination and public accommodations and services and telecommunications. I am especially proud to hide the commissions role in the commission of that law. The disabilities focus and legislation in a 1983 report titled accommodating individual responsibilities. A former staff attorney with the commission of who was one of the primary authors of the report , described his job as statistics, social scientific, literature, legislation, legal commentary on the status of people with a disability in American Society and in the law. In conclusion of the report was society has tended to isolate and segregate people with disabilities and despite that progress discrimination , continues to be a serious and pervasive social problem. As i expect to hear in a few minutes, the council followed with a report that related to the americans with disabilities act in 1990. Before we hear from our speakers, i want to take a point of personal privilege to note how very grateful i am to those commissions, to congress, and to president george h. W. Bush for the gift that is the ada. My brother has cerebral palsy. We lived with the discrimination that before 27 years had no records. As much as as well federal compliance with the law is a , i share one story to celebrate why we are as a nation, so lucky. That is thanks to the ada. A handful of years ago, my brother was a teacher entered a contract to take an overseas teaching position. He prepared his life for an overseas move for a few years until the final skype meeting days before, he was to get on a plane for the new job, somebody witnessed my brothers disability, and quickly said to my brother, the company does not take disabilities of any kind, not get the job. In the u. S. , we couldve moved quickly to educate about the law and the students would have benefited from my brother. But the americans with was applied act here, not abroad. My brother moved on, and those kids learned from somebody else. I am lucky to live in a country with these laws. Thank you for all those present today who worked to make it a reality and work to make its promises real in the lives of americans. We are so grateful today to have with us two speakers who will bring with them their own history and the movement for disability rights. Our first speaker, john is a career federal government lawyer with more than four decades of experience across administrations, beginning with the Nixon Administration and continuously thereafter through 2011 when he left federal government. He served as the department of justice chief technical experts during the writing of the ada. Then chief author of the department of justice in 1991, and created the doj b o. J. s technical and in charge of the ada, overseeing the department of enforcement efforts. He was responsible for the first major revision of the apartments and thecluding the 2010 chief author of the First Federal regulation of title iv and 1973. I had the pleasure of enforcement for 3. 5 years and i thank you. As a member of the u. S. Delegation to the united nations, he assisted in that coverage in all rights of persons with disabilities and provided training and guidance , and continues to work on the international level, assisting countries with disability rights laws. In 2010, he was honored with the president ial distinguished rank award for Exceptional Achievement in his career. He received a ba from Trinity College and mba from harvard. And a jd from Georgetown University law school. Our second speaker, rebecca served as the executive director of the National Council on disability, which like our counsel, is an independent advisory on issues of National Disability policy. She joined the National Council in 2013 after serving for four years at various government agencies, including the department of education, and at the white house, where she oversaw diversity and inclusion methods. Currently, she is consulting with civil rights organizations. Rebecca has a long history of advocacy, including working at the institute for Educational Leadership for five years, building resources designed to empower and educate youth with disability is in their adult allies. In 2013, she was inducted into the inaugural class of the disability coliseum and recipient of the frank harkens memorial award. Rebecca has a ba in politics from the university of california, santa cruz. Before hearing from our turn to ourwant to chairman. Thank you, madam chair. Good morning. I had the pleasure with my special assistant of working with our great staff to organize this discussion. So, i would like to add my welcome to our very distinguished speakers today, and thank them as well as a chair for sharing your stories, as we celebrate the 27th anniversary of the passage of the americans with disability act. As well as the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the u. S. Commission on civil rights which is one of the reasons we started the series. I would like to thank mrs. Coakley for sharing her expertise with me and my special assistant over the past two years to make sure our Commission Hearing secluded the voices of people with disability is. Ies. When signing the americans with disabilities act, president George H W Bush said it would ensure people with disabilities are given the basic guarantees for which they have worked so long and so hard independence freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity into the rich mosaic of the american mainstream. The National Council on disability, which ms. Coakley helped to lead played a pivotal role in formulating what would become of the ada and continues to ensure that americans with disability with disabilities have powerful voice. As of the chair mentioned, we are very proud of our commission in the formation of the ada and our report accommodating the spectrum of individual abilities that helped to lay the groundwork. We have sent issued several reports examining and recommending solutions for the continuing challenges that americans with disabilities phase. And currently, our staff is preparing an investigation for next year will examine the disproportional impact of School Discipline policies on students of color with disabilities. The organizing around this passage of the ada make it clear that the rights of persons with disabilities is a human no is a human and civil rights issue. One of the leaders who made that point very clear. The ada has greatly improved the lives of millions of americans , fostering public understanding of individuals with disabilities as allowing access to Public Services and demonstrated the and thence, positive impact that people would disabilities can make in our communities. It is the model for the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, which sadly the u. S. Has yep has yet to ratify. It is important to learn from history to celebrate the progress we have made and recommit ourselves in sharing every person is able to pursue their dreams and fulfill their full potential. As the chair noted, america is an amazing country because we are willing to acknowledge where we fall short, i continue to strive to live up to our founding principles. That is why todays commemoration of the ada is important to all of us, and thank you. Thank you. We will start with you. Good morning. And thank you for inviting me to join you in the celebration of the ada. I am honored to be here with you all today. To give asked me historical perspective. Since i lived through much of this, i will try to do that in 15 to 20 minutes instead of two hours to three hours. I will start, let me start my perspective in the 1980s. We will start a little farther along. The consensus was developing that persons with a disabilities ,id not have the same federal civil rights protections that other people in the country had, that africanamericans had, that women had, that people of color, ethnic minorities, persons whose first language was something other than english, had protections that people with disabilities did not. Congress had enacted title five of the rehabilitation act of 1973, which included section 504. Beginning to be a recognition that it was only a good first start. The problems were that coverage was linked with the receipt of federal funds, so coverage may vary from year to year. A Fire Department would get a grant one year and would be covered and then no protection for nondiscrimination in the next year. Also, there were large parts of the american economy, especially the business community, they did not receive federal funds. So there was not total coverage sectiontion 500 04 and unfortunately, there had 504. Been really spotty enforcement of the law by both the federal includedt and groups, disability Rights Groups. As a result, even in the 1980s, the picture for people with disabilities was bleak. There were very few assessable buildings. We learned there were almost no accessible Public Restrooms in American Cities with little accessible housing. Employmentvery few opportunities, and we had a lot of people who were segregated institutions. Factors and trends were starting to change the public dynamic. I would like to focus on a couple of them. One of them was their change one of them was the change brought about by returning veterans from the war in vietnam. Because of advances in medical technology in the field, people, veterans with disabilities were returning who did not make it through earlier wars. These are people who came back to our country and had become disabled fighting for the country, and want willing to and were not willing to accept secondclass status of people with disabilities in the country. In one of the hearings, testimony from a gentleman from long island who was a vietnam vet, who was disabled. His Rehabilitation Program included swimming. Unfortunately, there were no pools ande pulls no designs to make them accessible in his area. Another factor and a very important one was the impact our laws on education had had including in 1960, congress enacted the educational of the handicapped act and now it is called idea. And it required a free appropriate Public Education in a mainstream environment for children with disabilities. The impact of that law in our society was profound. Because it brought about integration of children with disabilities with their nondisabled peers. But it also created a generation of students who were being educated. Some have high school diplomas. Some had certificates of completion. But they were already to enter American Society. And to continue their education, get jobs, and do the things their nondisabled peers were doing. Another trend that was happening , people with this abilities saw how womens groups and africanamericans had organized to achieve their rights, so they adopted the tools and models of these movements, whether it was organizing for social action and protest. Whether it was going to members of congress, or to the executive branch to present their cause, or using the media as a way to get their message out that they were there and they were facing discrimination. Factor that is important we had a series of laws that protect people with disabilities based on a different paradigm. Based on the idea that people with disabilities needed our help, so we had rehabilitation services, vocational education, and income support from social security. It was those series of loss, so we were used to using law to solve the problems of our society. But starting in 1958 was the architectural we started to enact some laws that dealt with a different paradigm that people would disabilities are individuals with rights, and that we had to pass laws that enforce these rights. We were not doing that because we were good, but we were doing it because humans had basic human rights. About in 1968, the first version of it. ,here were a series of laws title five of the rehabilitation act, which included affirmative action. The federal government established the access board, credit section 504. Created section 504. There was an act apply to airline travel. In 1980, we amended the Fair Housing Act to include this ability go provisions include this ability disability provisions. There was a civil rights restoration act in 1988 that expanded the reach of activity for the coverage of section 504. The Important Message was, people would go to congress and use law as a way to address their grievances. Another factor and important one was the work of the commission on civil rights and the national on this s. Ility doe benedict issued a report only on about the history of discrimination they had issued a report about the history of discrimination. We have the report accommodating the spectrum of individual disabilities from this commission. It really made clear that concept maker the concept that disabilities is a naturally occurring concept of the human condition. These reports really provided the basis for what would become the aba. There was another report that came about in 1988 that was interesting. It was a response to the epidemic. Done that hadt some 400 recommendations. But it had 10 chief recommendations, and one of them was, they needed to be a lot to protect people who are hivpositive. Needed to protect their rights and privacy, but also to stop discrimination against them. And report said, the civil rights bill shouldnt single out people who are hiv, but should be comprehensive and deal with all people with disabilities. Another thing in 1988, we had a president ial election. Here is one should not underestimate the power of a promise made in a campaign. You may remember in 1980, Vice President george h. W. Bush was running for president. He was attempting to establish his own credentials and to separate himself from being Vice President for eight years under president reagan. He had a long history of working people with disabilities during the time of his vice presidency. At the beginning of the reagan administration, there was an attempt to look at federal regulation come and see it was burdensome, and review it. There was a task force on regulatory relief and reagan asked bush to chair it. At the time, there was an attempt to get rid of the section 504, and get rid of laws and education. So, that brought Vice President bush and his Legal Counsel into contact with the Disability Community. Over that time, i was involved in the process of issuing section 504 regulations, both for federally assisted programs. We became involved in a negotiation between Vice President bush, the Disability Community, and the department of justice. A created a working relationship that made Vice President bush comfortable enough when you was running for president to say that he wanted to issue a law. That came that Campaign Promise became important to him. The most important factor is that this ability if the Disability Community themselves. They were well organized in the 1980s. They were organized a bistate. Justin was a leader at the time it went into every state in the country and work with people with disabilities and to have them develop what he called, divers and to skim and eight and. Wrote down what discrimination they faced. When the ada was being considered, justin brought these diaries and presented them to congress. Of so, congress had a sense what the nature of discrimination is on a state level, at a very personal level with people at disabilities. It led it let Congress Know that discrimination was widespread. Organizationof the i would like to give a shout out to, is pam, the leader of the Disability Community, and became known as the general, title she loved. A title she loved. What was important about that movement is that it was a cross disability movement. Groups banded together. Scope the cohesiveness was essential in getting the ada passed. At one point during the ada process, there was an amendment to strike people who are hiv positive from the bill. The Restaurant Industry was trying to get that done. And that this ability and the disability groups banded together and said, you cannot pick us apart. We will stand together and the letterill cover those hiv will cover those that are hivpositive, or we will not support the bill. I was involved with the meaning with the congressman with them Disability Community, representing the white house, and the covers many expressed doubts about some future of the bill. By that afternoon, peta had gotten flooded with calls from his district from disability please dont have that view, was demonstrated the and thetional muscle need for legislation and his own state. The last thing that i will mention is economics. Congress was aware of two things. The cost in the federal budget for income support with people with disabilities, and the waste of Natural Resources of people with disabilities. We are not being educated or part of the economy. Why spend days of dollars to keep people unemployed . Support, youcome could not work. Many of the people who got income support wanted to work. This was a disconnect. The legislation was viewed as something that would benefit the , having themt become taxpaying citizens. In the long run, it would improve the nations gnp and help the federal budget. I would like to talk about three ideas behind the ada that made it work. There was parallelism, comprehensiveness, and immigration. I apologize for all the latin words, i am a lawyer. Simple one, a the idea behind the ada was simple, give people with disabilities the same protections that everyone else had. It made what seemed to be a revolutionary bill, really and evolutionary bill. And the main thing we looked at as a Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title vii covers employment. Who have 16ployers a more employees. Ok, we did the same thing with the ada. It requires eeoc to become the agency that looks into complaints and would look into that for the ada. Definition of discrimination with some with the disability . There were over 100 504 overations there were 100 504 regulations, and they had language for people with disabilities. Republican members of congress but a sense of security and saying, ok, we understand these concepts and will include those in the bill. So, the next idea, comprehensiveness the idea behind the ada was to open up American Society for people with disabilities. You have to have, if you are want to transform American Society, it has to be comprehensive. Many nondiscrimination in employment to get a person a job. If they have a job, they have to get to the job, so you have to cover transportation. If they have a cabinet want to participate in american life, they have to be able to enjoy the same things that other people do, like going to the theater, going to bars, doing their own shopping. So you have to cover the private sector fairly broadly. Want them to be active citizens, you have to ensure that state and local governments are involved. The bill must address all of these aspects of society. The bill was so massive, that in congress, in the house, i have five hearings because of every jurisdictionsad over american life. The senate only had one. Concept integration goes without saying when you are dealing with law. Peoplemore important for with disabilities because we had a history in this country of isolation and segregation. The report 1983 gave evidence to that. Integration people with disabilities in all aspects of American Society was important. We have had the experience of the idea, and saw the impact that educating children with disabilities together with their nondisabled peers was important in society. The bill was going to have a Significant Impact on business. That was a concern to a lot of people in congress. Provision employment part of the bill, this one dealt with American Business they not have the size, exclusion provision, or a grandfather provision. Showed ifl analysis you have that kind of requirement, you would eliminate most American Businesses from coverage. There were also talking about parallelism, public accommodations. Giving people with disabilities the same protections. Fore were still concerned Small Businesses. And there were a couple of things included in the bill. One of them, and these were things that came from 504 and Supreme Court decisions in the 1980s. One was nothing in the bill would be allowed to create undue burdens, which is defined as difficult or expensive. Nothing that would require a fundamental alteration in any business covered by this. There were cost limitations part of the bill, except for the new construction requirements. That there were study say making a building accessible would only cost one half of 1 , the most to make the building accessible. If you are having a door wide enough to allow person with a filter to come in, is it a design issue are a cost issue . That is why that is in there. Another concern was with lawsuits. That is much on peoples mines with the ada. The Bush Administration was concerned about limiting lawsuits under the ada. Ada does that. It does not allow for and suitsry damages brought by people with you only get attorneys fees if you win your lawsuit. The idea behind these was, and these were similar to the so, there taken, and were put in place to limit the ability, or to take away the fear that lawsuits would be the main thing that motivated the passage of the ada, but it still about people with disabilities to have an independent access to the federal courts, to get relief, to change their lives. Similar to the way two things i will mention, and i think they were very important. One was technical assistance. The ada was the first law passed that put an obligation on enforcement agencies. Agency with enforcement responsibilities to provide technical assistance, which was to give information to people with disabilities, businesses, the general public about what a lot of wires. About what the law requires. Large Assistance Project in the beginning. We got a call from a hotel owner, and he said, did you people pass a law of their . And i said, why . Said, someone with the wiltshire came in and said that places are said that required to give people in will chairs the best place at the cheapest price . [laughter] in a separate piece of legislation, congress established the ada national network, which is still in operation today. They are there to provide people with free advice on how to comply with the ada. , we knew thatwas businesses were going to have to spend money to make themselves successful to make themselves accessible, whether it was making the front entrance of a Small Business accessible, and they were going to have to incur those expenses. There were not federal programs in place to give them money, so the idea was to change the tax that hadhat businesses those, could get a tax break. There were tax credits put in tax would be incurred by the general public to do this. As aears later result of all of these concepts, the bill passed with huge bipartisan majority. 40320 the senate, and in the house. That is really mindboggling to think. I will conclude by saying something about the success of the ada, because in my estimation, it has transformed american life. Accessible at our transportation systems, our educational programs, the changes to health care and especially for people who are deaf, who had no access to the Health Care System before the changes brought about by the ada, the revolution incurring an Accessible Information technology, the removal of warehouse persons into their community, and the idea that people would disabilities should be able to live with their family and friends and their own committee and live independent life and make their own judgment. But the most satisfying change for me that i have seen is at the personal level because this is really about persons with disabilities. And i am talking about a change in attitude. Social science will take that one of the most important parts of barriers are attitudinal barriers. Stereotypes create president ial assumptions create assumptions that people would disabilities internalize. And people with disabilities have come to their own worth. People withas disabilities have come to play, live, and work, these prejudices are tumbling down. View andcipation in my every american life, has brought about a sense of selfworth for people disabilities. That is one of the most unsung achievements of the ada. Thank you for allowing me to go and i wishs history, happy birthday to the ada. Thank you very much. You for inviting me to discuss an issue that put me in the seat today. Thank myike to copresenter who i love dearly. Lie, i said toto please call john, please call john. [laughter] the congressman, john, are the reasons i am setting sitting in front of you today. They sent me on a path that put me on this path. As we talk about the 27th anniversary of the ada, and the 60th of his wonderful commission , i hear disability rights are human rights. Dwarfism. That comes with rights and protection under the law. 80 of people with disabilities today grow up in households with no other disabled people. No other expectations of what could be in their lives. I am not a part of that 80 . Both of my parents were Little People. They were the only Little People in their families, but my dad ran a center for independent living in the bay area. And my mom ran a Student Center at a community college. I was birthed into this. Was a part of our familys culture as us being irish. I grew up watching aunts and uncles getting arrested, fighting for my fathers right to access a public bus to go to work. Momew up and watched my three years before the ada be denied tenure at a college she love so much, the college that gave her her start education because she could only read the bottom six inches of a chalkboard. I went to a junior high were my guidance counselor was able to get his job because of section 504. He was a veteran from the atomic weapon lost his legs in an explosion. Running my own 504 meetings from the first time i met him. Isaac, nice to meet you, you are in charge. My parents who are super rightsy,ve and civil my parents were actually shot, they said, what . Three years when i walk into high school, the guidance counselor looked at me and said, im sorry, just like you dont go here. And that was three years after the ada was passed. Said there is a high school for four feet, redheaded Little People around here . I did not know that. When i think about the importance of the ada and the role it has had for all generations, but for what we call the a degeneration, the first generation of americans , thedisabilities to go up first generations where you really had this vacation of where you really have the expectation of really getting a job. With braille on the door and an automatic pushbutton. There is so much further to go. Even sitting here today in this hearing, we have seen evidence of that. In the conversation of sex trafficking before, i thought it was a powerful conversation around the discussion of posttraumatic sex push a minute stress disorder posttraumatic stress disorder. When they try to Access Services they need, what are they entitled to under 504 because of ptsd diagnosis . When they go to work, do they understand their rights and responsibilities under the ada to access those accommodations . Because those people are our people. Those are my people. As the people we think about every day in the work we do. Those other people that i have thought about when i was running the National Council on disabilities. Theyre not a single policy today that does not impact people with disabilities. Currently, as i think about one ofe go from the ada, the big issues that think about of the civil rights of parents with disabilities. I am now a parent. My husband and i have two wonderful children. A sixyearold and a threeyearold, both of whom have endless amounts of energy, and are africanamerican children with disabilities. And they are proud about having disabilities. They know their mamas a little person just like them, and they know their dad has a vision this ability. They have to always think about moving stools out of the way, or they have to him grumble about the Little People that live with him. [laughter] children solely on the basis of a disability. Not on the basis of behavior, or an incident of concern, the childs safety or the parents safety, but solely on a disability. We have heard about a mom with dyslexia who says to the pharmacist, can you please read the directions for this medication into my phone, so when i get home, i can play it back and be able to give much of medication . Cps andpharmacist calls says that they think the mother is unfit. A father who uses a wheelchair, throwing a ball for his son in the front yard. The ball rose into the street. Wheelchair tois the little boys hands, and the neighbor sees and says, what is a car came out of nowhere . Call cps and have a child taken. This happens on a daily basis regardless of the type of this ability. We have been fortunate enough to see strong guidance come out at hhs from our colleagues at the department of justice saying that we need to take the ada into account when it comes to childcare issues. We also see this and adoption giving parents the rights to adopt. And we really do need to see as we go forward, better training for judges, social workers, people with decisionmaking abilities throughout the child and the Services Process on how to engage with people with disabilities. Resources that are provided through groups by through the Looking Glass in the bay area and the disabled. Parenting project. What good is it if you are told of the American Dream is accessible to you, but you cant have kids and you want to have kids . Another issue that we continue to see a significant need to work on his tie to the engagement of Law Enforcement. That roughly 50 percent of those and it was killed by Law Enforcement have a disability of some type. But at the same time, we dont exactly know what that number is, and we talked about the importance of data. It is another piece where data is critical. We talked about in the Disability Community is the desire to see because the act to include Data Collection around disability, so you can get a better hand on what that number is both going in, as well as tracking the number of people who acquired disability as a result of a police shooting. We also really need some hard numbers as it relates to the provision, the request, the denial, and the removal of accommodations while in police custody. We hear far too often about being denied interpreters after being arrested. As we have seen the protesting around the country, people with this ability does remote people with disabilities remove from their wheelchairs. There was a case where a woman has not been able to get her wheelchair back because Law Enforcement has not given it back and she cannot go to work, cannot parent, on a livelihood because she cannot get out of her damn house, and that is not acceptable. We need to see Actual Community engagement between people with disabilities, the communities they live in, and Law Enforcement. We talk about profiling, looking at the role of geographic profiling. E there eaf are there deaf schools in the area . I give a lot of credit to organizations helping we are doing the work when it comes to supporting and defending people currently incarcerated with disabilities. Groups like that Harriet Tubman collective who have been very outspoken on this issue. I look forward to the fact that my colleagues across the street at the National Council on disability will be releasing something this year. Hope you guys are watching because i will hold you to it. [laughter] on Police Violence on people with disabilities. As the mother of a sixyearold and a 3yearold, both africanamerican children with disabilities, i am incredibly conscience of the fact that my sons tenacity, righteous indignation at injustice, and desire to literally talk everybodys here off while in tearing at six, will be looked at far differently when he is 16 years old. I remember talking to reverend yearwood at the hiphop caucus he reminded me that we are not , talking about her having a direct impact now, but impacting jackson when he is 16 and being mindful of that. We are thinking 10 years down the road to the world being a safer place. They are the future of the disability rights. John and i were talking about this earlier. This movement was significantly different than the movement that i grew up in. When i was at the white house i had the pleasure of cohosting the firstever joint forum on lgbt people with disabilities. Data coming out of europe tells us roughly between 12 20 of autistic youth also identify spectrum. N the we talk about what happen the student expression of gender identity is written into their iep that they can not express their gender in the way they wish to because it is a disciplinary issue. We also convene the first forum on issues facing African Americans with disabilities. My brother in this work asked what is it me to be young, gifted, black and disabled. A young man said it needs the minute i leave for school, have to constantly worry about how i act. I have to control every part of disability so that i do not get shot by police, or smothered like the little boy in the gym mat at his school. He is nine years old. His concern should be about who he will play with that recess, or the fact that he does not like his school lunch. It should not be about whether or not he comes home at the end of that day. As we continue to talk about the importance, and im thrilled to see the commission working on disproportionality and discipline in school settings. This continues to highlight the true intersection between race and disability. Immigration is also a disability rights issue. We know disabled people and their family moved to the u. S. To access Better Services for their kids and themselves. We also know a large number of personal support Service Providers are immigrants. The immigration conversation is null and void unless you have disabled voices at the table. There are folks carrying on the fight today. You see it in the news pushing back the attempts to roll back the key provisions of the Affordable Care act or if we are we are continuing to hold the line on the ada. I refer to this as the Public Policy zombie. The ada information and education act rearing its ugly head in congress again. And on the state level in a number of places. You would really like to leave the world a better place for your children better than it was growing up. I cannot imagine my children having a harder time growing up than i did. Then my parents generation did. We have the fortune of having three generations of disabled americans. My mom grew up before 504 and the ada. I grew up with both of those things. I dream my children will grow side of jackson to see opportunity to teach in another country, he does not have to worry about that discrimination. I really encourage all of you to continue doing the work you are doing. It is critical now more than ever. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and speak. Thank you for your presentations. Very grateful for them. I will open the conversations to my fellow commissioners for questions and comments. Thank you. I will kick this off. Thank you for reminding me about cap right. Pat wright, she was a marshal, not for the disability, but i can tell you she marshals all of us. And was very much a part of working to make sure the traditional civil Rights Groups were very much part of the movement under the leadership of ralph. It is a good memory to have. I wanted to explore the issue of the opportunity to work, and your assessment of how far the ada has come. I do some diversity work with corporations to i was pleased to see that Many Companies when you talk about diversity inclusion, they are thinking about generally race and gender. Now actually they are including people with disabilities, and really trying to think through, how can they make the workplace more accessible, make sure they are tapping the talents of people with disabilities, and i see it affecting their bottom line. It is actually helping them to create new products and services that often not just benefit people with disabilities, but for those of us who arent, still think its cool. For example Cable Companies like , comcast are working on mechanisms where you can control the setting of your channels with your eye, which i find fascinating. I am sure many people will look to get that when the technology is available. They came about and thinking about how to make your services more accessible to people with disabilities. I am wondering where you think the are now in that spectrum . Thank you. Failing of the major the ada, in terms of changing our society is in employment with people with disability. If you look of the statistics, you will see people with disabilities are chronically underemployed and compared to the unemployment rates of the general population. I think work has to be done in this area. Part of there are reasons for that. Some of them are changes that we are making over time. The idea that in order to receive income supplements from the federal government you had to be able to see that you could not work. That has been changing, that concept has been changing. I have hope for changes in this area. If you look at the statistics of the number of people with disabilities who were in american colleges and universities for the past year , it is at 11 . When i started doing disability rights work in the 1970s, there were almost no people with disabilities in our colleges. We are developing a cadre of people with disabilities, who will have the skills needed for the kinds of jobs that are being created in our economy. Which are related to the information economy. They are seated for people with suited for people with disabilities. I am optimistic that well change, but it is something we have to work at. The 88 requires employers have reasonable accommodations. I have seen the same thing you are addressing which is employers looking, including disability together with dealing with affirmative action, or other programs to increase women , people of color in their jobs and professions. There is hope there, but it is still a major problem we have in our society. I think a key opportunity when i think about the college , one of the things i think is powerfully comes out of particularly the work of judy , human and Curtis Richards who really laid the groundwork for statelevel Youth Leadership forums. They are weak walk advocacy camps. I think it is in roughly 30 states. Powerfule parable things that happens is that take place on a college campus. Some of these kids have never slept over a night at their friends house. It puts them in a college dorm for a week. To watch the changing of expectations for those young people, from monday to friday, from what do you mean my mom will not be here with me for the next five days, to at the end of the week saying, i will not even call my mom. I will not ask her if i can write you guys. To see them going to the cafeteria and getting crappy College Cafeteria food, they are standing in line to understand how the bookstore process works. They are getting those sorts of experiences. I think what we have done less of a strong job is in that connection from college to work. Really thinking about what that does that mean to look like. I think there are some programs that see promising results, things like the federal governments workforce recruitment program, which is designed to increase federal employment of people with disabilities that have done a significant job. I think we have a long way to go. The internship programs we run in the Disability Community have not achieved their full potential. I can think of one of the big congressional internship programs that have been around from almost 20 years now. Only three of their interns have been hired in fulltime employment on the hill, which is abysmal and unacceptable. That is also a problem we have on the hill. We dont have hill people. I think thinking about what is the shift that needs to happen from College Graduation to work, i think there is also an opportunity and i have heard anecdotal things from people who defend Minority Service institutions who say they feel better prepared to go into the world of work upon graduation because of the level of mentoring, the level of expectations that was based on placed on them. My husband often talks about how the was no question he would get a job after college because his teachers would not have accepted the idea that he is this low vision black kid from south carolina, you were going to go home and live with his mom. I think doing real work to see what are the best practices in terms of moving students with disability from college to work, what are the lessons we can garner and spread more throughout society would be useful. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thanks for your important stories you have shared with us. I think we have all benefited from them. I have two topics i want you to offer some insights on to the extent that you can. One goes to the issue of Mental Health and adequacy of support and treatment, and the ways and which that can overlap with homelessness, and in turn, incarceration. That is one topic. The other one is in a different area. It is an understanding about how economies are evolving in terms of digital platforms and online platforms, and how the economies are adjusting to contemplate accessibility issues . Two very different topics, but i think you may be able to speak to each of them. I will start. You have identified another problem that i have seen when i was at justice and we were a the issuehe ad , was brought to us by juvenile judges who started seeing groups of children with disabilities who were being denied services at their elementary and secondary schools. Either because they did not have the right kind of idp, or because of discipline actions that put them on the streets. What was happening to these children with disabilities is that they were ending up in the juvenile justice system, which was a Straight Line to the prison population. As a societal issue, looking at this, we will be spending societys money keeping these people incarcerated for most of their lives, and denying us whatever they could have developed because we did not Pay Attention at the secondary level to their needs. A lot of these are children with psychiatric conditions, and the lack of services for them at the school, or in their community is a direct contributor to this. I think the department of education has started working the first important part is that it has been identified as an issue. There are solutions to this issue, and the solutions are interventions at a very early age, both educationally and in terms of Mental Health services , for children that are , appropriate for children that keep them at home, that do not send them to an institution. We know the solution is getting that solution to work. Definitely. I think jails are the new institutions. Jails are where we warehouse people with disabilities. Cook county is a great example. They talk about how the cook county jails largest Mental Health facility in the country. That is a real problem. I think in talking about Mental Health, homelessness and poverty and those intersections, i go back to the conversation about ptsd. Thinking about the case from compton, california where the young woman asked for her services as a result of growing up with ptsd. Growing up in compton. I was in st. Louis last summer i was talking to some activists on the ground. One of the things that one of the leaders said to me was her name is terra. It was such a powerful statement. He said i dont believe in ptsd. He said living the life we live we are constantly traumatized, stressed and disordered. There is no such thing as post. Has been in your warm earworm ever since a year ago. I think it is extremely true when we are talking about a lot of circumstances that children are dealing with. The idea that we act off the assumption that at some point you will be fine. This is the reality you are dealing with. How do we create a comprehensive comprehensive system of supports pulling together school, health services, family support, all of these things to help your children thrive without the idea that they will ever be over it. That is not appropriate. Our last Council Meeting was in detroit. We had a bunch of folks on the ground come in from flint, michigan talking about how they had to rethink what special education provision looks like in the context of lead poisoning in the area. They had to go from Early Intervention to adult education. All the supporting services on top of that. I think thinking about how we work at this from a silo perspective is not the right way to go about it. This is a real opportunity for the cross of arrest communities to weigh in and work on this. These are all of our kids. These are all of our young people. One of the things we saw only heavy we had an lgbt meeting at the white house because we lost four transgender Mental Health services to suicide in the last few months. We realized, from the Disability Community site that we could not fix it by ourselves. We reached out to our colleagues from p flag and from other organizations to say, how do we save our kids . We are not going to deal with our elders baggage, we are still mad about it, get off our yard, whatever it is. You are not looking at john while you say that. [laughter] but how do we work together, because these are all our kids. The only way it will work is working together. We have seen unique collaborations with the lgbtq me community on Mental Health. Particularly with the African American Community Around policing. Something i never saw 15 years ago when i moved here. The only way we can crack some of these issues is simply if we work together. I will start with your second question, commissioner. Which i love because we are in the middle of the total change in our society. How we exist, how we pay our bills, how we interact with government, how we interact in the information age. And the tools are changing. What is important, and what we have seen over the little time is that as we have developed and new ways to use them, tools that life easier for people with disabilities, we have done it and would have left them behind. Online learning in colleges with is a significant part of what they do. Are they ensuring their website is accessible, that the platform is accessible . I think you are familiar with the largest amount of legal activity, lawsuits, settlement agreements from the department of education, from the department of justice are dealing with these issues in a variety of different ways. Hospitals and information. I think it is very important. The structure of the ada is there to provide the legal basis for it. I think because of the use of title 3ord placeness in there is a litigation going vigilance. Matter of the way our civil rights laws are created, they do not apply to the creation of an iphone, or an ipad. For a platform. The usage of it is. Early on they were the actions by the department of education and department of justice against some schools using early kindle devices that were not allowed to be used by blind students. That is a violation of the ada, and a violation of common sense. You are talking about the idea of reducing all the books you have to carry into a document, but we will make all the blind person carry the books but not the other students. There are happy solutions to these situations that have changed. Those devices are now used. I think we have to be totally vigilant about it because technology is changing, even ensuring that we are getting devices, then using them by local government, by colleges, by hospitals, by elementary and secondary schools in a way that is inclusive of the needs of people with disabilities across the whole spectrum of disabilities. Not just people with vision impairments, but with manual dexterity issues that cannot operate a mouse, people with hearing loss that cannot understand a video on a training video unless it is captioned. We have to be good about how we interact with them. We have seen interesting opportunities that have been going pretty well. One is around Autonomous Vehicles. I cant remember a time when the Disability Community was at the table from day one with manufacturers, software developers, retailers as they are in the area of Autonomous Vehicles. The National Council on disability issued a report on Driverless Cars two years ago. It has been in repeated conversations with the manufacturers, with ford, gm, tesla, audi, mercedes, talking about what this needs to look like. Our chairman is very passionate about this issue. Mr. Terry was fortunate enough to ride across an autonomous audi across the 14th treat bridgette rushhour era for in individual that was blind and had never been able to be in the front seat, be literally and the drivers seat. There was an engineer sitting next to him with access to the controls, but he talked about the freedom it gave him, and the fact that, unlike so many of the Technology Innovations we have seen throughout our lifetime, the Disability Community has been actively engaging and sought after by the manufacturers, by department of transportation and others. It is not just a hardware issue, not just about can you get into the vehicle, but once you get inside are you able to operate controls . If the vehicle talks to you, how does that work if you are deaf . Does this work for individuals with disabilities, or neural disabilities, or autism . What is the impact in Autonomous Vehicle could have for a family of autistics . It is hugely exciting. My husband cannot drive. I would love not to have an hour and a half on my commute for day care. It has been so exciting to see. If we think about that as a model going forward, from the beginning, how do we talk about it from an innovative perspective . What are the talents we can bring to the table on the front end . It is a lot nicer that way. That leads to my question to you. I share your view that the ada has been transformational and in the united states. I am deeply grateful for your part in that. You are famous for taking a collaborative approach to securing the promises of the ada. I wonder if you could share with us the approach in your explanation for why you have done that and how successful you have been . That is a very interesting question. [laughter] the way i look at this, civil rights laws are a blueprint for where we are going as a society. A lot of people look at it as a way to sue people to get something done. What is important with these laws are compliance. I have worked in civil rights since 1969. I know that even if that is your view, it is a very small percentage of the work that is going to get done. If we are trying to change the way america does business, whether it is for women, for people of color, people with disabilities, we have to be broad in our thinking because we are seeking compliance. Voluntary compliance comic getting people to understand what the laws required at what benefits are for them. They are a way to achieve the civil rights laws voluntarily. I am an optimistic person and i have a very optimistic view of this country. My experience of working with businesses is that they understand what the requirement is and why it is there and what their benefit is, and have support for doing it, they will do it. Sometimes any little helping hand. Sometimes more than a helping hand, but enforcement plays a large part in that. It is the stick that makes the carrot work. Our goal is getting equal opportunity to this great country that we have for everyone in it. We have to use all the tools. That is why i talked about the technical aspects of the ada. I think it is a good model. There is something called the Job Accommodation Network that is funded through the department of labor that provides assistance to employers and people with disabilities about what works on a job site. An employer confronted with a new disability or an applicant can go to get information about how it will work, what it will cost, and how they can do it. How that will work with other employees. These are the things that will make the ada work, they will make other civil rights laws work as well. I think that kind of approach, being very broadbased in how you go about this, using mediation, which is a tool we can be used at the department of justice at the local level. A person that wanted to go to their 7eleven wanted to have a Good Relationship with a person who ran the 7eleven. Sitting down and having a vehicle that allowed a winwin solution for both of them is important to the daily lives of people involved. Thank you. Other questions or comments from the commissioners . If not i thank you both very , much for your detailed and comprehensive presentation for the work that is elected them and for your time today coming to be with us. I hope we will continue to see the transformation that we have had seen today continue to evolve. Ia for yourk mar assistance in setting up todays presentation and all your staff in making todays presentation and meeting run as smoothly as possible. Thank you very much here it but that i adjourn the meeting. [applause] you are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. Roadth the been on the meeting winners of this years studentcam video documentary competition. At Royal Oak High School in royal oak michigan, first place winner jerrod clark won a prize of 3000 for his documentary on the rising cost of pharmaceutical drugs. The second place prize of 1500 went to classmate mary sire for her documentary on mass incarceration and mandatory minimum sentencing. Won athirdplace winner prize of 750 for a documentary on gender inequality. An honorableak won mention price of 250 for her documentary on the relationship between the police and the media. Thank you to all the students who participated in our 2017 studentcam video documentary competition. To watch any of the videos, go to studentcam. Org. Starts in 2018 september with the theme the constitution and you. We are asking students to choose any provision of the u. S. Cost tuition and create a video illustrating why it is important. Working with our cable partners, the cspan cities tour takes American History tv on the road twice each month as we explore the history of selected American Cities. This weekend we are airing highlights from a view of the few of the places we have visited this year. It is 602 feet tall, one two thirds of allow from one into the other. 883 feet thick, thicker than it is tall. So when we look at the dam, we get the idea of how massive shasta dam is. It is like a 60 Story Building standing in front of us. It weighs 15 million tons. Today, we are standing at shasta dam, the secondlargest concrete dam in the united states