{"id":66,"date":"2020-08-19T13:51:57","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T13:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/?p=66"},"modified":"2020-08-19T14:14:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T14:14:05","slug":"celebrating-30-years-of-the-americans-with-disabilities-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/2020\/08\/19\/celebrating-30-years-of-the-americans-with-disabilities-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 30 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recapping the CSG West Virtual Annual Meeting<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mary Elizabeth Robertson, The Council of State Governments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty years after the passage of The Americans With Disabilities Act, state leaders celebrate the opportunities it has afforded for creating a more accessible America for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council of State Governments West Annual Meeting, held on July 29, included a forum entitled Celebrating the ADA: A Look Forward to the Next 30 Years. Robert Silverstein, a national expert on disability policy and legislative counsel for the State Exchange on Employment and Disability (SEED) and Kristin Vandagriff, executive director of Alaska\u2019s Governor\u2019s Council on Disabilities and Special Education, served as panelists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session began with moderator Joanne Ferrary of New Mexico showing a clip from the 1990 legislative session in which Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa introduced the landmark bill by speaking in sign language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silverstein sat next to Harkin during that speech. Today, Silverstein considers it a great honor to have been in the room when the legislation was introduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the New Hampshire Institute on Disability, as of 2019, 12.6% of the U.S. population has a disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJuly 26 was in fact the anniversary,\u201d Silverstein said. \u201cIt was a pretty emotional day for a lot of people. The ADA is the 20th<\/sup> century Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities. It truly is a landmark civil rights statute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silverstein reflected on the importance of the bipartisanship of the bill passage and the ability for it to offer protections for a variety of disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were willing to deal with very controversial issues, including \u2013 remember, this was 1990 \u2013 HIV and AIDs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe made sure all people with disabilities were treated based on facts, objective evidence and science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silverstein concluded with the resources provided by SEED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vandagriff began her discussion with the story of Lucy, an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who has a disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s never been a larger advocate for employment that I\u2019ve met than Lucy,\u201d Vandagriff said. \u201cAs we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the ADA, I really want us to celebrate the Lucys; celebrate those who have paved the way to make an even better 30 years in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vandagriff shared the importance of employment outcomes for people with disabilities. In Alaska, paradigms are shifted through policy changes, collaborative employer engagement and transition emphasis. Through policy changes, Alaska implemented an employment first law in 2014, followed by removing the high school diploma barrier for people with disabilities. Alaska created a Business Employment Services Team to help employers recruit, hire and retain employees with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel wrapped up by expressing what more is required to provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you can get a person with a disability into the workforce for folks to break down those stereotypes, you have an enhanced opportunity to improve the employment of people with disabilities,\u201d Silverstein said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recapping the CSG West Virtual Annual Meeting By Mary Elizabeth Robertson, The Council of State Governments Thirty years after the passage of The Americans With Disabilities Act, state leaders celebrate the opportunities it has afforded for creating a more accessible America for all. The Council of State Governments West Annual Meeting, held on July 29,… Read More »Celebrating 30 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[37,39,38,40,41],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csg-west","category-policy","tag-ada","tag-ada30","tag-americans-with-disabilities-act","tag-disabilities","tag-disability-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.csg.org\/tcs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}