The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush. Since then, the date has been recognized as Disability Independence Day.
The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in many areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and many public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.
At Notre Dame, several offices and groups are working to help make the University more welcoming and accessible for students, faculty, and staff of all abilities, such as Notre Dame Human Resources, the Office of Institutional Equity, the Center for Student Support and Care, ND ABility employee resource group, Access-ABLE student club, Accessibility Leadership Fellows peer mentoring student group, Student Government’s Disability Advocacy Department, and the Department of Disability Studies in the College of Arts and Letters. Contact an office or group to learn more about their efforts.
It’s not often discussed, but people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the nation, and in the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), slightly more than one in four adults in the United States has some type of disability. Perhaps surprisingly, the CDC cites a category of so-called invisible disabilities as most prevalent. Cognitive disabilities—in which a person has serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions—account for 13.9 percent of adult disabilities, while 12.2 percent of adults have a mobility disability. Around six percent of adult disabilities include deafness or serious difficulty hearing, while blindness or serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses accounts for more than five percent.
To increase your knowledge about how the ADA has positively impacted Americans with disabilities and the United States as a whole, consider attending one of two free webinars being hosted by the ADA National Network:
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ADA Anniversary: History of Disability Rights Movement (Register)
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
4 to 5:30 p.m. Eastern -
ADA 34 LIVE! Show Your ADA and History Knowledge (Register)
Thursday, July 25, 2024
2 to 3 p.m. Eastern
There are also numerous multimedia resources are available to learn more about the disability rights movement and the lived experiences of people who have disabilities, including:
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42 Best Books On Disabilities Curated by a Disability Activist—A variety of fiction, nonfiction, romance, young adult novels, and children’s books that do “a beautiful job of weaving in and centering someone with a disability,” according to the curator
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Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution—A Netflix documentary about a summer camp for teenagers with disabilities
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CODA—A coming-of-age film about a child of deaf adults (CODA) torn between pursuing her passion at Berklee College of Music and her fear of abandoning her parents
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The Peanut Butter Falcon—An adventure story that begins when a young man with Down syndrome runs away to chase his dream of becoming a professional wrestler
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An Apple a Day podcast—A resource and community committed to redefining the narrative around living with disabilities
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Always Looking Up podcast—A space dedicated to telling honest and real stories about living in a world that was not necessarily designed for people with disabilities
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Neuro Rainbow Cast with Autisticly Aar podcast—Conversations about issues that affect the neurodivergent community through shared experiences unmasking neurodivergency
Originally published by at diversity.nd.edu on July 22, 2024.