Happy Birthday ADA!

The 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) this month provides an opportunity for your organization to celebrate the most significant legislation to protect the civil rights of disabled workers in the United States. Signed into law on July 26, 1990, by then-President George H.W. Bush, the ADA has been a game changer.

The ADA, or Americans with Disabilities Act, along with the ADAAA, or ADA Amendments Act that expanded it, helps prevent discrimination against the more than 10 million employed people with disabilities in the United States, in all areas of employment—from hiring to pay, from training to promotion, and from benefits to termination. This landmark legislation doesn’t give people with disabilities preference in the workplace, it just means that qualified people, whether or not they have a disability, should be treated with respect, have equal opportunity to contribute their skills, and if necessary, be provided with reasonable accommodation so that they can apply for or do the job.

How can your organization celebrate the ADA’s anniversary? Here are a few suggestions:

• Evaluate your organization’s physical and digital accessibility (from wheelchair access to the accessibility of your website design,) and think about how to make improvements.
• Host a speaker or conduct a workshop on disability in employment.
• Sponsor an art exhibition by disabled employees.
• Select a topical and inspirational book and encourage employees to read it and then participate in an online discussion on it.
• Solicit articles from employees for the organization newsletter on the impact of the ADA on their lives.

The ADA was amended in 2008 to promote broad coverage of Americans with disabilities under the law. The amendment states that “physical or mental disabilities in no way diminish a person’s right to fully participate in all aspects of society, yet many people with physical or mental disabilities have been precluded from doing so because of discrimination; others who have a record of a disability or are regarded as having a disability also have been subjected to discrimination.”

The Act has done much to negate such discrimination, but there is still a long way to go. In recent years there has been an effort made to encourage participation in the workplace by people with sometimes unfamiliar or perhaps “invisible” neurodivergent disabilities, such as those on the autism spectrum. Celebrating the 35th anniversary of the ADA throughout your organization can foster a sense of belonging for all employees, disabled or not.