NO GOOD DEED
Republicans think disabled Americans are gaming the system, so they want to make the ADA harder to enforce
Reuters/Jacky Naegelen
ADA reforms that doesn’t expand government oversight will fail to address the law’s primary flaws.
By Jake Flanagin
Reporter
Published June 6, 2017This article is more than 2 years old.
The Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives is considering a major reform of theAmerican With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990—a federal law which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in the public sphere (at work, in schools, riding public transit, and in all spaces open to the general public, including privately-owned businesses). For example, under the ADA, businesses open to the public, such as restaurants or pharmacies, need to be wheelchair accessible.
The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (HR 620) seems like a rather innocuous bill at first glance—it compels the Department of Justice to formulate a program that educates state and local officials and business owners on “strategies for promoting access to public accommodations for persons with a disability.” A prime example of fatty, ostensibly meaningless Washington wonk-speak. But it goes further—the bill, if passed, would prohibit civil suits arising out of a failure [...]