ADA Sign Depot Blog — ADA Law

In the United States, one in four people lives with some form of disability; around the world, one billion people do. For now, that is. When the House version of the A.D.A. was introduced, Major Owens, of New York, said, “When you think about it, our entire country is made up of disabled people and temporarily able-bodied people. The people we are protecting are not a mysterious, distant ‘them’ but rather ourselves.”

During the 2016 election, a whopping 83% of polling places posed at least one impediment for voters with disabilities — say, a pathway inaccessible to a voter in a wheelchair. And, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office, less than 40% of locations equipped their voting systems for people with disabilities to cast their votes privately: electronic voting systems weren't powered on, for example, or they lacked earphones, or the stations weren't big enough for a wheelchair.

Today, 30 years after the passage of the A.D.A., and after a series of other disability rights laws — Section 504, the Fair Housing Act, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act among them — this picture has changed radically. The arc of the moral universe, as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, is indeed bending toward justice. But he also said that arc is long.

ADA Sign Depot Urges Everyone: Register To Vote. Now.

Forms from Vote.org for registering to vote, absentee ballot tool, verify voter registration, election reminders, pledge to register.

Disability is something that affects just about all of us at some point. If you aren’t born with a disability, you may temporarily become disabled through an injury or an illness. Many people also age into disability, or see a loved one, friend or co-worker live with it.