Americans with Disabilities Act essays

Americans with Disabilities Act essays I would like to begin by saying, that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is one of the better bills that were signed. Lets begin by giving a little history on ADA and I will discuss a few things on how accommodations are set up for the person with a disability or handicap. I will also provide an example or two of questions to ask and a diagram of how an elevator is set up persons with disabilities. Historically, societies have frequently misconstrued, overreacted to, or ignored differences in individual mental and physical abilities. Recorded instances of ridicule, torture, imprisonment and execution of people with disabilities are not uncommon. One commentator stated that Our society is still infected by an insidious, now almost subconscious assumption that people with disabilities are less than fully human, and therefore are not fully eligible for the opportunities, services and support systems which are available to other people as a matter of right. (U.S.C.C.R., 1983) In colonial times, it was considered the familys responsibility to care for individuals born with disabilities or those who became disabled later through illness, injury too other causes. According to a leading authority, Fear, shame and lack of understanding led some families to hide or disown their disabled member or allow them to die.(A.S., p18) A system of farming those individuals whose families were unable or unwilling to support them to people who received public assistance to provide for their room, board, and care survived until the latter part of the 19th century. Public concern over abuses, including recorded cases in which care providers collected their fees and then locked people with disabilities in attics to starve or freeze to death, eventually led to a change in focus. A shift towards more organized, institutionalized care began in the 1820s. The term warehousing, ...