⁍ Sunday marks 30 years since the ADA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

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⁍ It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation and public accommodations.

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⁍ In June 2020, the unemployment rate for disabled people rose to 16.5%, compared to 11% for workers without a disability.

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– Sunday marks 30 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush with wide bipartisan support. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation, and public accommodations. In practice, that’s meant everything from usable public bathrooms to seats in movie theaters and access to public schools. “The historically dominant view was that it was an individual problem that each person or family had to cope with on their own,’ says Douglas Kruse, an economist at Rutgers University who began using a wheelchair after a drunk driver crashed into him in 1990. “The ADA represented a shift in perspective that a lot of the problems with disability are more societal and environmental. It’s not uncommon to see people with wheelchairs or blind people out doing what they need to do, or want to do, in cities or in restaurants. Before the ADA, it was unusual. People would be stared at. Now it’s more accepted.’ The law was a hard-fought milestone that came after years of work from disabled people and their supporters, says Peter Berns, CEO of the Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nevertheless, “the reality still is, people with disabilities are subject to pervasive discrimination in employment and many aspects of life, so the work of the ADA is not done.’ When it comes to employment, things were looking up in the booming June 2019 economy before the coronavirus hit. Still, the unemployment rate for disabled workers is nearly 8%—double that of disabled workers who are often unable to find new jobs, or anyone who has been shut down. “It’s a reminder that it’s a reminder that there’s the people are people who have both both both both.