Disability Scoop

More than three decades after the passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, advocates worry progress is slipping amid attacks on disability rights and uncertainty over the future of services and supports. Saturday will mark 35 years since President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA. The legislation, which passed with broad bipartisan support, was the first comprehensive civil rights law in the world for people with disabilities, barring discrimination in education, transportation, employment, voting, and other areas of public life. “The ADA has helped make our country more inclusive and accessible in all aspects of life,” said Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University who previously led the federal Administration for Community Living. “It has helped move our society from one where segregating people with disabilities was the default to one where most disabled people and their families have an expectation of inclusion in schools, workplaces, and the broader community.” But despite the transformative changes brought by the ADA, Barkoff and other advocates say the law’s promise is far from fulfilled, and they’re concerned that the nation could backslide.