ROAD TO FREEDOM

Bus Tour Promotes ADA Restoration

Espa6nol

Login to AbleNews
Online Edition

To Advertise
Call Us At
516-939-2253

The Road To Freedom: Keeping the Promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ended its year-long, cross-country bus tour and traveling exhibit promoting the civil rights of people with disabilities and advocating for passage of the ADA Restoration Act of 2007.

This legislation will restore the vital civil rights protections under the ADA that have been weakened in the courts in recent years. A U.S. Senate hearing on the ADA Restoration Act of 2007 was scheduled to coincide with the return of the Road To Freedom bus to Washington, D.C. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and other members of Congress joined Yoshiko Dart and disability rights leaders to welcome back the bus.

With Yoshiko Dart, widow of the late disability rights leader Justin Dart onboard for the first leg of the journey, the Road To Freedom bus tour launched from Washington, Nov.15, 2006 and has traveled to all 50 states, driving more than 25,000 miles to more than 100 bus stop events, including a recent stop at New York's City Hall in Manhattan. Road To Freedom events have included disability leaders and U.S. Senators, members of Congress, governors and other policy makers at sites such as the National Civil Rights Museum, Brown v. Board of Education Historic Site, Clinton Presidential Library, Mount Rushmore, as well as statehouses, city halls, museums, churches, colleges, and schools throughout the country.

A senate hearing on the ADA Restoration Act of 2007 was held after the bus tour rally. Harkin led the hearing on honoring Congress's intent by restoring protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

The ADA Restoration Act hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, while poorly attended by members (only Harkin and. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) attended), nonetheless delivered a strong message to the Congressional record of its need, according to Justice for All (JFA).

Harkin, the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, S.1881, began the hearing by addressing his involvement with the original ADA, what Congress intended and some of the Supreme Court decisions that have brought us off course with this law.

Long time disability rights leader John Kemp, an attorney in Washington, D.C., was first to speak from the panel. Kemp spoke of his personal experience having grown up without arms or legs and stated that disability discrimination is "un-American."

Dick Thornburgh, attorney general under former President George Bush, like Harkin, spoke of his role in the passage of the original ADA and what he understood Congress' intent to be.

Camille Olson, an attorney and professor from Chicago, offered an oppositional viewpoint. While noting all the progress in the workplace to date on account of the ADA, Olson argued that the ADA Restoration Act of 2007 is not a suitable solution to address concerns about the ADA, arguing that the legislation included too many people with all varieties and severities of impairments in its protections, JFA noted.