THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 8, 1995 TAG: 9508080006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Your news coverage fell short when it failed to note the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
When then-President George Bush signed this legislation July 26, 1990, we as a nation took a long-overdue first step toward extending equal protection and equal opportunity under the law to the 43 million disabled members of our society. While great strides have been made in removing architectural barriers and providing enhanced employment opportunities to the disabled, this progress has been slow and not without cost.
With the enactment of this statute, we as a nation made a commitment to improve access to mainstream society for the disabled so that they may enjoy the same rights and privileges as anyone else living in this country. Unfortunately, not everyone shares this ideal.
Those of us who practice federal disability law are currently tracking several different proposals by the legislative and executive branches of our government that would reduce or terminate the entitlement of the disabled.
The focus of many of these proposals is on cutting Social Security Disability benefits. SSDI is intended for those who have little or no residual functional capacity; in other words, they are so incapacitated that they are unable to perform any job held prior to the onset of their disability or have been disabled since childhood. While we all want to do our part to reduce the federal deficit, let us not do it at the expense of those who are not able to provide for themselves.
If such measures are enacted, it will probably be due to apathy on the part of the voting public. Those who advocate the cause of the disabled depend upon the press to bring these matters to the attention of the public. Please do not let the disabled down.
JOHN BRENDON GATELY
Norfolk, July 26, 1995 by CNB