FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July 22, 2010 

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Lani Poblete at (202) 416-7667

ADA @ 20 — Groundbreaking Law Celebrated by America’s Paralyzed Veterans

Washington, DC—The Americans with Disabilities Act, the single most important piece of legislation to improve the lives of people with disabilities, will turn twenty on July 26. The anniversary is particularly poignant for Paralyzed Veterans of America, an organization that helped lead the charge for the groundbreaking act back in 1990.

“The ADA has changed millions of lives for the better, helping to empower people with disabilities with some of the basic freedoms we need to live full and productive lives. It’s helped to give us folks in chairs and other people with disabilities a shot at the American dream,” said Paralyzed Veterans of America National President Gene Crayton. “Actually the ADA has helped to improve the quality of everyone’s life. For example, if you’ve ever used a curb cut, the ADA has helped you. It’s something that all Americans can feel proud of.”

Since its enactment, the ADA has had an enormous impact on fighting discrimination in the areas of employment, public services, public accommodations, transportation and telecommunications.

Paralyzed Veterans has also helped lead the charge against efforts to weaken the ADA since its enactment. For example, federal courts severely restricted ADA coverage in employment cases. This meant that workers with disabilities were being fired and denied promotion because of their disabilities, only to be told by the courts that they were not disabled under the ADA. The disabilities community and Congress responded with the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. The act restored the protections that Congress intended in the original legislation: broad protections to cover anyone who faces unfair discrimination because of a disability.

“As we celebrate this great anniversary and the progress we have made, I also encourage everyone to think even bigger when it comes to the remaining barriers facing people with disabilities. Let’s identify them and tear them down,” Crayton stressed.

-ENDS-

Notes to editor:

Sixty-four years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the “Greatest Generation” made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created an organization dedicated to veterans service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans of America and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org)