General Disability/Ability
Americans with Disabilities Act
Employment
Transportation
Technology
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Training

General Disability/Ability

Treat people as though they are what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.
Goethe

A curb is a wall to a handicapped person.
National Council on the Handicapped

Disability is physical and ability lies in the mind.
William Maphoto

Ability will never catch up to the demand for it.
Malcolm Forbes

It is your disabled attitude that determines your disability and it is your disability that can or can't close opportunities in life for you.
William Maphoto

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
Martina Navratilova

Disability is not a 'brave struggle' or 'courage in the face of adversity'.disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live. Neil Marcus Too often, people with disabilities have been forced to live in institutions, many times because the services that would enable them to live in their communities are not available. We need to help provide for those services, and at the same time we need to support the many informal caregivers, the family and friends of people with disabilities, who dedicate themselves to providing the informal help with routine daily life in the community.
Tommy Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, July 26, 2002

Americans with Disabilities Act

It is the purpose of this Act--
(1) to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities;
(2) to provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities;
(3) to ensure that the Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing the standards established in this Act on behalf of individuals with disabilities; and
(4) to invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce, in order to address the major areas of discrimination faced day-to-day by people with disabilities.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Public Law 336 of the 101st Congress

[The ADA] is] the world's first comprehensive declaration of the equality of people with disabilities, and evidence of America's leadership internationally in the cause of human rights.
President George Bush, July 26, 1990

With today's signing of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, every man, woman, and child with a disability can now pass through once closed doors, into a bright new era of equality, independence, and freedom. DisablityQuatations_American.htmlPresident George Bush, ADA Signing Ceremony, July 26, 1990

Americans with Disabilities Act Continued...

This Act is powerful in its simplicity. It will ensure that people with disabilities are given the basic guarantees for which they have worked so long and so hard. Independence, freedom of choice, control of their own lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally into the rich mosaic of the American mainstream.
President George Bush, ADA Signing Ceremony, July 26, 1990

Just as the point of the Civil Rights Act is not race but
it is discrimination, the point of the ADA is not disability
-- it is discrimination. The ADA is a mandate for equality…The focus of the Act was and should be on eliminating employers' < practices that make people unnecessarily different because of their mental or physical limitations.
Robert L. Burgdorf

Without the ADA I never would have been able to pursue my dream of playing golf professionally.
Casey Martin

People with disabilities have much greater mobility. We
are able to move about our communities easier, enter and
use shops and restaurants and city and county buildings
and facilities. We have more access to telecommunications via relay services and captioning services. The ADA applies also to programs offered to the public, from the SATs to professional licensing exams to recreational services.
William G. Stothers

Congress acknowledged that society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment.
William J Brennan, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

I am committed to tearing down the remaining barriers to
equality that face Americans with disabilities today.
President George W. Bush, February 1, 2001

The Americans with Disabilities Act demonstrates the commitment of the American people to provide those with disabilities the right to take an active part in American life. Under the President's New Freedom Initiative, we at the Justice Department are committed to enforcing the ADA. This initiative seeks to build partnerships with businesses and State and local governments to promote compliance that will ensure access to all aspects of mainstream American life for the millions of Americans who face the challenges of disabilities.
John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General, October 16, 2002

Employment

The key to a successful life in the community is closely linked to the ability of the individual to be a productive, contributing member of that community. As the Secretary of Labor, I believe that a job is the shortest route to that success.
Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor, July 26, 2002

As a nation, we are best served when all of our citizens have the opportunity to contribute their talent, ideas, and energy to the workforce.
Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner of Social Security, October 20, 1999

This Act does something important for American business. You've called for new sources of workers. Well, many of our fellow citizens with disabilities are unemployed, they want to work and they can work. And this is a tremendous pool of people who will bring to jobs diversity, loyalty, proven low turnover rate, and only one request, the chance to prove themselves.
President George Bush, ADA Signing Ceremony, July 26, 1990

Transportation

I believe today as I believed over a decade ago, as a co-author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, that accessibility in transportation is a civil right.
Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, September 16, 2002

Technology

The Internet brings a world of information into a computer screen, which has enriched the lives of many with disabilities. Yet, technology creates challenges of its own.
President George W. Bush, June 19, 2001

We cannot afford to let the issue of disabilities be simply an afterthought. We have a unique opportunity now, as industry pours billions of dollars into upgrading the communications infrastructure, to make sure that people with disabilities are not left behind. Now is the time. Accessibility of services and products for all American has got to be a design feature, not an add-on.
Chairman Kennard, FCC, Statement on Video Description, November 18, 1999

Rehabilitation Act of 1973

This law is an important chapter in our noble struggle to bring equal opportunity to all," Secretary Paige said. "It inaugurated a new era of disability rights and transformed American public policy toward persons with disabilities. Section 504 changed America -- and nowhere has that change been more striking than in our elementary, secondary and postsecondary schools.
Rod Paige, US Secretary of Education

Training

Studies show the #1 reason training doesn't transfer to the workplace is not the trainer, the training, or the trainee -- it's the non-supportive, non-reinforcing work environment back at the organization.
Region VII CRP-RCEP News, Summer 1999