Tag: Americans with Disabilities Act

National ADAPT ADA 31st Anniversary Statement

31 years ago, President George Herbert Walker Bush signed the ADA into law with the words, “ Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.” While there have certainly been advances during the past 31 years, and a reduction in disability discrimination, during the past year and a half we have painfully witnessed the enormous and preventable cost of the continued exclusion of disabled people from the general fabric of society.

For 31 years ADAPT has fought to undo the institutional bias in Medicaid that traps disabled people of all ages in nursing homes and other institutions, excluded from their communities.


For 31 years ADAPT has fought to make Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) the norm for disabled people of all ages so they can live in their own homes and communities while receiving the services and supports they need.

If Congress had listened to ADAPT over the past 31 years, the thousands and thousands of COVID deaths that occurred in the nation’s nursing homes in the past 18 months could have been prevented. If Congress had listened to ADAPT over the past 31 years, the Money Follows the Person Program that assists people to leave nursing homes and return to their communities would have been made permanent. If Congress had listened to ADAPT over the past 31 years, the nation’s workforce providing HCBS would be receiving the livable wages and benefits they deserve for the hard and essential work they do. Passing the ADA was a tremendous victory, filled with the promise of liberty and equity. Implementing and enforcing it has proven to be another fight at best, and an exercise in futility at worst.

The yearly anniversary of the ADA will only be truly and authentically celebrated when it’s long overdue promises become our everyday reality for all.

National ADAPT Statement on 30th Anniversary of the ADA

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was a watershed event in the history of disability rights. In the weeks leading up to its passage, members of ADAPT used the power of our collective strength and organizing to help push it across the finish line. ADAPT acted out the injustices facing disabled people by crawling up the stairs to the Capitol building.

When the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, it was meant to make our communities inclusive of all people. We expected the ADA to make accessibility available in all kinds of buildings. We expected the ADA to encourage service providers to make their programs open for all people. We expected the ADA to enable us to move freely in our communities. We expected the ADA to clear a path so we could work, play, and live with non-disabled neighbors, friends, and family members.

Since the signing of the ADA 30 years ago, the law has helped many people get jobs, move around in our communities, go to stores and use services, communicate, and participate in community life. On this 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we honor and thank those who came before us in the fight for disability rights.

30 years after the signing of the ADA, too many disabled people still live behind the walls of institutions. Too many disabled people are sent to state hospitals. Too many disabled people sit in prisons, jails, and detention centers. And now, in the shadow of global pandemic, too many disabled people are forgotten and dying in institutions. 

On this 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we commit ourselves to push forward with calls for disability justice. We embrace a more inclusive, more intersectional vision of our integration. We press forward on the unrealized vision that has left thousands of disabled people in institutions and invite well funded disability rights and justice organizations to join us by committing in word and actions.

Today, as it was 30 years ago and before, National ADAPT calls out to FREE OUR PEOPLE.