Not until the U.S. Government, through the passage of such legislation, makes it the law of the land that discrimination on the basis of disability will be illegal-and enforces those laws-will our society have lived up to its moral responsibilities to American citizens with disabilities.

As part of our effort to help accomplish these goals, I have created the Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans With Disabilities. It is chaired by the former Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, Justin Dart, an extraordinarily dedicated and forceful advocate for the civil rights and empowerment of our Nation's Americans with disabilities. Among the 32 extremely distinguished members appointed to the task force are advocates representing a broad range of disabilities. I am delighted to recognize several members of the task force who are here with us today. They are already here. There will be others who will join us from time to time. We have the chairperson, Justin Dart, who will testify in a few minutes. We have a cochairperson, Elizabeth Boggs, who is the cofounder of Association for Retired Citizens of the United States. Ms. Boggs.

We have already here, Joseph Rodgers, the president of the National Mental Health Consumers Association. Mr. Rodgers.

We have Melvin Price Spivack, the executive director of National Head Injuries Foundation. He is not here, yet.

We have Commissioner Elmer Bartels. He is the representative of the Council of State Administration and Vocational Rehabilitation. Commissioner Bartels.

Marca Bristo, who is the president of Access Living and president of the National Council of Independent Living. Marca Bristo. Dale Brown, who is a member of the President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities. Dale Brown.

As I said before, others will join us later. I also want to thank the National Council for Independent Living and the New England Coalition for Independent Living Centers for their great cooperation and coordination in sharing the responsibilities with respect to the witnesses for today's hearings. We certainly appreciate the effort that they have put forth.

The mission of the task force is to gather evidence of discrimination on the basis of disability in America and present its findings as promptly as possible. Justin Dart, as our first witness will soon speak to us about the reports which the task force will be preparing.

I believe that there is a considerable degree of ignorance about the nature of disability in America and the obstacles facing people with disabilities in entering the mainstream of society. Under current Federal law, for example, no protections against discrimination exist for disabled people who seek employment in the private sector, unless that employer is a recipient of Federal funds. The Americans With Disabilities Act would fill several critical voids like this one in protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. Over 6,500 letters from 49 States have been received by the task force to date, sharing with us the pain and frustration they experience in trying to live a life of dignity. Today we hear from people in New England who, in a long tradition predating the birth of our Nation, have advocated for human independence and freedom. The

involvement of so many people in the New England area in planning and executing this hearing is in splendid evidence here today, and the interest and excitement and the creative energy that has been generated in connection with this hearing and the Americans With Disabilities Act have been enormous.

I assure you that we are delighted to be here and that we are ready to listen. Your responsiveness and the significance and value you have attached to these hearings reflect the great faith that you have in the reasonableness, compassion, and readiness of your Government to act. We pledge ourselves to do everything possible to achieve a legislative result which is worthy of your trust and your faith.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Major R. Owens follows:]

OPENING STATement of Congressman Major OWENS, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION

Let me first welcome all of you here today as participants in a great celebration. We are here to celebrate the fact that a thorough and far-reaching piece of legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate. We are here to celebrate the fact that there is widespread agreement and consensus on this bill. We have strong bi-partisan support in both Houses. And we also wish to highlight the fact that both of the candidates running for President have endorsed this legislation.

Our task today and in the months ahead is to guarantee that none of this monumental support is eroded. We must make certain that all parties understand the broad and massive support behind this bill. We know that there are strong forces of opposition waiting to ambush many of the provisions contained in this Act. They will, of course, never acknowledge their deep-seated prejudices. We will hear, instead, endless complaints about the high costs of guaranteeing the rights of Americans with disabilities. We are here to clearly place upon the record some of the pain and misery caused by the failure to acknowledge these rights. We are here to document for the Nation some of the great losses the Nation suffers as a result of the failure to establish an environment which maximizes the opportunities for Americans With Disabilities.

Our hearing today is an important step toward assuring that the final legislation will be as great as the present bill. If there is a clear understanding of the great empowerment movement behind this effort, Congress will act to produce a bill which is not shackled by weakening amendments, damaging compromises or gross distortions. We need your testimony in order to preserve the Americans With Disabilities Act as it is written. We all have good reason to believe that a bill will pass. But when the process is completed we want to celebrate a final product as great as the proposal we have initiated.

The concern of today's hearing is discrimination on the basis of disability in America. The House Subcommittee on Select Education is the subcommittee responsible for independence enhancing service delivery programs for people with disabilities, such as rehabilitation services, the independent living center program, and special education.

Today, I am here also as a proud sponsor of the Americans With Disabilities Act, H.R. 4498, a civil rights bill for people with disabilities which would outlaw discrimination on the basis of disability in areas such as employment, travel, public accommodations, communications, and activities of State and local government.

It has been a very special year for people with disabilities. Congress recently passed legislation which extends protection under Federal housing law to disabled people. The Civil Rights Restoration Act, also passed by the Congress earlier this year, restored protections that had existed for people with disabilities under current Federal law prior to the Grove City College v. Bell Supreme Court decision in 1984. But perhaps the events which have left the most lasting impression on myself and many others were those that took place at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. this spring. The paternalism and condescending attitudes which deaf people and people with all different kinds of disabilities have had to endure since time immemorial were never more apparent as when the then board chairman of the university told the students and the community that they must continue to wait for the selection of a deaf president to guide their great school. The students and faculty

there empowered themselves with well organized and forceful advocacy and we now have as president of Gallaudet University the very distinguished Dr. I. King Jordan, who, like this constituents, is deaf. I believe that one day in the not so distant future we may well look back and come to see the events at Gallaudet University as the equivalent of the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama in the fight by minorities for their civil rights.

From this year onward, the history of empowerment for people with disabilities will be divided into two eras-before the Gallaudet rebellion and after the Gallaudet rebellion.

The crown jewel for the disability rights movement in the legislative arena will be the enactment by the Federal Government of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This bill, which was introduced in April of this year, has attracted massive and bipartisan support, with 117 cosponsors in the House and 26 in the Senate. Not until all Americans with disabilities enjoy the full measure of civil rights protections will they truly be full citizens of the United States of America.

And not until the United States Government, through the passage of such legislation, makes it the law of the land that discrimination on the basis of disability will be illegal-and enforces those laws-will our society have lived up to its moral responsibilities to America's citizens with disabilities.

As part of our effort to help accomplish these goals I have created a task force on the rights and empowerment of Americans with disabilities. It is chaired by the former Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, Justin Dart, an extraordinarily dedicated and forceful advocate for the civil rights and empowerment of our Nation's disabled citizens. Among the 32 extremely distinguished members appointed to the task force are advocates representing a broad range of disabilities. I am delighted to recognize several members of the task force who are here at the hearing today.

The mission of the task force is to gather evidence of discrimination on the basis of disability in America and present its findings as promptly as possible. Justin Dart, as our first witness, will soon speak to us about the reports which the task force will be preparing. I believe that there is a considerable degree of ignorance about the nature of disability in America and the obstacles facing people with disabilities in entering the mainstream of society. Under current Federal law, for example, no protections against discrimination exist for disabled people who seek employment in the private sector, unless that employer is a recipient of Federal funds. The Americans with Disabilities Act would fill several critical voids like this one in protecting people with disabilities from discrimination.

Over 6,500 letters from 49 States have been received by the task force to date, sharing with us the pain and frustration they experience in trying to live a life of dignity. Today we hear from people in New England who, in a long tradition predating the birth of our Nation, have advocated for human independence and freedom. The involvement of so many people in the New England area in planning and executing this hearing are in splendid evidence here today, and the interest and excitement and the creative energy that has been generated in connection with this hearing and the Americans with Disabilities Act have been enormous.

I assure you that we are delighted to be here and that we are ready to listen. Your responsiveness, the significance and the value you have attached to these hearings reflect the great faith that you have in the reasonableness, compassion and the readiness to act of your Government. We pledge ourselves to do everything possible to achieve a legislative result worthy of your trust and faith.

Mr. OWENS. I yield to Congressman Atkins for an opening statement.

Mr. ATKINS. Thank you very much, Chairman Owens. And good morning. It is good to see so many old friends who have been so active in this State in making Massachusetts a leader on disability issues and it is so good to see so many new faces who have joined the cause of activism and advocacy.

Let me, if I can, thank all of you for making this field hearing on the Americans with Disabilities Act possible. I want to offer my very special thanks to Chairman Major Owens who has done just tremendous work in support of the disabled community as chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Education. It is really a tribute to the chairman's effort that this issue has come to the forefront of

congressional consciousness. The chairman's efforts on this important piece of legislation, together with Congressman Tony Coelho, have been nothing short of spectacular.

I am particularly glad that we have scheduled this hearing in Boston because in many ways the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been the leader in the Nation in programs for the disabled. And we have been the leader not because of public and elected officials, although they have played a very, very important role, but we have been the leader because of the disabled community in Massachusetts. Your activism and advocacy made me, when I was chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, listen and respond to your needs. In so many instances, the State legislature was simply unaware of the problems people faced in the work place, in negotiating tasks of daily living, discrimination, and in public facilities and accommodations. You truly were the eyes and the ears for the legislature and the Government on this issue and we thank you for that.

And we also thank the State government and administration under the leadership of Governor Dukakis, who has done so much to respond to your needs on a continuing basis. While programs have been squeezed on the national level, Massachusetts has moved forward in accessibility, opportunity, equal rights and independence for people with disabilities.

As an example, the Governor's Universal Health Care Program has guaranteed health insurance to 84,000 persons with disabilities who did not previously have coverage. Health coverage for the disabled must be a priority on the national level even at a time of retrenchment and cutbacks in so many areas of Federal activities.

Discrimination is the daily experience for 36 million Americans. And it affects every aspect of all of our lives. Today, we live in a society that is structured in a way that unfairly denies opportunities to people with disabilities. It is time to move forward, to make real progress in areas ranging from housing, employment, recreation, transportation, to basic rights like voting and living independently.

One statistic that is particularly troubling and indicative of how far we need to come on the issue of equal opportunity is that twothirds of all of the working-aged disabled adults are unemployed. That is an unemployment statistic that is unsurpassed for any group in our economy.

I might add that one of the experiences that we had in Massachusetts working with Commissioner Bartels was the fact that when you break down the barriers of discrimination against the disabled, when you empower them, let them empower themselves with the tools of technology and with access, that for the very small investment that the Government makes, there is an enormous return in people who go back into the work force-people who are able to make substantial contributions that are reflected in higher revenues for the State government. And it was our experience during the 6 years that I chaired the Ways and Means Committee and funded programs for people with disabilities that each and every program expansion was paid for more than two times over and many times four and five times over with increased revenues from the productive activities of people.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is an important step for the Federal Government in recognizing and leveling the barriers to opportunity for the disabled. The act prohibits discrimination on the basis of handicap in areas such as employment, housing, travel, communications and activities of State and local governments. Be sides being a civil rights issue, the Americans with Disabilities Act represents a long overdue response to citizens who want to work, to live independently and to have the opportunity to reach their highest potential.

By removing discriminatory barriers, the Congress, the next President, and all of society can fulfill a promise, a promise of genuine opportunity and justice at home, in the work place, at school, at ball parks and movie theaters, in the voting booth and in every facet of daily life.

We are here today to gather information from you on how best to legislate. I am glad to see that we have a full agenda and list of witnesses. But I want to suggest that in addition to our work, in taking testimony and making it a matter of public record for our 433 other colleagues in the House, that we start today with this hearing an important process. Because, truly, passage of this bill is dependent not so much on the activities of the Congress, but on your activism and advocacy. And with a community nationally, as active as the Massachusetts disabled community has been, I am certain that we can spread the message. That we can spread the message to our colleagues in the Congress. We need your voices. We need your insights. We need all of your energy to understand this issue and to have the Congress put this issue at the very top of the agenda when the 101st Congress convenes next January. I think it is activities like the tremendous rally that you have organized today that will make the difference, that will give Congress the ability to understand the pain that all of you face in every moment of your daily lives and the ways in which government can alleviate that pain for the benefit of all of us.

I want to thank you for your participation and thank particularly Chairman Owens for his leadership.

Mr. OWENS. I want to again thank my colleague, Chet Atkins, for joining us today.

We have a very ambitious schedule. I am going to need the cooperation of all of you to please keep down the noise as much as possible outside. We would like to move the agenda as rapidly as possible and guarantee that everybody who is scheduled to testify will get a chance to testify today.

Our first panel consists of Justin Dart, Commissioner Justin Dart and Philip Johnston. Please note that we have been joined by a Congressman who is probably well known to most of you, Congressman Joe Moakley. We just started So, if you don't mind, gentlemen, perhaps you would like to make an opening statement or remarks, Congressman?

Mr. MOAKLEY. Well, actually, Major-he is not only a congressman, he's a major. I want to thank you and your committee very much for coming to Boston to have this very, very important meeting.

As you well know, we just finished a very grueling last leg of a legislative session, and I could not think of any congressional com