Persons with disabilities, like racial and ethic minorities and women have been subject to a long history of exclusion and segregation based on stereo types, misconceptions, and prejudices. In fact, disability often places an additional burden on these already disenfranchised groups.

Disability knows no race, class, age or sex. Persons with disabilities are members of racial and ethnic minorities and women. They are children and ethnics and elders and this is a minority group that any of us can join at any time and I can say for myself, I started out with discrimination on being Jewish and then found discrimination on being elderly and now I find discrimination on being disabled.

It all works together, dear friends, and we have got to do this job this year while there is chance. We have the administration, we have the leadership; if we can't do it, it is our fault. I include myself in that. If we cannot find words to solve the problems that have been raised-they are problems; nobody challenges that there are problems-if we can't find the right words to solve these problems, it is your fault and my fault too.

Our society has viewed people with disabilities as inferior and has developed without consideration of their needs. Being disabled has meant far more than having a physical or mental impairment. It has meant being shut in and shut out.

During the ADĂ hearings in the Senate, a Black Vietnam veteran testified about returning home in a wheelchair. He couldn't get to his apartment without his elderly grandmother carrying him. He couldn't go anywhere alone because of inaccessible streets and transportation, and he couldn't get a job because of stereotypes about his abilities, or more correctly, presumptions of inabilities.

He said that he learned that he was not welcome in the country he had fought for. This experience is unacceptable in a just society and that is really what the flag salute case is all about, not about an emblem, but about the fact that it will fly much more beautifully over this country when all discrimination against any of its citizens are stopped.

The ADA is a pronouncement that our society will no longer tolerate lost potential. We will no longer judge people by their disabilities, but by their disabilities. We will no longer design a society which excludes, but one that includes. The ADA is vision of the future which must be embraced by all who believe in the principle of equality on which this country is based.

The ADA is a well thought-out, well reasoned piece of legislation and it is moderate. It represents a compromise which considers the interest of all aspects of society. In employment, the ADA extends Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act to the same entities that are covered by Title VII.

Every government and private study on this subject has documented pervasive bias by employers against hiring persons which disabilities. This is not an anti-employer thing. There is so many employers that want to do the right thing. We had this in every single situation in the civil rights case.

Employers wanted to do the right thing, but other people were getting ahead of them and they were doing the wrong thing. If you make a law on what has to be done, that law is going to be obeyed,

and let me tell you that I think you will find employers want a rule that they can follow just as much as everyone else.

Now, I recognize the time problem and I am going to put the whole statement in the record, but I would like just to go ahead for a few more minutes with part of the statement that I consider so important.

Persons with disabilities are also excluded from employment_because they need modifications in order to perform the job. The Section 504 concept of reasonable accommodations is incorporated in the ADA. An employer is not required to provide an accommodation which would result in an "undue hardship.'

In sum, the employment provisions of the ADA reflect sound public policy, to allow persons with disabilities to contribute their skills, to become taxpayers and not to force qualified people who want to work and who can work onto the welfare rolls.

In the area of public accommodations, the ADA prohibits all types of businesses from excluding persons with disabilities, a practice which is still all too common today. This exclusion is based on discomfort, revulsion or misconceptions about what disabled persons can or should do.

When there is no outright exclusions, persons with disabilities are excluded by architectural and communication barriers in the past. These barriers were not built with the intent to keep persons with disabilities out but the effect was the same-exclusion. The ADA does not require existing buildings to be made accessible unless it can be done easily, without much difficulty or expense-a modest requirement.

However, the ADA makes a strong commitment to an accessible future. New commercial buildings are required to be build in a manner that is "readily accessible to and usable by" persons with disabilities.

It is one thing to tolerate past neglect of the needs of the persons with disabilities, it would be another thing to entirely to perpetuate that neglect into the future. Accessible design does not cost more money-the human costs of inaccessible design are tremendous. Our society must open its doors to all.

This view of the future is reflected in the requirement that new buses must be accessible to persons with disabilities. Transportation is basic to all other rights-if you can't get anywhere, you can't work or participate in the life of the community.

The literal imprisonment of millions of disabled people because of an inaccessible transit system is a national disgrace. The ADA, again, takes a moderate approach to this problem. It does not require all current buses to the accessible-it simply requires that new buses must be accessible.

To allow otherwise is to compound a problem, not help solve it. The future envisioned by the ADA is one where transportation is a right of all members of our society.

Finally, 25 years of experience in the area of civil rights has taught us that a right without a remedy is no right at all. The ADĂ incorporates remedies currently available in civil rights laws. An injunction to discontinue a discriminatory practice is little solace to a person who has already been harmed by the discrimination.

Fairness demands that victims of discrimination be compensated for the harm they have suffered, and punitive damages are sometimes necessary to stop a willful violator from continuing to discriminate. Without the possibility of punitive damages, willful violations may be cost-effective.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, the ADA must become law of our nation if we are to continue our commitment to equal opportunity. Citizens with disabilities have been shut out long enough. The ADA opens the doors of America to the millions of men, women, and children of all races and ethnicities who have disabilities and who have waited long enough to be extended the same rights as we all take for granted.

The Leadership Conference urges quick pages of the ADA-the most important disability civil rights legislation of our time. The flag will fly with more beauty over a nation that has finished the job against discrimination. Please, please, do it this year while the time is ripe and when we can feel that what started as a revolution on behalf of former slaves has now brought fair treatment to all Americans.

Thank you and thank you for letting me to go on because I do have the time problem, sir.

[The prepared statement of Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. follows:]

National Education Association
Morton Halperin
American Creil Liberties Union
Dorothy Height
National Council of Negro women
John E. Jacob
National Urban League
Elaine Jones

NAACP Loger Defense & Education Fund, Ine

Statement of the Leadership Conference

on Civil Rights Supporting the Americans
with Disabilities Act

Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Counsel

July 18, 1989

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, my name

is Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. I am the Counsel to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of 180 national organizations representing minorities, women, persons with disabilities, older Americans, labor, religious groups,

and minority businesses and professionals. On behalf of

the Conference, I want to thank the Committee for allowing

us the opportunity to testify today.

I am proud to be here today to represent the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in support of the Americans with

Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA which extends civil rights

protections to 43 millions Americans with disabilities is, indeed, an historic measure. On the 25th anniversary of

the 1964 Civil Rights Act, this legislation is long overdue.

The ADA embodies the principles of non-discrimination and

equal opportunity which our country embraced in 1964.

39th ANNUAL MEETING • MAY 9, 1989 •

WASHINGTON, D.C. "Equality In a Free, Plural, Democratic Society"

Persons with disabilities, like racial and ethnic minorities and women, have been subject to a long history of exclusion and segregation based on stereotypes, misconceptions and prejudice. In fact, disability often places an additional burden on these already disenfranchised groups. Disability knows no race, class, age or sex bounds. Persons with disabilities are members of racial and ethnic minorities and women. They are children and elders. And this is a minority group that any of us can join at any time. The members of LCCR recognize that the ADA is for all of us.

Our society has viewed people with disabilities as inferior and has developed without consideration of their needs. Being disabled has meant far more than having a physical or mental impairment, it has meant being shut-in and shut-out. During the ADA hearings in the Senate, a black Viet Nam veteran testified about returning home in a wheelchair. He couldn't get to his apartment without his elderly grandmother carrying him. He couldn't go anywhere alone because of inaccessible streets and transportation. And he couldn't get a job because

of stereotypes about his abilities, or more correctly presumptions of inabilities. He said that he learned that he was not welcome in the country he had fought for. This experience is unacceptable in a just society.

The ADA is a pronouncement that our society will no longer tolerate lost potential--that we will no longer judge people by their disabilities, but by their abilities--that we will no longer design a society which excludes, but one that includes. The ADA is a vision of the future which must be embraced by all who believe in the principle of "equality" on which this country is based. The ADA is a well thought-out, well reasoned piece of legislation, and

it is moderate. It represents a compromise which considers the interests of all aspects of society. In employment, the ADA extends Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act to the same entities that are covered by Title VII.

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