Every government and private study on the subject has documented pervasive bias by employers against hiring persons with disabilities. This bias is based on misconceptions and unfounded fears. Employers, like other members of the general public, see disabilities and not abilities. The ADA would assure that disabled people are judged as individuals on their merit by eliminating bias in the selection procedure. Employers could no longer bar classes of disabled people because of stereotypes, a practice that is widespread today. Many employers simply refuse to consider persons with a variety of disabilities. For example, many employers refuse to hire persons with epilepsy, even though at least 85% are seizure-free through medication. Others refuse to hire persons with a history of cancer. No disability is immune from stereotypes. Where there is no outright exclusion, persons with disabilities are disqualified because of job qualifications which bear no relationship to the performance of the job. The ADA would require that job qualifications are, in fact, necessary to the performance of the job. 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 burden." In sum, the employment provisions of the ADA reflect sound public policy--to allow persons with disabilities to contribute their skills--to become tax payers 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 businessess 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 exclusion, persons with disabilities are excluded by architectural and communication barriers.

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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 built 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 persons with disabilities, it would be another thing 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 be 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, twenty-five years' of experience in the area of civil rights has taught us that a right without a remedy is no right at all. The ADA 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.

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The ADA must become the 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 we all take for granted. LCCR urges quick passage of the ADA--the most important disability civil rights legislation of

Chairman OWENS. Thank you very much, Mr. Rauh. We salute your long years of fighting discrimination. We understand that you have a representative, Ms. Feldblum, who will stay and answer questions later.

Mr. RAUH. That is correct. She will take my seat.

Chairman OWENS. Welcome, Ms. Feldblum, to the table.

Mr. RAUH. Thank you very much, sir, and thank the members of the Committee.

Chairman OWENS. Our next witness is Mr. Justin Dart, Jr.

Mr. DART. Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to-

Mr. BARTLETT. Mr. Dart-Mr. Chairman, before Mr. Dart goes on, I would like to take note that Mr. Dart is a long time friend of mine and a fellow Texan and we Texans do tend to stick together, so I want to vouch for Justin Dart, Jr., as a long time advocate for independence and independent living and he does so from a Texas perspective and I hope that doesn't bother anyone on the Committee, but I like it.

Chairman OWENS. Not at all. We hope you stick with him as we develop this bill.

Mr. DART. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to appear today before your distinguished committees. My fellow members of the disability community and I commend you and your colleagues for empowering people with disabilities through the unprecedented establishment of the Task Force on the rights and empowerment of Americans with disabilities composed of 35 outstanding Americans who are authentic representatives of every major disability constituency.

It has been a real privilege and a pleasure to work with you and your magnificent staff and I would also like to take the opportunity to say that I am equally happy and honored to be here today with my distinguished fellow Texas, Congressman Steve Bartlett who for many years, I have known as a foremost supporter of the independence and the productive independence of people with disabilities.

I am also honored to set at the table today with my distinguished colleague, Sandra Parrino, the chairperson of the National Council on Disability, who has been a stalwart leader for ADA since the time when it was only a concept.

Mr. Chairman, I submit our written statement for the record. I address you today not simply as chairperson of a task force, but also as an active Republican, a fiscal conservative and above all, an advocate for the principles of individual responsibility, individual productivity and individual rights which have made America brave.

Mr. Chairman, it is absolutely imperative for the integrity and for the prosperity of this nation that the Americans with Disabilities Act become law. During the past 15 months, I have personally presided at 63 public forums on ADA, at least one in every state and I have made 88 presentations at numerous other gatherings. I heard and saw things in those forums that shook me to the foundations of my being. Thousands of persons with disabilities and their advocates provided overwhelming evidence of massive discrimination and segregation in all aspects of life and I submit sev

eral thousand documents to you, Mr. Chairman, and they are piled up over there in a number of boxes.

Chairman OWENS. Without objection, they will be noted for the record.

Mr. DART. There is blatant infringement of personal rights. There is the most extreme isolation, unemployment, poverty, psychological abuse and physical deprivation experienced by any segment of our society. The Task Force concludes that these problems will never even begin to be solved until this nation makes a clear, enforceable statement of law that people with disabilities have the same inalienable rights as other people.

The Task Force has found united disability community support for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of more than 23,000 persons with disabilities and their advocates attending my ADA related presentations, not one single individual expressed opposition to the Act.

Every major disability constituency organization that I know of supports the passage of ADA. As an American, I am proud that 243 distinguished member of the House and of the Senate have co-sponsored ADA. As an American, I am proud that the President of the United States has on numerous occasions pledged his support for the protection of the rights of people with disabilities and that the Attorney General has called for the passage this year of a bipartisan version of ADA.

However, there has been opposition to ADA by sincere, wellmeaning persons who perhaps have not had an opportunity to review all of the evidence in depth. Cost. Is ADA affordable? While we all agree that equality is not contingent on economic expediency, we also agree that there is always the responsibility to implement equality as affordably as possible.

As a former CEO of both large and small enterprises, employing persons with severe disabilities and constructing accessible facilities, I know that ADA is affordable for business and that ADA is good business and this is not simply my personal opinion. Every significant requirement of ADA is now being implemented successfully by progressive, public and private entities somewhere.

The National Council on Disability, 15 distinguished Reagan appointed Republicans ably led by my esteemed colleague, Sandra Parrino, studied the problems of people with disabilities for more than three years. They concluded that the cost of discrimination far exceeds the cost of eliminating it.

After consulting with people with disabilities and their advocates throughout the nation, the council wrote the original Americans with Disabilities Act and unanimously recommended it to the President and to the Congress.

Mr. Chairman, cost and physical responsibility provide the strongest possible arguments for the Americans with Disabilities Act. ADA is an authentic issue for conservatives. It is the status quo discrimination and segregation that are unaffordable, that are preventing persons with disabilities from becoming self-reliant and that are driving us inevitably toward the economic and moral disasters of giant, paternalistic welfare bureaucracies, businesses, families, taxpayers, are already paying unaffordable and rapidly escalating billions in public and private funds to maintain ever in