On a crisp fall evening 10 years ago I became one of the continually expanding number of Americans with disabilities.

My admission to the group took only a matter of seconds but the result has altered my life dramatically. That evening, the hay wagon upon which I was a passenger suddenly lurched off the side of the road, throwing myself and several of my companions into the air.

My subsequent impact with the ground caused two of my cervical vertebrate to sublex, thereby placing enormous pressure on my spinal cord.

Since that night I have been a quadriplegic with no muscular function below my biceps. I was a 19 year old sophomore at Indiana University.

What I believe is particularly significant for others about the circumstances surrounding my injury is the relative ease with which it occurred. It was completely unforeseen and was not accompanied by any overtly dangerous activity.

Similar opportunities for traumatic injury are present in the every day lives of most citizens of this country. Consequently, the possibility of joining the population of disabled Americans is ever present.

This fact is compounded by the greying of the American population and the accompanying physical deterioration often associated with the aging process.

While considering this bill, I hope the Congressmen voting upon it and those parties opposing its passage focus on its benefits rather than the initial expense often necessary for opening opportunities for the disabled segment of our society.

The Americans With Disabilities Act should be viewed as an investment in the future of a substantial number of American citizens, perhaps even their own future.

The years immediately following my injury were spent trying to determine the most efficient method of accomplishing every day tasks such as dressing, eating, and studying.

Activities which had formerly required no conscious thought were now an effort. I believe the two things that made the adjustment possible were the support of my family and my immediate return to school.

In the fall of 1980, I transferred my credits from Indiana University's Bloomington campus to the Indianapolis campus.

After four years of hard work, I graduated with honors in 1984. Upon the conclusion of my undergraduate work I was admitted to the Indiana University, Indianapolis School of Law.

In 1988, I completed my legal education again receiving awards for my academic performance. I am currently employed as a judicial law clerk with United States Magistrate, John Paul Godich.

Discrimination never seemed to have hindered my progress until I began seeking employment in the private sector.

While in law school, I participated in the placement program offered by the university. The procedure permitted potential employers to select those they wanted to interview initially from resumes submitted to the placement office.

I received initial interviews with several local law firms based upon my academic record since in most instances I did not inform them of my disability.

Not only did I fail to receive any offers of employment but I, unlike many of my friends with comparable resumes was not asked to participate in any second interviews.

It is difficult for me to admit or believe that I may have been the subject of intentional discrimination. I am more apt to focus on my own real or imagined shortcomings or to appreciate the hesitancy reflected in employers' attitudes as a justifiable emphasis on the bottom line.

Generally, I have been one of those who have allowed others to lead the fight for disability rights while I sit on the sidelines and enjoy the fruits of their labors.

However, having been confronted with the unequal access on a personal level, I have finally recognized the necessity of broad based participation in the movement for equal participation in the American dream.

Although the presence of Civil Rights legislation does not guarantee the elimination of discrimination, it at least may provide the impetus to changing stereotypical beliefs that the disabled are slow, disruptive, and incapable.

The only sure remedy is exposing the general public to capable disabled persons and the workplace is the perfect venue.

The existence of such laws have positively affected employment in Federal and state Government by persons with disabilities.

During summer breaks from law school, I worked in the legal division of the Indiana Department on Aging and Community Services with Barry Chambers who you met earlier and for the State Attorney General's office.

A number of my co-workers were also disabled. None of my employers had to expend additional sums merely to meet my employment needs.

The computers which are a necessary part of my work were purchased with my own funds or with the assistance of the Indiana Department of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Vocational Rehabilitation also provided the funds for a specially built desk, speaker telephone, and the mouth sticks I use for typing.

Accessible bathrooms, a one-time expense, were already in place. My current position with the Federal Government has allowed me to become a self-supporting, tax paying member of society.

I no longer receive a regular Social Security check or assistance for vocational rehabilitation. My salary is sufficient to permit me to hire and pay the personal attendant who assists me each morn

ing believe that I am not an exception to the rule. The majority of

persons with disabilities do not relish the thought of sitting day after day in a bedroom or nursing home.

The expense of maintaining nursing care for the disabled may be drastically reduced by implementing job training and opening access to employment for the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Act will allow many of the disabled who have heretofore been ostracized from society to become contributing members.

Finally, I do not believe that it is unduly burdensome to place the obligations of the Act on employers with 15 or more employees who engage in interstate commerce.

First, modifications such as ramps or accessible bathrooms are a one-time expense which may be reimbursed through the dedicated work of disabled employees and the business of new customers or clients who were previously barred from access.

Second, if it is necessary to a persons' equipment for the disabled employee, it will typically benefit the business as a whole.

Thirdly, as alluded to earlier, a disabled individual who makes the effort to seek training and performing a particular type of work will in all likelihood prove to be an excellent employment risk.

I will be returning to the job market soon myself. I look forward to the Act as promised by the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Thank you for your consideration.

Mr. OWENS. I want to thank all of you for your testimony and assure you that personal testimony and the process of sensitizing legislators to this particular piece of legislation is very important. Mr. Reynolds, I want you to know that the uprising-and I call it an uprising-at Galludet University played a major role in accelerating the movement of this legislation.

The bill would be probably two or three years behind schedule if it had not been for that dramatic uprising, the statement that was made at Galludet University.

So the spirit of your testimony is very much the spirit of the Galludet movement. I have no questions. I yield to Mr. Jontz.

Mr. JONTZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The statements that each of you gave were very eloquent. All Americans want to accomplish with their lives what you have accomplished.

And I think that those accomplishments are testimony equally eloquent to the need for the Americans With Disabilities Act so that all citizens can make those accomplishments. I want to thank you for your statements and express my appreciation for your being with us this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. OWENS. Thank you again. Our next panel consists of Nanette Bowling, the Staff Liaison to the Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals, the Office of Mayor Bob Sargent, Kokomo, Indiana; John Turney who is a member of the Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals; and Michael Williams, the vice president for Ancillary Services, St. Joseph's Hospital in Kokomo, also the Kokomo employer of the year.

Mr. JONTZ. Mr. Chairman, while the members of the next panel are taking their seats, I want to take just a minute to welcome them. We are very proud of all of the citizens of Kokomo.

And I am very appreciative of their appearance here today. I know a number of people had a distance to come. I know the road between Kokomo and Indianapolis very well and appreciate the effort that this panel has made to be with us. I want to personally welcome them as my constituents from the Fifth Congressional District.

Mr. OWENS. Again, your written statement will be entered into the record. You have five minutes for your oral testimony but will be free to elaborate during the questioning period on any points

you do not feel you have time to cover. We will start with Nanette Bowling.

STATEMENT OF NANETTE BOWLING, STAFF LIAISON TO THE MAYOR'S ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR HANDICAPPED INDIVIDUALS, OFFICE OF MAYOR BOB SARGENT, KOKOMO, INDIANA Ms. BOWLING. Chairman Owens, Congressman Jontz, my name is Nanette Bowling. I am administrative assistant to Mayor Robert Sargent of Kokomo, Indiana.

I am also Mayor Sargent's staff liaison to his Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals. In 1980, a group of concerned citizens began meeting with the city administration in an effort to direct city resources to meeting the needs of handicapped persons.

One result of those meetings was the formation of the Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals. John Turney, who serves on the Kokomo Council and the Governor's Planning Council will present to you some of the specific accomplishments of the Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals.

The Kokomo Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals has a mission statement which reads as follows:

"The goal of the Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals is to serve as an advocacy group for all physically and or mentally handicapped citizens of the City of Kokomo, Indiana and the Kokomo area to identify the needs of all handicapped citizens and to advise the Mayor of Kokomo on matters which will improve the health, education, and quality of life for these citizens."

Mayor Robert Sargent considers his advisory council for handicapped individuals one of his strongest advisory council. He has five different advisory councils.

He considers the following just to mention a few to be the benefit of the Council, that the Council provides to his administration. To provide information on the effect of pending and inactive policies on the lives of citizens with disabilities.

To provide a mechanism by which citizens with disabilities can have their relevant concerns addressed.

The Council also increases credibility with local citizens in the area of disabilities concerns.

The Council also increases the respect of citizens and elected officials throughout the state for efforts to expand the participation of all citizens in every aspect of community life.

As the needs and concerns of citizens with disabilities becomes visible and addressed through the efforts of the Mayors' Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals, the following are a few of the benefits Kokomo, Indiana has witnessed.

Increased revenue sources and more effective delivery of programs as more citizens with disabilities are given increased opportunity to become productive members of the community.

Increased access to activities of community life by citizens with disabilities such as employment, transportation, social, recreational, civic, and political.

And an enhanced sense of awareness and commitment to the community by all of its citizens.

Despite the successful program and progress made by the Kokomo Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals, the absence of comprehensive Federal legislation prohibiting_discrimination against individuals with disabilities has proved to be a serious roadblock in our overall efforts.

Members of the Council have witnessed discriminatory acts against persons with disabilities. There are many examples I could cite.

Three common examples of discrimination against persons with disabilities will suffice. The Council worked with a disabled woman who was denied a parking space on the parking lot where she works.

A handicapped parking space near a ramp had been designated for her. The space was taken from her after a reorganization at her place of employment. She was offered a parking space three blocks from where she worked.

The Council advocated for an elderly wheelchair bound man who lived in Howard Country. Howard County rural transportation is not equipped with a wheelchair lift. The man's wife died. The Council members worked with city senior transportation whose funding only allows them to transport within the city limits to bend their guidelines to go into the county. Senior city transportation did go into the county and transported this man to his wife's wake and funeral.

The city senior transportation system was forced to run the risk of losing its funding by traveling outside of its designated area in order to provide this needed human service.

Several members of the Council have been affected by devastating disincentives to voting. The Council is acutely aware that in 1984 the United States Congress passed the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act, P.L. 98-435.

In order to meet the requirements of this law, some jurisdictions merely encouraged persons with disabilities to vote by absentee ballot, an approach which is merely a ruse to avoid compliance with the clear intent of the Act which is that voting places be accessible to the disabled.

It also deprives the disabled voter of an option available to other absentee voters, the right to change their vote by appearing personally at the polls on election day to cast their ballot.

Other jurisdictions create a public spectacle of the person with a disability by having a voting machine taken to the person's vehicle for him or her to vote.

These mechanisms are demeaning to the disabled person. These methods for accessibility create a loss of dignity and independence for the disabled voter.

The Mayor's Advisory Council for Handicapped Individuals has been distressed in the knowledge that in the absence of national standards, there are no means available to redress such inequities.

The Americans With Disabilities Act is much needed legislation. Protection of the civil rights of all people and I underscore the words, all people, to include people with disabilities is long overdue for our great nation.