Earlier I mentioned military veterans as beneficiaries of this legislation. Many who served this country through the military have disabilities as a direct result of their service. In Indiana, they number over 37,000.

The realization that the freedoms and opportunities for which they fought and shed blood are denied to them because of artificial disability related barriers comes as a very bitter pill for many of these men and women.

The message for everyone needs to be clear, concise and consistent. Discrimination on the basis of disability will not be tolerated. Thank you again for affording me this opportunity to testify in support of this important legislation.

[The prepared statement of Gary E. May follows:]

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. This important legislation would provide strong guidence in addressing discrimination on the basis of disability.

Countless thousands of Hoosiers, including over 47,000 military veterans who receive pension or compensation from the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs on the basis of disability, would benefit from the passage of this legislation. Persons with disabilities face many challenges unknown to the general population.

'The general thurst and motivation for adaptive behavior by persons with disabilities has been from the "disability as liability" perspective. From this perspective, the existence of a disability is a totally negative phenonemon which must be conquered. This perspective does not fully embrace the concept of individual differences and pushes for standardization and homogenization in a society which operates from the same premise. This process is commonly understood as fitting the square peg into the round hole. The intractability of the round hole is accepted as a given.

From this perspective, the experiences of my friend and former wheelchair basketball teammate are quite acceptable and understandable. My friend was recently nominated for an award for his achievements in finding suitable employment. His achievements in pursuit of his goal of gainful employment included departing from his home at 4:30 a.m. daily to drive marry miles to a place of employment where he worked without compensation until he was able to prove that he had the requisite skills, motivation and dependability for full time employment, which he later obtained.

Such practices subvert a process which could lead to a more enlightened, accepting and accurate understanding of individual differences.

Having

to "prove" oneself in the absence of specific, personal data about assets, attributes, and liabilities is akin to assuring that membership in a certain class is inherently negative and inferior and can be "overcome" only by the acquisition of abundant "evidence" to the contrary. He publicly abhor this process when applied to racial, ethnic, gender or other groups in American society. We can't afford to tacitly condone it for persons with disabilities by failing to pass this legislation.

This legislation will benefit many persons whose mobility, access, and participation may be only temporarily diminished. Such persons would include pregnant women, senior citizens, persons recovering from accidents, injury, medical procedures, etc. and public employment, access to private and public accomodations as well as to full participation in the cultural and social life of America.

Protections would extend from private

Earlier, I mentioned military veterans as beneficiaries of this legislation. Many who served this country through the military have disabilities as a direct result of their service. In Indiana they number over 37,000. The realization that the freedoms and opportunities for which they fought and shed blood are denied to them because of artificial disability related barriers comes as a very bitter pill for many of these men and women.

The message for everyone needs to be clear, consise and consistent. Discrimination on the basis of disability will not be tolerated.

Thank you again for offording me the opportunity to testify in support of this important legislation.

Mr. OWENS. Thank you.

Since I would like to make a closing statement I will have Mr. Jontz go first in terms of questions.

Mr. JONTZ. Mr. Chairman, I do not have any questions of this panel but I might note that the completion of Gary May's testimony, I think it is unanimous in favor of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

And I want to thank everybody who has testified today for the helpful statements. We certainly want to return to Washington to do everything we can within the Congress to get the bill passed quickly without any compromising amendments and perhaps with a couple of small improvements which have been recommended here today.

And I want to also thank the staff, the committee staff and my personal staff for their assistance and the others who were responsible for helping us to put the hearing together today. And thank everyone who has come here today.

I would like the record to show that the room has been full for most of the afternoon. We have lost a few here as the evening hours draw close.

But I think this indication of support for the legislation is indicative of how important the Americans With Disabilities Act is to people of this community and our state.

And again, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for bringing the hearing here today.

Mr. OWENS. I also want to thank the members of the audience and the panelists. I had mentioned before that throughout the country we have had hearings and have gotten very moving testimony from people who either have disabilities themselves or have members of their families with disabilities.

We have also gotten some moving testimony from other people. I would like to close out by sharing with you the testimony of one who sat on the other side.

Transportation has been mentioned several times here as a major problem. Transportation always looms as the biggest problem in terms of cost.

And right now the major effort being launched against the passage of this legislation is being launched by the president of Greyhound. I mention him specifically because he is not bashful at all about coming forth, testifying, and influencing a number of other people in an attempt to stop the forward movement of this legislation.

But there are many other transportation authorities-not private but public-across the country that are also resisting.

There is one gentleman in Texas that resisted for years any efforts to have the transit in Houston, Texas changed to accommodate people with disabilities.

And, he testified at one of our hearings. Houston has a reputation for a fortress effort in terms of resistance for a long time. Mr. Robert C. Lanier is a hard-boiled businessman. He is the chairman of Landar Corporation, and when it comes to making the arguments about the dollars and cents that will be needed to make the buses accessible, he was one of the outstanding proponents against outfitting the buses.