Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

OPENING STATEMENT OF TOM HARKIN (D. Iowa), CO-CHAIRMAN
JOINT HEARING ON DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF HANDICAP
SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE HANDICAPPED
HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION
SEPTEMBER 27, 1988

The Senate Subcommittee on the Hard icapped and the House Subcommittee on Select Blucation are proud to hold this joint hearing on the pervasive problem of discrimination in our Nation against Americans with disabilities. I would like to extend a warm welcome to the witnesses and to the hundreds of persons in the audience. This hearing will go down in history as another significant step in Congress' effort to ensure equal opportunity for our 42 million Americans with disabilities.

People with disabilities, like racial and ethnic minorities and women, are entitled to obtain a job, enter a restaurant or hotel, ride a bus, listen to and watch the TV, use the telephone, and use public services free from invidious discrimination and policies that exclude them solely on the basis of their disability. Every American must be guaranteed genuine opportunities to live their lives to the maximum of their potential.

Almost a quarter of a century ago Congress took the historic step of passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, among other things, bars discrimination against persons on the basis of race, color, and national origin by recipients of fateral aid and in such areas as employment and public accommodations. Americans with disabilities were not protected by this landmark legislation. In 1968, the Congress and the President took another historic step when it passed the Fair Housing legislation barring discrimination in housing. Once again, people with disabilities were not extended protections by this legislation.

In 1973, some 15 years ago, the Congress finally adopted section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of hard icap. Nowever, this legislation only prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal aid. It does not cover discrimination by private employers; nor does it prohibit discrimination in public accommodations.

Trus, today under ou Nation's civil rights laws, an employer can no longer say to a prospective employee, "I will not hire you because of the color of your akin, or because you're a woman or Jewish." If they did, a person could march over to the court house, file a law suit, win, collect damages and attorneys fees. Yet, to this day nothing prevents an employer or an owner of a hotel or restaurant from excluding Americans with disabilities. The courthouse door is still closed to Americans with disabilities.

On April 28, 1988, several senators and representatives introduced the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1988 and took the first step in opening up the courthouse door. The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in areas of employment, public accommodations, transportation, communications, and public services.

It is my expectation that this legislation will become the law of the land during the 101st Congress. However, the road to enactment will be filled with potholes and roadblocks. But, if we stay together as a community and we work with the groups representing employers and the hotel, restaurant, communications and transportation industries, I believe we can succeed.

We have momentum on our side. When the Administration vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act, this Congress overrode that veto overwhelmingly. And, when the Fair Housing Act Amendments came before this Congress, we worked closely with the realtors and the homebuilders and we put together a broad-based coalition to get this landmark legislation passed, again overwhelmingly.

We can do the same with the Americans With Disabilities Act. It's good legislation, important, needed, it's the right thing to do-and almost a quartercentury after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is long overdue.

[ocr errors]

For further information, contact Pam McKinney at 202-224-3254, or Bobby Silverstein at 202-224-6265.

Senator HARKIN. I would like to recognize Congressman Coelho now and welcome him to this hearing.

STATEMENT OF HON. TONY COELHO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Mr. COELHO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First off, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you and Chairman Owens for holding this hearing. As you and the chairman have both indicated, this is a historic hearing. I think it starts us down a path that has been needed for years.

As you have all indicated, there are approximately 36 million, some people say 43 million, Americans with disabilities that basically do not have their basic civil rights.

As one with a hidden disability, as one who openly discusses my epilepsy, I know what discrimination is. I am not going to go into detail of what is in this bill, because that has already been discussed and will be discussed more. I am only going to discuss briefly with my colleagues, and with those of you in this room, as to why I feel so strongly that this legislation is needed.

I have said repeatedly over the years, please do not dwell on the things that I cannot do, help me do the things that I can do. I can be a wonderfully productive American citizen if you will help me do that. Every American citizen, regardless of their ability or disability cannot do certain things. Just because those of us who are disabled are limited in our ability of doing certain things, does not mean that we are unable of being productive citizens.

It is time that our Government recognizes our abilities and gives us the dignity to do what we can do.

As a young man, I developed seizures, later diagnosed as epilepsy. For many years, for 5 years, as I had my seizures on a regular basis, I did not know what they were. I went to every doctor that you could think of. I also went to three witch doctors because I was supposedly possessed by the devil. My Republican colleagues think I am, but others believed I was. [Laughter.]

As I went to college, I was an achiever. I got outstanding grades in high school and outstanding grades in college. I was student body president in high school and student body president in college. I was outstanding senior in college. I was sought after by different businesses and groups, to be involved in their activities and be employed by them. I had decided that I wanted to be an attorney.

In my senior year, I changed my mind. I decided I wanted to become a Catholic priest. As I graduated with honors, I then had a physical exam in order to enter the seminary. The physical exam pointed out that these seizures that I had been having for 5 years meant that I had epilepsy.

I always remember very well what happened, in that I walked to the doctor's office from my car, sat in the doctor's office, was told about my epilepsy, walked back to my car, got back in my car and drove back to my fraternity house and I was the same exact person. But only in my own mind because the world around me changed.

My doctor had to notify the legal authorities of my epilepsy. My church was notified and immediately I was not able to become a Catholic priest, because my church did not, at the time, permit epileptics to be priests. My driver's license was taken away, my insurance was taken away. Every job application has the word epilepsy on it and I marked it, because I was not going to lie. I could not get a job.

My parents refused to accept my epilepsy. I became suicidal and drunk by noon. The only reason is because I had not changed as a person. The only reason is that world around me had changed. The light had been turned off, the light of opportunity, the light of hope. Not until a priest friend of mine turned me over to a man of hope by the name of Bob Hope did the light get lit again.

I am here today, serving in the capacity that I serve, because some people believe not because my Government protected me, not because my Government protected my basic civil rights.

I am a major advocate of this bill because I want to make sure that other young people, as their looking for hope, as they believe that the system should work for them, have that hope, have that opportunity.

What happened at Gallaudet University was not only an inspiration, I am sure, to the hearing impaired. What happened at Gallaudet University was an inspiration to all of us with disabilities, in that if we ourselves believe in ourselves and are willing to stand up we can make a difference.

That is what this bill is all about; 36 million Americans deciding it is time for us to stand up for ourselves, to make a difference, to say that we want our basic civil rights also. We deserve it.

Give us an opportunity to do what we can do, do not keep telling us what we cannot do.

I thank my colleagues.

[The prepared statement of Congressman Coelho follows:]

TONY COELHO

CALIFORNIA MAJORITY WHP

M-148 US CAPITOL WASHINGTON DC 20618 202-225-3120

Congress of the United States

House of Representatives
Office of the Majority Whip

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1988
Statement by Rep. Tony Coelho
September 27, 1988

The joint hearing we are participating in today represents another important step in the struggle to secure civil rights protections for Americans with disabilities, our nation's largest minority. The time has come to send a message across America that people with disabilities can no longer be locked out, stigmatized or ignored. The time has finally come to end the discrimination 43 million Americans with disabilities face as they strive to take their rightful place in every aspect of our society.

I am honored to co-chair today's hearing because I belong to this minority. We are a diverse group--we use wheelchairs, we are blind, we are deaf, many of us have hidden disabilities - epilepsy, cancer, HIV infection, diabetes, mental illness. We have lived in the White House. We live in institutions and nursing homes. We live in large cities and in rural communities. We work in Congress and we work at McDonald's. Many of us aren't permitted to work at all.

No matter our what our disability is, where we live, or what we do, we all share the common experience of discrimination. And we all share a common dream: to live wherever we choose, to work and achieve whatever career goals we strive toward, to communicate with our neighbors, to travel where we choose, and, like all other Americans, to freely use and enjoy public accommodations in our communities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is a major step towards achieving our dream of equality. This act was developed by the National Council on the Handicapped, an independent federal agency appointed by President Reagan to investigate the status of disabled Americans. Over the past five years, the Council conducted innumerable hearings and forums across this country and reached the same inescapable conclusions again and again: barriers and discrimination, rather than the inherent physical or mental characteristics of persons with disabilities themselves, are to blame for the staggering unemployment and isolation of these citizens, our nation's largest minority.

The Americans with Disabilities Act proposes a series of protections against discrimination which parallel existing civil rights statutes. In drafting this bill, the Council has drawn also on the successful model used by the federal government in eliminating discrimination on the basis of handicap in federally-funded activities. This vision of the National Council on the Handicapped, that existing civil rights could and should be extended to protect the disabled, has been shaped by the input of hundreds of disabled Americans and parents of disabled children.

As the Council found, unfair discrimination is the daily experience of many of the 43 million Americans with disabilities. Every sphere of life is affected: housing, employment, recreation, transportation; even the ability to operate independently in the commercial sphere, or to vote, or to raise children. Our entire society has been inadvertently structured in a way that unnecessarily denies innumerable opportunities, great and small, to people with disabilities, in ways that are never even noticed by most Americans.

1

Simple daily tasks, like visiting the grocery store or the bank, going to a restaurant or a movie, using the telephone to report an emergency, taking the bus to the doctor, or even getting in and out of one's own home, can become monumental tasks or impossible barriers to overcome -- not due to the actual physical and mental conditions of disabled Americans, but due to prejudice, fears, and unnecessary obstacles which have been placed in their path.

Countless numbers of our fellow citizens who are veterans of foreign conflicts, have acquired a disability while defending their country, only to come home to a society that subjects them to discrimination and injustice, a society that shuns them merely because they are disabled. The architectural, communication and transportation barriers they face do not affect them and their families alone. Our entire society bears the economic burdens of this prejudice: dependency is expensive. It increases benefit entitlements and decreases productive capacity sorely needed by the American economy.

As I can tell you from my own experience with epilepsy, employment discrimination is one of the most pervasive problems affecting Americans with disabilities. Jobs are unfairly denied every day to thousands of capable people with epilepsy and other disabilities due to prejudice, stereotypes and groundless myths about our lack of abilities or because we are erroneously perceived to pose dangers to ourselves and others.

For example, I know one woman with epilepsy who was employed for nearly eight years as a secretary for a company. One day she had a seizure at work and was fired, simply because her employer felt that her co-workers should not have to work with someone like her.

Similarly, a young man with multiple sclerosis was fired from his job because he was unable to handwrite his reports even though he was perfectly capable of dictating them. Or, what of the veteran who lost a leg in Vietnam and was denied a job in a factory line even though he was totally able to perform the job?

These stories, sadly, are all true. Yet these individuals, like many other American citizens, have no remedy to challenge the denial of employment. They want to be productive, self-supporting and tax-paying participants in society, but they have been told that they cannot do so, for reasons that are irrational, illogical, and unjust. This bill gives these persons a remedy.

People with disabilities want to work. This has been confirmed by numerous studies, including the 1986 Lou Harris survey which found that twothirds of the disabled people polled who are not employed said that they wanted to work. One-quarter of these Americans attributed their unemployment to employer discrimination and an additional 28 percent attributed it to transportation barriers.

The full and dramatic reality of this problem has been largely hidden, denied, and explained away. When a program, or a job, or a school, has excluded disabled people, or segregated them in a separate facility, this has been justified through the unchallenged myth of equating disability with inability. When taking stock of the status of unemployment in our society, the staggering level of disabled employment 66 percent - is not viewed as a solvable problem, it's viewed as an inevitability. You hear things like, "Of course they can't work. They're disabled." This alleged self-truth has gone substantially unchallenged and is one of the most fundamental errors our society has ever made.

[ocr errors]

2

« AnteriorContinuar »