nation's work force. This legislation, then, is a law in aid of the free market and not a creature of the welfare state. It is, in short, legislation that suits the temper of the times. Demography also favors passage of this law at this moment. We know that the population is aging and that disability and age are strongly correlated. We are virtually certain that the median age of the population should rise between 1990 and 2040 from 33 to 42 years. The best estimates also conclude that the percentage of the population 65 years or older should grow from 12.7 in 1990 to 21.7 (or about 67 million people) in 2040. From the perspective of disability, it is the years just before the retirement age that are critical. The average age of Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries has been about 52 years old; the median age has been higher. Right now the largest single group in the general population is between 28 and 32 years old. This group will reach the critical point for going cn disability insurance when its members reach age 50. That will happen in about 18 years, the year 2007. We know from foreign experience just how costly the aging of the population can be. West Germany, for example, has experienced a spectacular rise in its disability rolls from 1965 to 1984, from one million to just over 2.25 million recipients. Comparable declines in the labor force participation of older workers and increases in the percent receiving disability transfer payments were experienced in the Netherlands and Sweden for this general period. Right now we are in a benign period before the baby boom approaches the disability years and then the retirement years. The labor force has completed the job of absorbing the baby boom and of making room for the increased participation of women in the labor force. Some even speak of a coming labor shortage, as the baby bust age cohort enters the work force. Trouble in the form of increased social welfare expenditures, however, looms right around the corner. The percentage of people 55 to 64 in the population was 9.6 in 1980, but the percentage will decline to 8.4 in 1990. By 2010, the percentage will rise again, to a level of 12.3 (which represents 35 million people). Now, in the interlude between the baby boom and its echo, is the time for us to create constructive alternatives to people declaring themselves "unable to engage in substantial gainful activity." Now is the time for a new approach toward people with disabilities. Such an approach will help to alleviate the coming labor shortage, and it will do much to reduce the "disability crunch" that should arrive within a few years. The Americans with Disabilities Act, I believe, is an important piece of legislation on which this generation of legislators should put its stamp. Consortium for For further information contact: Liz Savage, EFA 459-3700 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 9, 1989 Over eighty national disability organizations applauded the introduction of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1989, introduced in both houses of Congress this week. "Too long have Americans with disabilities, out nation's largest minority, experienced discrimination in every sphere of their lives." said Paul Marchand, Chairman of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. "The Americans With Disabilities Act is a declaration that this country opposes unfair biases and unnecessary barriers restricting the opportunities of 43 million Americans in our land of opportunity." Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and David Durenberger (R-MN) and Congressmen Tony Coelho (D-CA), Hamilton Fish Jr. (R-NY) and Silvio Conte (R-MA) introduced identical versions of this Act. This legislation would prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications and the activities of state and local governments. "This bill is a very important measure for all people with disabilities, regardless of the type of disability," Marchand added. "Whether you're a person who is blind, deaf, mobility handicapped, mentally retarded, or has a mental illness, you share the common experience of discrimination." As evidence of the need for this Act, its authors point out that over two-thirds of all Americans with disabilities are unemployed and a high percentage live in poverty. "Such conditions are not the inevitable result of the disabling conditions themselves," stated Marchand, "but rather of various kinds of discrimination, such as the biases of employers and the lack of transportation and public accommodation." The Act would extend federal discrimination protections found in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 to people with handicaps, who are not currently included among the protected groups. The bill is also viewed as an extension of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which protects people with disabilities from discrimination in activities receiving federal funding. Section 504 is widely regarded as a highly successful start in barring discrimination against people with handicaps. The Americans With Disabilities Act just may be the completion of this nation's commitment to protecting people with disabilities from discrimination, which was begun with the 1973 Act. LIST OF SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS IS ATTACHED FORMERLY: CONSORTIUM FOR CITIZENS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1989 ACLD, An Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities AIDS Action Council Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery American Association of University Affiliated Programs American Association for Counseling and Development American Council of the Blind American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association American Diabetes Association American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation American Psychological Association American Society for Deaf Children American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Association for the Education of Rehabilitation Facility Personnel Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States Autism Society of America Child Welfare League of America Conference of Educational Administrators Serving the Deaf Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Disabled But Able to Vote Epilepsy Foundation of America Gallaudet University Gallaudet University Alumni Association Gazette International Networking Institute International Association of Parents of the Deaf International Polio Network International Ventilator Users Network Lamda Legal Defense and Education Fund Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Mental Health Law Project National Alliance for the Mentally Ill National Association for Music Therapy National Association of Developmental Disabilities Councils National Association of the Deaf National Association of Private Residential Resources National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems National Association of Rehabilitation Facilities National Association of Rehabilitation Professionals in the p.2 National Association of State Mental Retardation Program Directors National Center for Law and the Deaf National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship National Council on Independent Living National Council on Rehabilitation Education National Down Syndrome Congress National Easter Seal Society National Federation of the Blind National Fraternal Society of the Deaf National Handicapped Sports and Recreation Association National Head Injury Foundation National Mental Health Association National Multiple Sclerosis Society National Network of Learning Disabled Adults National Organization for Rare Disorders National Organization on Disability National Recreation and Park Association National Rehabilitation Association National Spinal Cord Injury Association People First International Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf, Inc. Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc. Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps The Gray Panthers Tourette Syndrome Association United Cerebral Palsy Associations Women's Equity Action League Women's Legal Defense Fund World Institute on Disability |