The Honorable Tom Harkin June 27, 1989 Page 3 It is this formulation of business necessity which is incorporated in the EEOC regulation cited in part (b) of the question posed by Senator Hatch. In addition, the Section 504 lead-agency regulations adopt the same formulation, 45 CFR Section 84.13(a). The ADA incorporates this formulation of jobrelatedness and business necessity. Question No. 3: The employment section's effective date is the date of enactment. Many employers are going to be confused about their responsibilities and many will need time to understand them, as well as to prepare to make the necessary accommodations for persons with disabilities. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, banning employment discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, and gender was effective one year after date of enactment. Is there any reason not to have the same one year effective date we had in the parallel civil rights statute? Answer to Question No. 3: The current enforcement provisions are appropriate. Is the bill's definition of "reasonable accommodations" at Section 3(3) consistent with current Section 504 regulations? For example, under Section 504, if a person with a disability is no longer able to perform the job he or she is in, must the employer reassign the person a job he or she can do? Does the employer under the bill have to bump an incumbent employee or create a new job to effectuate the reassignment? Answer to Question No. 4: The definition of reasonable accommodation is consistent with the current Section 504 regulations. As to the specific example, reassignment is one possible reasonable accommodation. As with any other accommodation, the factors of undue hardship would be taken into account. Bumping an incumbent or creating a new job would not be considered reasonable under existing standards. Question No. 5: Do you have an estimate of the net dollars we can save by opening up employment opportunities on a fair basis to persons The Honorable Tom Harkin June 27, 1989 Page 4 with disabilities and thereby reducing dependency? Answer to Question No. 5: The President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped (now referred to as Persons with Disabilities) published a report on the employment status of persons with disabilities entitled, "Out of the Job Market: A National Crisis." In that report the Committee stated: The cost to our nation of tens of millions of disabled There is a popular myth that disabled people prefer to I hope these answers are helpful. We look forward to the passage of the ADA. Sincerely yours, Arlene B. Mayered Arlene B. Mayerson TD ABM:td Bowe, Testimony on "ADA" 10 May 1989, Page 1 INVITED TESTIMONY ON THE "AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT" FRANK G. BOWE, Ph.D., LL.D. HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY 111 MASON HALL HEMPSTEAD, NY 11550 Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here to testify about the "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1989". The Chairman has stated that this bill is "the most critical legislation affecting individuals with disabilities ever considered by the Congress", and he is correct. It is important because it explicitly establishes rights implied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights but never implemented or protected in our 200-plus years as a nation. Enacted and enforced, the Americans with Disabilities Act would help us to fulfill our mission as a nation: to treat all men and women equally under law. It is important because - with the rights and services Bowe, Testimony on "ADA" 10 May 1989, Page 2 established under this bill - we may at last move to help millions of people with disabilities to live a life worth living - a life of independence, gainful employment, and full integration into society. It is important because it does all this in a fair and equitable way. The bill provides protection to a long-neglected population but does so without infringing on the rights of others in America. It establishes no goals, no timetables, no quotas: will not diminish in any way the rights and opportunities available to other minority groups in our nation. it And it is important because it is one of the key tools we need to reduce federal and state spending. Today, the Federal Government alone spends in excess of $60-billion, or one-third of the budget deficit total, maintaining some six million Americans with disabilities. This bill, together with the Education of the Handicapped Act being reauthorized this year, the Rehabilitation Act reauthorized three years ago, the Fair Housing Act Amendments enacted last year, the access to air transportation legislation recently enacted, and other federal laws, helps to complete a tapestry I have long wanted to create: the foundation upon which people with disabilities may prepare for, compete fairly for, get, perform, and live off productive and gainful employment as fully contributing members of society. Bowe, Testimony on "ADA" 10 May 1989, Page 3 It extends The importance of this bill is hard to over-state. nondiscrimination rights in employment for people with disabilities to several millions of employers where we currently enjoy no federally guaranteed rights. It requires access to, and equal services in, millions of places of public accommodation, where once again we have no federally guaranteed rights at present. And it corrects one of the great injustices of this century the denial to people who are deaf of equal access to the telecommunications network of which this nation is so proud. - In Title I, the Congress wisely has chosen a definition for the term "disability" that is clear and well-understood. You have adopted the definition of the section 504 term "handicap". We have more than a decade of case history behind that definition. Title I also explains that the intent is for "equal" treatment not preferential treatment, not substandard treatment. And Title I lays out the "effect" standard that will be followed: actions which have the effect of discriminating on the basis of handicap are outlawed. These are crucial provisions. It matters little to me, or to any other person with a disability, exactly why some person or entity denies me, him or her equality of opportunity. It is the effect I have been told, for example, that "We that is so destructive. don't hire deaf people." To learn that, and to have no answer to it, after two decades of preparing myself for gainful employment, is just devastating. Why did I try? Why should others younger |