BOSTON - Sunday, July 26, 2020, marks the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA), a critical civil rights law that aims to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts is proud to play a critical role in the Justice Department’s enforcement efforts under the ADA, which was signed into law on July 26, 1990, and is the nation’s preeminent civil rights law for providing access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
“During my tenure as U.S. Attorney, my office has aggressively enforced civil rights protections on behalf of the people of Massachusetts, and nowhere is this more important than in the context of disability rights," said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. “The ADA is an important and powerful law that addresses issues ranging from making sure restaurants can accommodate wheelchairs, to ensuring that web services are accessible to those with vision, hearing and physical disabilities. Despite this year’s 30th anniversary commemoration, there is more work to do. Our role in advancing disability rights is crucial to ensure that the aspiration of the ADA-the elimination of discrimination against all forms of disability, both physical and mental-is achieved."
Since the formation of the Civil Rights Unit in the fall of 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has investigated a number of ADA cases. This includes agreements with Tufts Medical Center to adopt policies that ensure effective communication for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and with McLean Hospital to make the hospital’s buildings physically accessible. In addition, the office entered into settlements with two skilled nursing facilities, Athena Health Care Systems and Charlwell House, ensuring that individuals prescribed medication assisted treatment to treat their opioid use disorder would not be denied admission. The U.S. Attorney's Office also reached agreements with a number of schools and school districts, including Hudson Public Schools, The Park School and Lexington Chinese School, to ensure that students with disabilities enjoy the same access to education and educational programs as their peers.
The promise of the ADA is its wide-ranging efforts to eliminate disability discrimination across the range of services, programs and activities that most Americans take for granted, but were largely inaccessible to individuals with disabilities. Whether in employment, areas of civic life, or in the day-to-day activities and access to goods and services that we all enjoy - the ADA requires that we take those steps necessary to ensure access for all.
Over the past 30 years, the United States has undertaken the challenge of changing perceptions about disability, tearing down barriers to equality and altering the systems that have historically excluded people with disabilities. Today, the Justice Department commemorates the many ways that the ADA has transformed society-by replacing exclusion with access, segregation with integration and limitations with self-determination.
For more information about the 30th Anniversary of the ADA, please visit www.ada.gov. To file a complaint with the Department, please visit the Civil Rights Division’s portal at https://civilrights.justice.gov/report/. For more information about the ADA, call the Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TTY).
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
