Prelude to Drafting the Original ADA Bill - Part 6

Formal Release of Toward Independence and Initial Reactions

On January 30, 1986, the day after the presentation by Dave Park and Don Kent on accessibility features of the Statue of Liberty, the National Council on Disability returned its focus to releasing and publicizing Toward Independence. Although the planned initial press conference had been dramatically eclipsed by the space shuttle tragedy, and the meeting with President Reagan had been canceled, other public relations events proceeded as scheduled. On the 30^th, the Council formally delivered the report to members of Congress at a ceremony, press conference, and reception in the Senate Dirksen Office Building. In accepting the report, some members of Congress, including Senators Lowell Weicker and Paul Simon, and Representatives Steve Bartlett and Major Owens, offered remarks. Senator Weicker said that Toward Independence would not “go on the shelf with the other reports,” but that “action will be taken.”[1] Justin Dart quoted Senator Weicker as also having said “This is one of the best things that have ever been done – both the report and the [Council].”[2] Senator Paul Simon promised that members of Congress were “going to hold ourselves accountable for taking responsibility for each one of the recommendations made in this report.”[3] Representative Bartlett congratulated the Council on the report and described it as the “Declaration of Independence, 1986.”[4] The reception attracted over 400 attendees, including federal government officials, congressional staff, and disability community leaders.

The next day the Council held a day-long forum at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel to discuss and obtain feedback on the major recommendations in Toward Independence. After a brief welcome, introduction, and overview, the forum featured panels addressing the ten topic areas covered in the report. In addition to almost all of the members and staff of the Council, the speakers and moderators comprised an impressive array of disability policy authorities; they included – with their positions and affiliation at the time and in the order they appeared on the agenda – the following: Gail Schwartz, Director of the Institute for Rehabilitation and Disability Management; Don Galvin, Professor at Michigan State University on leave to the National Rehabilitation Hospital; Evan Kemp, Executive Director of the Disability Rights Center; Bonnie Milstein, Staff Attorney at the Center for Law and Social Policy; Patricia Owens, Associate Commissioner on Disability at the Social Security Administration; Deborah McKeithan, President of Handicapped Organized Women; David Dean, Bureau of Economic Research at Rutgers University; Gerben DeJong, Director of Research at the National Rehabilitation Hospital; Max Starkloff, Executive Director of Paraquad; Oral Miller, National Representative of the American Council of the Blind; Mike Morris, Director of Governmental Activities at the United Cerebral Palsy Association; Ruth Phillips, Associate Advocacy Director, Paralyzed Veterans of America; Richard Gould, Consumer; Jean McGuire, Legislative Analyst, Association of Retarded Citizens; Paul Marchand, Director of Government Affairs, Association of Retarded Citizens; Patricia Morrissey, Deputy Commissioner, Rehabilitation Services Administration; Carol Dunlap, National Project Director of the Electronics Industry Foundation; Alton Hodges, Consultant to the National Institute of Handicapped Research; and Carl Rush, Executive Director of the Dole Foundation. For a somewhat different perspective, the luncheon speaker was Willis Goldbeck, President of the Washington Business Group on Health, a non-profit organization representing large employers' perspectives on national health policy issues.

The gathering proved to be a true “forum” – a forum for participants to provide kudos to the Council for things they liked in Toward Independence as well as a forum for explaining to the Council concerns that participants were not so positive about: and for offering advice about refining and improving the legislative proposals in the report and about how to promote and advocate for the proposals. Overall, the feedback was generally positive. Justin Dart described his impressions of the forum by saying that “prominent disability rights leaders of most major national constituency groups … have personally endorsed the concepts implicit in the major equal opportunity and independence-oriented proposals of Toward Independence, and have praised the process through which the report was produced.”[5]

On Monday, February 3, the first weekday after the Council meeting at which the report was released, Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, abetted by the Council’s Justin/Lex/Kent Waldrep connections in Texas, endorsed the equal opportunity recommendations of Toward Independence, and announced that he would have the report sent to the Attorney General of each of the states (and to all of the members of Congress representing Texas);[6] not long thereafter, the National Association of State Attorneys General did send copies to each Attorney General suggesting the use of Toward Independence as a benchmark in their states.[7] Also, on the steps of the state capitol in Austin, a copy of the report was formally delivered to the governor of Texas before an audience largely comprised of people with disabilities.[8] In South Carolina, Council member Joe Dusenbury arranged to have Toward Independence presented to the governor at a ceremony in the statehouse.[9]

The Council distributed the report widely, initially sending over 5,000 complimentary copies to key leaders in the states and many foreign countries,[10] and ultimately disseminating more than 20,000 copies to legislators, government officials, disability advocates, and disability organizations.[11] The National Council granted permission to the computer bulletin board network DIMENET to reproduce the report and make it available electronically.[12] The network, started by long-time disability activist and computer guru (and ADAPT event bus driver) Roland Sykes and some colleagues, and supported by the National Council on Independent Living, was originally intended primarily to facilitate networking among the independent living centers; as the network grew, the name was changed to DIMENET, which stood for Disabled Individuals Movement for Equality Network, and helped people with disabilities get online early in the electronic age, by giving them straightforward, inexpensive access to computer networking.

The report came to have a significant impact on policies and plans pertaining to Americans with disabilities, including disability policy development at the state level. For example, the state legislature in South Carolina purchased copies for each of its members so that the recommendations could serve as an outline for state planning.[13] Toward Independence was adopted as a textbook in university classes, as a reference for many other reports, and was translated into Japanese, German, Swedish, and other languages. In the months following the publication of Toward Independence, the report was used repeatedly as the centerpiece for a number of conferences, meetings, and forums; organizations such as the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the National Easter Seal Society, and the National Council on Independent Living employed the report as a jumping-off point from which to generate discussion about disability policy.[14]

Additional reaction from congressional leaders was forthcoming in April, when the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations each met to review the Council's budget for the upcoming year.[15] Members of both committees praised the Council for producing Toward Independence and showed that they were taking the report’s content seriously by querying Sandy Parrino and Lex Frieden about the recommendations and the Council’s plans for implementation. Senator Lowell Weicker opened the Senate hearing by congratulating the Council for its accomplishments and commenting on the refreshing effectiveness of the Council: "I think really, so many of these national councils are a lot of show and don't do anything. I think you are terribly blessed .... You have a real great outfit here."[16] Later, he gushed that Toward Independence was “a magnificent piece of work” and went on to commend the Council for initiating the Harris poll, for its professionalism, and “for the courage in cutting across all partisan and philosophical bounds in order to achieve the [desired] result of those you serve, which is what it is all about.” [17] In written remarks prepared for the record by Sandy and in remarks Lex delivered at the hearing, they outlined the Council's workplan and implementation strategies for following up and monitoring the recommendations in the report.[18]On the House side, after Sandy Parrino made preliminary remarks on the issuance of Toward Independence, Representative Carl Pursell referred to it as “a nice report” that was “well done.” [19] He and Representatives William Natcher, Silvio Conte, and Bernard Dwyer then explored with the Council witnesses the overall thrust and recommendations in Toward Independence. When queried by Representative Natcher about the scope of the report and whether it encompassed employment opportunities for people with disabilities, Sandy assured him that it did and recited the 10 topics that the Council had addressed in the report.[20] In responding to a question from Representative Pursell, Lex articulated what he considered the major themes of the report:

There are two principal themes that run through this report. One of those deals with equal opportunity .... The second predominant theme relates to independence for people with disabilities. We believe community-based programs that facilitate independence for people with disabilities are the most cost-effective means of providing disabled people the opportunity to make choices about their own lives.[21]

Both Lex and Sandy entered into a discussion with Representative Pursell about the importance of facilitating the transition from school to work.[22] The Representatives and the witnesses agreed on the importance of the Council focusing next on implementation of the Toward Independence recommendations.

Media reaction to Toward Independence was considerable and typically positive.[23] The report was mentioned on the front page of USA Today, as well as in articles in many local papers across the country. Television coverage included interviews with Chairperson Parrino on "Today in New York City" and "Live at Five" on station WPLG in Miami, Florida. And radio broadcasts were generated from various locales, including Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Miami, Florida. Based on a request from the Voice of America, the Council and Toward Independence were featured on a radio program broadcast in the People’s Republic of China. Disability publications such as the Disability Rag and various consumer organization newsletters ran articles emphasizing the comprehensiveness and depth of the report's recommendations.[24] Even the newsletter of the American Public Transit Association (later renamed the American Public Transportation Association), the national organization of the public transportation industry, whose annual conventions ADAPT was routinely trying to disrupt because of the lack of accessibility of public transit systems, included an informative article about Toward Independence that highlighted, without criticizing, the rather strong recommendations pertaining to accessibility of public transit.[25]

Overall, the report, in the words of Bonnie O'Day, at the time the director of the Endependence Center, an independent living center in Norfolk, Virginia, "made a big splash."[26] Or, as Paul Hearne, Lex’s successor as Executive Director at the National Council, would observe in 1988, the Council’s publication of Toward Independence "put the Council on the map."[27] Thousands of people around the country read it and talked about it. It garnered attention for several reasons.

One was that, through the consumer forums at Council meetings and during Justin’s barnstorming around the country and the extensive feedback that the Council sought in developing its recommendations, the report was anchored in the input of grassroots people with disabilities. The extensive, nationwide outreach generated a sense of ownership of the report in the disability community.[28] The idea that the Council was reflecting the voice of people with disabilities was buttressed when the Council received recognition, early in 1986, that it had the highest percentage of employees with “targeted disabilities” of any federal agency (at 37.5% – nearly double the rate of the runner up); Justin declared that this demonstrated that “[w]e practice what we preach.”[29] At the same time, Toward Independence commanded the prestige of being the product of a federal agency. It also drew attention by bringing forward a broad, coherent, national vision of disability policy – an historic achievement. Apart from the other content of the report, simply producing a comprehensive analysis of federal disability programs was a significant accomplishment. Some extra attention to the report no doubt came from the shock effect of a progressive, forward-looking product being generated by an agency whose members were appointed by a conservative Republican president. Finally, positive perceptions of Toward Independence stemmed in no small part from readers’ receptivity to its recommendations; whether the Council simply reiterated good ideas and existing proposals of others or came up with novel approaches – it did some of both – the measures it proposed struck a chord with many policymakers, disability leaders, and grassroots folks with disabilities. And a particular attention-getter was the very first recommendation, for the enactment of a comprehensive equal opportunity law called something like “the Americans with Disabilities Act,” which turned out to be the right idea at the right time.

Continue to Part 7: Issuance of Final Results of Harris Poll of People with Disabilities

[1] Justin Dart, “National Council on the Handicapped meeting, January 29-31, 1986: Some personal notes and observations by Justin Dart,” pp. 1, 4.

[2] Id.

[3] Fred Pelka, What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement, p. 427 (University of Mass. Press, 2012) (Sen. Simon’s statement quoted by Lex Frieden).

[4] Justin Dart, “National Council on the Handicapped meeting, January 29-31, 1986: Some personal notes and observations by Justin Dart,” pp. 1, 4.

[5] Id. at 5.

[6] Id. at 6.

[7] National Council on the Handicapped, Annual Reports to the President and to the Congress of the United States: Volumes VI and VII October 1, 1984 through September 30, 1986, p. 22 (July 1988).

[8] Fred Pelka, What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement, p. 426 (University of Mass. Press, 2012) (remarks of Lex Frieden).

[9] Id.

[10] National Council on the Handicapped, Annual Reports to the President and to the Congress of the United States: Volumes VI and VII October 1, 1984 through September 30, 1986, p. 22 (July 1988).

[11] National Council on Disability, Equality of Opportunity: The Making of the Americans with Disabilities Act, p. 58 (1997).

[12] Id.

[13] National Council on the Handicapped, Annual Reports to the President and to the Congress of the United States: Volumes VI and VII October 1, 1984 through September 30, 1986, p. 22 (July 1988).

[14] Id.

[15] Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations for Fiscal 1987 Appropriations, "National Council on the Handicapped," pt. 3, pp. 791-814, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1986); House Hearings Before a Subcommittee on Appropriations for Fiscal 1987 Appropriations, pt. 7, "National Council on the Handicapped," pp. 431-489 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1986).

[16] Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations for Fiscal 1987 Appropriations (1986) "National Council on the Handicapped," pt. 3, p. 791 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1986).

[17] Id. at 805.

[18] Id. at 795, 802.

[19] House Hearings Before a Subcommittee on Appropriations for Fiscal 1987 Appropriations, pt. 7, "National Council on the Handicapped," p. 442 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1986).

[20] Id. at 438-439.

[21] Id. at 433.

[22] Id. at 443-445.

[23] National Council on Disability, On the Threshold of Independence, p. 4 (1988).

[24] See, e.g., “National Council releases report,” Disability Rag, March/April 1986, p. 11.

[25] American Public Transit Association, “Disabled Issues: Council Reports to Congress,” Passenger Transport, Vol. 44, No.6), pp. 1-2 (Feb. 10, 1986).

[26] National Council on Disability, Equality of Opportunity: The Making of the Americans with Disabilities Act, p. 58 (1997).

[27] Id. at 61.

[28] Id. at 58.

[29] Justin Dart, “National Council on the Handicapped meeting, January 29-31, 1986: Some personal notes and observations by Justin Dart,” p. 8; Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, Disability Rights Mandates: Federal and State Compliance with Employment Protections and Architectural Barrier Removal, p. 62 Table 6-3, & p. 63 (April 1989).