Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act. To understand the ADA, let's first start with a little history. There are examples of activist groups campaigning for disability rights dating back to the 1800s. During the Great Depression, the League of the Physically Handicapped fought for employment for people with disabilities. In 1950, the NARC, or National Association for Retarded Children, was founded, which isn't a great name by today's standards, but is an example of how things can change and improve over time. In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was the first time the exclusion and segregation of people with disabilities was seen as discrimination. It was also the first time people with disabilities were viewed as a minority group. Section 504 of the Act banned discrimination against people with disabilities in programs that get federal financial assistance. Before this, people had the mindset that the problems people with disabilities face, like unemployment or lack of education, were inevitable circumstances imposed by the disability itself. The Act started to change that mindset and help people realize that it's often a result of societal barriers and prejudices. The first step to changing this was to define what non-discrimination means in the context of disability. In 1975, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act guaranteed children with disabilities the right to public school education. The first version of the ADA was introduced in April 1988. A national campaign was started to write discrimination diaries to document daily instances of inaccessibility and discrimination. This was used to help raise awareness about the barriers to daily living for people with disabilities. Just a couple examples of the discrimination that were found were restaurants refusing to service people with service dogs, wheelchair users having to abandon their wheelchairs if they wanted to ride a bus or a train, businesses could legally pay employees with disabilities less than non-disabled employees doing the same work, and businesses could refuse to hire people just because they had a disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act was put into effect by Congress on July 26, 1990. It bans discrimination based on disability and requires public accommodations to be accessible. The Act defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Disabilities that are covered are any condition that substantially limit a major life activity, such as walking, talking, hearing, seeing, or learning. People with a history of disability, an example of this would be cancer that is in remission, or any impairment that is not temporary or expected to last longer than six months. The ADA is divided into five different sections called titles. Title I is about employment. Title II is about public entities and public transportation. Title III is about public accommodations and commercial facilities. Title IV is about telecommunications. And Title V is provisions. So let's take a look at Title I, Employment. This says that people with disabilities should have the same employment opportunities and benefits as everyone else. It's enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the EEOC. It says that there can't be any discrimination in any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignment, promotions, layoffs, or training. The EEOC says that discrimination is when an employer treats a qualified individual unfavorably because they have a disability. And it requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations, which are basically modifications to a job or work environment that will enable an employee with a disability to do their job well. Unless providing these accommodations will cause undue hardship or any kind of difficulty because of the employer's size, finances, or the needs of their business. And all of this applies to businesses that have 15 or more employees. Title II is in regards to public entities and public transportation. This section talks about there needing to be space and accommodations for wheelchairs on public transportation and that people with disabilities need to be able to access all state and local public housing. This title is enforced by the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. It also prohibits discrimination in any kind of housing-related transactions like sale, rental, and financing. A really important part of Title II is the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968. And this says that buildings that are designed, constructed, or altered in any way after September of 1969 need to be accessible for people with disabilities. Any buildings that are before that law usually aren't impacted, but a new business going into an older building can sometimes trigger changes. The Architectural Barriers Act is enforced by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board by investigating complaints, so a change isn't going to be made unless a complaint is made. Title III is arguably one of the most important parts of the ADA. And it says that people with disabilities will not be discriminated against in the ability to have full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and accommodations of any public space. This applies to things like hotels, recreation, transportation, education, dining, stores, care providers, and public spaces. Exceptions include private clubs, unions, and religious organizations that are not bound to Title III. Discrimination here would be the failure to remove architectural barriers like steps in existing facilities, especially when those barriers are relatively easy to remove without much difficulty or expense. And they do what's called a balance test where they look at the difference between the cost of the proposed fix and the financial means of the business. So in other words, a change that might be really easy for a big corporation might be too expensive for a small local business. As far as historic buildings are concerned, they have to do as many fixes as are possible without destroying the historic significance of the building. But any new construction that was done after the ADA took effect has to be fully compliant. Title IV is about telecommunications, which covers telephone, internet, and radio. And it requires that all telecommunication companies in the U.S. take steps to ensure functionally equivalent services for consumers with disabilities, specifically people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech impairments. So an example of this could be having Braille on keyboards or having options to have someone interpret for you over the phone. Title V is entitled provisions, which basically ensures that people who exercise their rights under the ADA or assist others in exercising their rights are protected from retaliation from anybody else. So that is the Americans with Disabilities Act in a nutshell. I hope that this was helpful for you. I hope that you learned something. And hopefully you'll pass this information on to other people. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like and subscribe and share. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.