Carrie Seidman: Bush vision of inclusion incomplete and vulnerable

Dec. 09--It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I did not vote to re-elect George H.W. Bush in 1992. I wasn't (and still am not) in favor of family dynasties or power concentrated in the wealthy, the white and the elite. That said, I always considered H.W. a decent man of solid character and admirable values. Watching his funeral last week from the vantage point of today's very different model of political leadership, I appreciated them even more.

There was one of his accomplishments, however, that I admired then and now: the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This greatest step toward social equity since the civil rights legislation of the '60s insured people with disabilities would have a right to equality of opportunity, full participation in society, independent living and economic self-sufficiency.

Signing the ADA on July 26, 1990 -- before 2,000 onlookers, many disabled, gathered on the South Lawn of the White House -- Bush likened the moment to the fall of the Berlin Wall, that ultimate symbol of obstruction of freedom.

"Once again, we rejoice as this barrier falls," he said, "for claiming together we will not accept, we will not excuse, we will not tolerate discrimination in America."

It's painful to read those words today, as prejudice amps up on so many fronts. It's also frustrating to realize that, while the ADA has improved life in many ways for people with disabilities, it is still not uniformly enforced and remains imminently at risk of dilution.

Just last April, Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a disabled veteran and wheelchair user, gathered support to stall passage in the Senate of the ADA Education and Reform Act (HR 620), which already had passed the House. The bill would have made it more difficult to file lawsuits over violations of access and lengthened timelines for compliance. But even as the Senate held the line, the U.S. Department of Education'sOffice for Civil Rights began dismissing hundreds of disability-related claims from people with a "pattern" of complaints.

For Olivia Babis, a peer mentor at the Suncoast Center for Independent Living who recently lost her bid for a state Senate seat, the ADA challenge was a painful reminder of how the political landscape has changed since it passed, when she was 14 years old.

"The ADA was a Republican legacy signed by a Republican president who fought to make this one of his platform issues," said Babis, who was born without arms. "To see that undermined by his own party is really sad, and speaks to how that party doesn't stand for the same things it used to."

For Babis, passage of the ADA literally opened doors. For the first time since starting school in Lakeland -- where, despite her high intellect, she was placed in special education classes and bused long distances to attend the lone "disability accessible" school -- she could attend an ADA-compliant school in her own neighborhood. She also remembers thinking how the act could open up a world of possibilities for her.

"It was this more hopeful perception to know I could go to college and live independently, to know things would have to be made accommodating for me," she recalls. "It also gave the disability community some ability to challenge things. It was our civil rights act."

But after attending college in Washington, D.C. -- one of the most disability-friendly areas in the nation -- Babis was disappointed to find herself at the other end of the spectrum when she returned to Florida.

"People expect a lot more considering this is kind of the retirement capital of the nation," said Babis, who moved to Sarasota four years ago. "But Florida falls way behind most other states. And Sarasota is one of the more noncompliant areas in the state."

In certain areas of the city, Babis says, she routinely encounters trees in the middle of sidewalks, sidewalks that end abruptly without curb cuts, no sidewalks at all, and handicapped parking spaces paved with bricks that wreak havoc on motorized vehicle ramps. (She recently had to repair the one on her van, to the tune of $1,000). As a member of the city's Disability Board, she's constantly advocating for funding, but feels "people see programs and services for the disabled not as allowing us to be productive members of society, but as us being lazy and wanting a handout."

Even small advances are tempered by double-standards. When a local disabled advocate seeking ocean access recently succeeded in getting the county to provide motorized all-terrain wheelchairs at Siesta Beach, it seemed like a victory. But the steep fee for their use ($49 for an hour and a half or $150 per day) is, in itself, discriminatory. (Admirably, but ironically, the chairs are free to disabled veterans, whose benefits are generally greater than others who receive disability payments).

As if trying to enforce compliance and hold off attacks on the ADA weren't enough, changes in the political climate that "dehumanize any kind of people that are viewed as the 'other,'" are even harder to swallow, Babis says.

"There's this superiority complex when we look at people that are different, whether their culture, their language or their disability, that strips them of their humanity," she said. "We're not seeing people as people, as equals, and the disability community is particularly vulnerable to that."

There have been many disturbing acts by the current resident of the White House, but none worse to me than his mocking imitation of a reporter with a disability. I'm sure that didn't sit well with the late President Bush either, who saw the ADA as one of his greatest accomplishments, and a force for integration and inclusion, not a form of special treatment.

"Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down," he said, ending his remarks that hot summer day in 1990.

But that was then and this is now. A different era, and a very different president, one who believes walls are meant to be fortified, not demolished.

Contact columnist Carrie Seidman at 941-361-4834 or carrie.seidman@heraldtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @CarrieSeidman and Facebook at facebook.com/cseidman.

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