Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 15:48:21 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: President Clinton: ADA Anniversary Message
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July 26, 1999


     Today I join Americans across our country in celebrating the
9th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Next year,
at the dawn of the millennium, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary
of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 25th anniversary of
the Individuals with Disabilities Act.  These two laws, championed
by disability advocates throughout the United States and serving as
a beacon for people throughout the world, have helped to transform
our nation's disability policy.

     In 1993, Vice President Gore and I established three core
principles for our Administration's disability policy -- inclusion,
independence, and empowerment.  Like many racial and ethnic groups
throughout history, people with disabilities have endured isolation
and segregation because of social discrimination.  Now, we strive
to promote inclusion for people with disabilities in all aspects
of American society, just as we do for racial and ethnic minorities.
In the past, Americans have presumed that disability meant a life
of dependence.  Now, we recognize that people with disabilities want
to -- and can -- lead independent lives and contribute to our nation's
prosperity.  For too long, we have encumbered disabled Americans with
paternalistic policies that prevent them from reaching their potential.
But now, we endeavor to empower individuals with the tools they need
to achieve their dreams.

     Disability advocates have drawn our nation's attention to the
pervasive stigma and discrimination faced by people with disabilities.
Never before has disability been so prominently discussed in the main-
stream media.  We must use this rising level of awareness to infuse
the values of the ADA -- equality of opportunity, full participation,
independent living, and economic self-sufficiency -- into all aspects
of government and social policy.

     To succeed, we must be vigilant in defending the ADA as well as
vigorous in enforcing it.  I am pleased that the Supreme Court upheld
the rights established in the ADA by recognizing that the unjustified
isolation and segregation of persons with disabilities in institutional
settings is a form of discrimination prohibited by the ADA.  But I am
concerned that the way the Court defined disability could undermine
the ADA's nondiscrimination goals. We must work together to ensure
that the ADA's original intent -- to dismantle discrimination based
on accumulated myths and fears -- is sustained.  No American -- on
account of race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religious
beliefs, or disability -- should be denied the opportunity to hold a
job for which he or she is fully capable.

     While the ADA has been a source of hope to our citizens with
disabilities, it has not been enough to change the intolerable rate
of unemployment.  My Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabili-
ties is building on the ADA's foundation by developing a coordinated
and active employment agenda for people with disabilities.  Increasing
access to health care, providing more assistance at home and on the
job, maximizing the use of new technologies -- these are the kinds
of actions that will empower all Americans to participate fully in
the workplace.

     This year, my budget includes a three-part initiative aimed at
removing significant barriers to work for people with disabilities.
This proposal invests $2 billion over five years to help provide better
health care options for people with disabilities who work by fully
funding the Work Incentives Improvement Act; offers a $1,000 tax credit
for work-related expenses; and doubles our investment in assistive
technology.  My budget also would target tax credits for working adults
with disabilities who have long-term care needs.  On July 1, we raised
the amount an SSDI or SSI recipient can earn -- without losing crucial
benefits -- from $500 to $700 per month.  And, under the leadership
of Tipper Gore, we are beginning to address the stigma and discrimi-
nation confronted by people with psychiatric disabilities.

     By modernizing and strengthening Medicare, increasing access
to prescription drugs, and passing a meaningful patients' bill of
rights, we can further reach our goals of inclusion, independence,
and empowerment for people with disabilities.  I especially urge
Congress to move swiftly and pass the Work Incentives Improvement
Act.  As I said in my State of the Union Address, "No one should have
to choose between keeping health care and taking a job."  We cannot
think of Social Security benefits and other services and supports as
antithetical to the civil rights goals of the ADA.  We must, instead,
view them as important tools for empowering people with disabilities
to lead independent lives as equal citizens in our social mainstream.

     Thank you for all you have done to realize the promise of the
ADA.  Only by fully utilizing the contributions of every sector of
our society -- advocacy, business, service organizations, government --
can we achieve our goals.  Together, as Justin Dart continually reminds
us, we shall overcome.