U.S. disabilities act 20th anniversary marked

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With magic tricks, blues music, free food and speeches from a variety of Michigan’s advocates for disability rights, the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was celebrated Monday on the Capitol steps in Lansing.

The ADA provides disabled citizens with civil protections that provide equal opportunities in education, communications, transportation and employment.

Part of the ADA’s celebration is educating people without disabilities about those who are disabled, because education is key in eliminating ignorance about handicaps, said Duncan Wyeth, an MSU adjunct faculty member who spoke at the event.

The celebration featured live entertainment, demonstrations of electronics made for disabled people and various other exhibits.

Advocates for disabled rights, including Wyeth, took the stage and gave testimonials of their obstacles and successes in dealing with disabilities.

Wyeth was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, which is where he said is the root of his lifelong advocacy began.

Facing his disability, Wyeth graduated from MSU with a teaching certificate and now teaches a course at MSU about disabilities in a diverse society.

Wyeth also is executive director of the Michigan Commission on Disability Concerns, which was one of the leading forces behind organizing the celebration.

“The more we know as a people, as a society, the more we know in public policy, the more we know in education facilities like Michigan State, the more knowledgeable we are about technology and devices that can allow people with disabilities to fully participate,” he said.

“The more our social laws, our legal laws, reflect inclusion of people with disabilities, the stronger we are going to be as a society.”

Forty-one-year-old Waterford, Mich., resident Ron Molles was at the celebration with a group of his friends, who all are blind.

Molles became blind last year and said he never had any idea of how difficult it was to face a disability until he experienced it firsthand in the workplace.
With assistance from the act, Molles said he feels he has been provided an equal chance at living as a disabled person.

“I have always been sighted, so I have always been able to find a job,” Molles said. “Finding a job as a disabled person, that is totally new for me. That is why it’s great to be here with the act, celebrating that. They really take an overall approach, you are not given anything, you are expected to work well, it’s a two-way street.”

Patrick Cannon, the state director for the Michigan Commission for the Blind, spoke of his successes during a speech at the event in advocacy for the ADA, an act he said leveled the playing field for those with disabilities.

Cannon, who is legally blind, contributed to the enactment of the ADA and helped introduce amendments to the act to help guarantee equal rights among disabled people.

Disabled people are not searching for free assistance or to be given preference over other people, Cannon said, they want to be treated fairly for things, such as searching for a job or a place to live.

“(The act) means philosophically that you will be judged and evaluated on the basis of many of your characteristics that (have) nothing to do with your disability,” Cannon said. “People with disabilities never ask for a gift or a handout, we have never asked to be given a job we can’t do, all we want is a chance to compete for those jobs on the basis of what we can do.”

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