From: 34AEJ7D%CMUVM.BITNET@VM1.nodak.edu (Bill Gorman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Loopholes and ADA
Date: 6 Apr 92 21:15:49 GMT
Reply-To: 34AEJ7D%CMUVM.BITNET@VM1.nodak.edu (Bill Gorman)
X-Fidonet: Spinal Injury Conference

Index Number: 20806

>
>In a message to All <14 Mar 92 11:36> Bill Gorman wrote:
>
> BG> a loophole large enough to destroy the entire ADA. All a
> BG> business or employer would need to do in such a case is ensure that
> BG> their premises are totally  INaccessible, then point  to the  fact
> BG> that  they presently have NO disabled   customers/clients/employees  as
> BG>  proof   of  and justification for an  "exception" from ADA
> BG> requirements. This  is not so distant from the means used in the
>
>I think the burden of proof in the case of skydiving and bungee jumping would
>be  on the  disabled community.  Demonstrate there  are those  interested and
>ready to jump and I'm sure there will be an instructor/school willing to make
>the necessary accommodations.

Burden  of  "Proof"?!   What  "Proof"?  We  are  talking   about
a  potential customer/client  who wishes  to patronize  a business
and cannot  due to  its inaccessibility. Permitting exceptions  to
ADA regs on the  premise that there exist no current of potential
disabled clients/customers for the the business in question is
indulging in sheer *speculation*.

I can give you a valid, current, real-life example of this sort of
thinking in action.  Credit Bureaus  effect  everybody, disabled
or  not, because  credit effects everybody, disabled  or not.
Right? Right! The local  credit bureau is up a very  steep, dark
flight of  stairs in an old building  with no elevator.  Totally
inaccessible. Yet  if one wishes to keep tabs  on ones credit
history, the CB requires that  one present oneself in person at
their counter atop the stairs. Will  they accommodate to the
extent of even sending  someone down the stairs to meet a disabled
client? Absolutely  not. Are they a candidate for an accessibility
complaint  under the ADA?  You bet.  Are they whining  that they
should receive  an exemption since they  have no disabled clients?
Of course.  Q.E.D.

>I am of  the school which thinks  that the average business will  be happy to
>hire the disable once the disabled has proved he is qualified and capable. By
>capable, I mean able  to produce the same results as  an abled bodied worker.

We  were not  originally  speaking of  employment,  but simple
accessibility.  However, I agree  with you that a disabled person
should have the opportunity to compete  for employment of  what
King  George and his  ilk love to  call "a level  playing field".
Unfortunately,  the mindset  that disabled=non  compis mentis(sp?)
is  alive and well.  It is  the result of  this perhaps-unconscious
mindset,  and the  Old  Boy's Net  that  promulgates it,  that  has
made,  and continues  to  make,  Affirmative  Action   legislation
with  regard  to  the employment of the disabled a necessity.  This
is exactly the same problem with which the Black community had to
contend,i.e., a "presumption of incompetence" based  on nothing
more than  ethnicity.  In the  case of  the disabled,  this
"presumption of incompetence" is based on an almost identical
characteristic - physical appearance.  We walk may walk/talk
funny. We may use  wheelchairs or have artificial parts. We  may
not see well, or at all.  In order to penetrate this "curtain of
contempt", legislation has become  necessary.  Otherwise, the
disabled person will, in many cases, never get past the Personnel
Office, will never get  hired and thus  can never prove themselves
the equal of  any other employee as  far as job performance is concerned.
The business community had over 100  years in  America alone, and
many centuries in  other parts  of the world, to make some movement
toward integrating the disabled community into the work force. They
did nothing. Now, unfortunate as it may be, they must and
will be coerced  by federal regulation into doing what  they should
long since have done  voluntarily. As the Immortal  Bard said (more or
less):

          " 'Tis true and pity 'tis,
             and  pity 'tis, 'tis true."

>McDonald's has been hiring the handicapped for over ten years.

Really? When was  the last time you saw a disabled person working the
*counter*, not the scullery, at McDonald's?

Sez me,

W. K. (Bill) Gorman