Laws today protect against employment discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. Gays cannot openly serve in the military, but they have gained some legal protections against discrimination in education and employment. Legal protections for these groups are essentially designed to open minds. For persons with disabilities, the civil rights struggle has an added layer of complexity. Teaching the public that persons with disabilities are equal is only one small step in the march toward equal treatment.
Physical access is also essential.
For a person with a physical limitation such as quadriplegia, it is not enough that an employer is right-minded on disability or is willing to hire him. An overarching goal of the ADA is to provide physical access to everything from buildings and the workplace to bars, restaurants and parks. Just 20 years ago, most persons with significant mobility impairments couldn't leave their neighborhoods because of the lack of curb cuts. While today many cities and counties dedicate significant funding to surface-street access, many workplaces and leisure venues are off limits to persons with disabilities because of inaccessible bathrooms, narrow doorways and step entrances. To this day, many public schools are inaccessible and children with disabilities must struggle to get an education.