Congressman Steny Hoyer Delivers Remarks at 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act
UPPER MARLBORO, MD – Congressman Steny Hoyer (MD-5), lead sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the ADA Amendments Act, today delivered remarks at the Maryland Department of Disabilities' celebration of the 20th anniversary of the ADA. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery: "The Americans with Disabilities Act doesn't just matter to Americans with disabilities. It should matter to every American, because the degree to which our society is an open, inclusive, and fair one is a measure of our character. It is a measure of how far we have lived up to America's promise. "Every American deserves the opportunity to live independently. Every American deserves the opportunity to prove himself or herself in the workplace. Every American deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given talent. "Those aren't the principles of any party. They are our common American principles, as we saw when the ADA was passed 20 years ago with bipartisan support, and when it was strengthened in 2008, again with bipartisan support. I was proud to sponsor the ADA, and I was proud to see it become law. "Conservatives and liberals, activists and business leaders came together to make America more inclusive, and to make our nation a leader on one of the defining human rights challenges of our time. As the first President Bush said when he signed the ADA into law: ‘Today's legislation brings us closer to that day when no Americans will ever again be deprived of their basic guarantee of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' "Since then, the ADA has helped 50 million Americans realize that promise and live richer lives. It has protected the opportunities that so many of us—but not all of us—take for granted: the opportunity to live independently; to use public streets, theaters, restrooms, or offices; to prove ourselves in the workplace. And here in Maryland, organizations like Melwood have strengthened the independence of people with disabilities by providing employment opportunities and opening the door to productive work. "We all can be proud on this anniversary. But that doesn't mean the work of inclusion is done. If it were done, then Americans with disabilities wouldn't be poorer, on average, than their fellow citizens; they wouldn't be more likely to be jobless. But they are. If our work were done, the challenges of accessibility would have been solved once and for all in 1990. But they weren't. Technologies from touch screens to Internet broadcast didn't exist when we wrote the ADA, but they pose challenges just as pressing as we faced two decades ago. "So as we celebrate this anniversary, let's remember: the ADA wasn't just a set of rules. It was a set of principles—principles like fairness and non-discrimination—and the way we put those principles into practice has to change as the times change. The ADA's success proves that we can do it. It proves that our government can make meaningful, lasting, bipartisan change for the better. Thank you for working to keep the ADA, and the principles it stands for, strong." ### |