The Americans with Disability Act (ADA), was passed by Congress in 1990. Our country just recently celebrated the ADA’s 25th anniversary, commemorating the progression that our nation has made towards ensuring equality for those with disabilities. Though many strides have been taken, we still have quite a long way to go, namely in the aspects of transportation and employment.
Over the last 25 years, our society progressed towards being more accessible towards all; ADA standards were implemented across the nation, however, there was resistance. Two instances of this resistance includes Wells Fargo Bank and Hilton Suites; these two companies were hindering the accessibility to their services by inaction (Expanding). Wells Fargo would not accept calls from those with hearing or speech disabilities, rather, they would tell the caller to leave a message through the teletypewriter (TTY) / telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) line. The messages that were left on the TTY/TDD line would often be ignored, leading to the disabled not receiving service. Hilton Suites, a popular hotel chair, was also under scrutiny from the ADA for not complying to regulations (Expanding). Disabled persons often found it hard to book an accessible hotel room through Hilton; the rooms that they would receive would not
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If you want to get into minorities, Native Americans and African Americans have the highest rate of disability in a minority group itself, with 24.3% (11 Facts). Disability is valid in our society and is more than common, so why are we still discriminating them for everyday tasks and for the freedoms we get as American citizens? The time to do something about equality in all walks of life is now. To fix this issue, we need to take a step back and re-evaluate our regulations, and try to expand them beyond the public transportation system, so companies like Uber have no way around