Tomorrow, we celebrate the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark civil rights law that has helped remove countless barriers for Americans with disabilities. It has made workplaces, schools, courtrooms, and restaurants accessible to people who previously could not get through the door. It has changed our national consciousness and made our state a more welcoming place.
But like all civil rights laws, the ADA is an unfinished promise. We have much more work to do to make opportunities in our Commonwealth available to all.
As a leader in the Attorney General’s Office, I fought hard to ensure that Massachusetts residents with disabilities were able to access education, employment, housing, transportation, and places of public accommodation. I achieved landmark agreements with Apple, Monster.com, and three national movie theater chains to make technology, websites, and entertainment accessible to those with disabilities. I also took action against landlords, employers, and storeowners who failed to meet their responsibilities to people with disabilities.
As Attorney General, I will continue to make the ADA’s protections real for all Massachusetts residents. I will advocate for inclusive technology in our workplaces and classrooms. I will ensure that people with disabilities are able to obtain health care and housing. I will improve employment opportunities and ensure access to places of public accommodation. And I will lead the way by making the Attorney General’s Office a model — investing in trainings, recruiting workers with disabilities, and prioritizing disability rights work throughout the Office’s many divisions.
A society is stronger and richer if it includes everyone. That’s what I will fight for as your next Attorney General.
Thank you for joining me in this effort,
Maura
P.S. To learn more about my experience and independent vision for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, please visit www.maurahealey.com.
I for one benefit from the work you did with Apple.
…if we can just get the US Senate to drop their UN conspiracy theories long enough to ratify the international convention that is largely based on this law.
Maura Healey has been a long time advocate for giving access to people with disabilities. I wrote about her work a month or so ago. The first time we sat down to talk, she told me about what had been accomplished through the AG’s office. This is an issue that she had made clear is important to her, both by her words and her actions.
As the son of a disabled father, I am grateful for the ADA all the time. It makes a big difference and it’s something most people don’t appreciate or acknowledge. Even though he is not wheelchair bound, his mobility is limited so handicap parking spaces, ramps, and easy access showers are a must. There is a lot of work left to do, but I’ll always thank Tom Harkin and Bob Dole for pushing it through the Senate and George HW Bush for signing it.
Bob Dole, fully wheelchair bound and in his 90s, his working his ass off to get the US to become a signatory to the international treaty and is not shy about calling out the shameful votes and actions of his former colleagues on the GOP side.
Most people don’t think about the ADA and I’m a probably a guilty party, or was. Having been on crutches or a cane for the last nine months has raised my awareness exponentially.
Thanks to Maura Healey for reminding us all.
I was on crutches for several weeks last fall. You are so right when you say that it raises awareness. I am fortunate to be able bodied and high energy. It makes one appreciate the challenges some people go through every day of their lives. I also appreciate what the ADA has done to increase accessibility.
and yet we still have sidewalks all over Massachusetts without curb cuts. Driveways, intersections, etc. That there are any public sidewalks without ramps, 24 years after ADA was signed, is really shameful.
Perhaps the same is true for sidewalks.
and to fix them all at once would have been far too difficult and expensive.
But we’ve had 24 years. If you took all of the non-ADA portions, you’re looking at 4% each year for 25 years. That’s not a very heavy lift for curb cuts, considering that we do some portion as part of regular road work anyway, thereby bringing those into code in the normal part of business.
In my opinion, the state should just require that in 2015 every community inventory every single public sidewalk where there’s a curb instead of a ramp, and then document that 10% of them have been brought into ADA compliance each year 2016-2025. No compliance? No (or less) road money from the state. Easy peasy. Your community have a particular hardship due to some strange historical edge case? Apply for some extra funds from the state to get your compliance done on time.
Craig Kelley did a great job in Cambridge fight bring for curb cuts to help the disabled. He even rode a wheelchair up and down Mass Ave to prove the point that it was unsafe.
Hope we can do that across the state.
Have you come out front on it?
I would think your campaign can answer this. This is a related question that is on point with your post and also topical? Can you tell the Blue Mass Group readers if you agree with Martin Walsh’s position on the Beacon Hill wheelchair ramps?
If not having ramps is in violation of laws wouldn’t the A.G.’s office have jurisdiction to enforce?
Thank you
I asked her at an event on Beacon Hill recently. She has my full support because as I said earlier, I am a beneficiary of her work with Apple. She has done so much for this community.