U.S. Department of
Justice Civil Rights Division |
![]() |
Twenty six years ago, Congress passed, and President George H. W. Bush signed, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ushering in a new era of civil rights for people with disabilities in this country. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces the ADA to ensure that people with disabilities can live, work, learn, vote, and play in their own communities – free from discrimination and able to participate in the mainstream of American life. This document provides brief case highlights – along with anecdotal stories – about the impact of the ADA on the lives of people with disabilities around our country. The cases highlighted in this document represent just some examples of the Department’s work enforcing the ADA over the last six years. To read more about our ADA enforcement, visit our website at archive.ada.gov.
GABRIELLE – who dreamed of saving up money to buy a home – no longer assembles nut-and-bolt kits and knee pads in a sheltered workshop for $100 to 150 per month. Instead, she works as a grooming assistant at a dog day care and boutique, earning more than $9 per hour. And as she told a local media outlet, The Oregonian, last winter, “I feel better about my life and … I ended up buying that house.” |
For seven years, PETER earned just $1.50 per hour. But now he earns ten times that amount, working for the state of Rhode Island as a custodian at a hospital. He gets along very well with his supervisors, who trust him with significant responsibility to accomplish his work independently. For the first time in his life, at age 37, Peter was able to purchase a new mattress. Before, he slept on a couch and a 30-year-old mattress he inherited from his mother. Peter also received his driver’s license and saved up enough money to buy a car. Peter and his fiancée Lori, who met at the workshop, have also gotten married and are living in an apartment in the Providence area. |
|
TRANSPORTATION
CHRISTOPHER, who uses a wheelchair, made a reservation for a trip across Virginia on Greyhound and notified the company he would be traveling in his wheelchair. But when he arrived to board his assigned bus, the driver could not operate the lift. He waited for a different bus and driver but when they finally arrived, personnel could not find the key to access the lift. |
A young man was experiencing a mental health crisis, and his mother, VICKIE, and his godmother – who are both deaf – went with him to the emergency room at Dominion Hospital. Vickie repeatedly asked Dominion for a sign language interpreter so she could provide information about her son’s current medications and medical history, but Dominion refused. Even at the son’s last family meeting to discuss his discharge, follow up care, and treatment, the hospital still did not provide an interpreter and asked the son to interpret for his mother. This led to the son yelling at his mother, Vickie, who could not understand him, and Dominion staff yelling at Vickie because of the miscommunications between her and her son. |
JAYLA – who lives in Robeson County, North Carolina, and is a member of the Lumbee Nation – loves sports and playing outside. |
The RV Resort Manager approached the Glovers at their campsite and informed them that the resort’s owner would not allow their two-year-old foster child, C.G., to use the common facilities, including the showers and the indoor pool, unless and until the Glovers could provide a documented guarantee that C.G.’s HIV did not pose a threat to other guests. The Glovers no longer felt welcome at Wales West, and decided to leave, eventually settling at another campground in Alabama. But Mr. Glover and C.G. both had mobility difficulties and the pool was too far away from their campsite for either to walk. The Glovers ended up significantly shortening their planned month-long vacation. |
Nine-year-old BRAHM has bone dysplasia, also known as dwarfism, which makes him smaller and lighter than other children his age. In the fall of 2013, when he was seven years old and weighed approximately 34 pounds, Brahm joined a wrestling club in his hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado. |
CATHERINE, who uses a walker, encountered problems with the entrance door to the parking pay system in a municipal lot across from the federal courthouse as well as with sidewalks when she |
The agreement with Nueces County will allow people with disabilities, like MARSHALL, who was invited to present at the Coastal Bend Hurricane Conference in Nueces County. Unfortunately, when Marshall tried to register online for the conference, he wasn’t able to do so because he is blind. The forms on the county website were inaccessible to him because he uses a screen reader. |