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All Disabled
Americans, Inc. has been formed as a
not for profit corporation with a
single focus and just two purposes.
The focus of the Association is to
promote equal access and equal
rights for people with disabilities.
The Rehabilitation Act was passed by
Congress and signed into law in
1973. The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA)
became law in 1986. The Fair Housing
Act (FHA) was amended to include
people with disabilities in 1988.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) was passed by Congress and
signed into law in 1990. In the more
than 30 years since the passage of
the Rehabilitation Act, the more
than 15 years since the passage of
the ACAA and the FHA, and the 15
years since the passage of the ADA,
discrimination against people with
disabilities has continued.
Enforcement of
our civil rights under these federal
laws has been left to the U.S.
Department of Justice. Whether a
complaint of discrimination involves
employment and is therefore
investigated by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
involves air travel and is therefore
investigated by the Department of
Transportation (DOT), or involves
access to a place of public
accommodation, investigated by the
Department of Justice, actual
enforcement of these laws by federal
lawsuit is left to the Department of
Justice (DOJ). Unfortunately the DOJ
actually prosecutes only a handful
of the thousands of complaints they
receive each year. Here is a quote
from the standard reply to
complaints submitted to the Civil
Rights Division of the DOJ:
“The purpose of
this letter is to inform you that
the Department is closing the
above-captioned complaint effective
the date of this letter. The
Department receives thousands of
complaints every year and is unable
to pursue every one. Due to limited
resources and substantial work
loads, the Department is obliged to
close its investigation at this
time.”
In that case,
as in most complaints sent to the
DOJ, the only investigation done was
the writing and mailing of the
letter stating that the
investigation is closed. No actual
investigation took place and no one
at the DOJ has any idea as to
whether the rights of people with
disabilities are being violated. The
DOJ files lawsuits in less than 50
cases a year, less than one case per
state, even though they acknowledge
getting thousands of complaints a
year.
The only other
way to enforce the civil rights of
people with disabilities is through
private lawsuits filed in federal
court. When the ADA was written a
very broad right to file private
lawsuits was included in the law.
That is also the case with the
Rehabilitation Act and the FHA.
There is no right to private
lawsuits under the ACAA. In the
three laws that provide for private
lawsuits there is a provision for
the legal fees and costs of the
plaintiff to be paid by the
defendant when the plaintiff
prevails. The vast majority of
enforcement of the Rehabilitation
Act, the FHA, and the ADA has been
through these private lawsuits. The
founders and board members of All
Disabled Americans are all veterans
of such litigation.
In the last 10
years the federal courts have made
enforcing our civil rights through
private litigation more and more
difficult. Instead of following the
intent of Congress which allows
people with disabilities to sue for
ADA violations whenever and wherever
we see them, the courts require that
a barrier to equal access actually
be personally confronted by a person
with a disability before that
barrier can be addressed in
litigation. In one case a man sued a
large stadium because it had less
than 25% of the number of wheelchair
accessible seats required by the
ADA. The court did not care about
how easy it would have been for the
stadium to provide more wheelchair
accessible seats. The court did not
care about the many people who had
been unable to buy tickets to
football or baseball games. The
court was only interested in whether
the plaintiff himself had ever been
unable to buy a ticket for a
wheelchair accessible seat. Since he
personally had never been denied a
seat his case was dismissed by the
judge who ruled that he lacked
“standing” to sue.
This brings us
to the first of the two purposes of
All Disabled Americans. By being an
“associational co-plaintiff” in
lawsuits that enforce the rights of
people with disabilities these cases
can be prosecuted with much broader
standing. Though the single named
plaintiff in the above case had
never been denied a seat an
association with hundreds of members
could have alleged that it was
likely that some of the members
would face a problem due to the
small number of wheelchair
accessible seats (although one
member of the Association would have
to have had some difficulty in
purchasing a wheelchair accessible
seat). By having members with a vast
variety of impairments that result
in disability lawsuits with All
Disabled Americans as a co-plaintiff
are not limited to the issues
related to the impairments of the
named plaintiff. A person who is
blind cannot sue for a failure to
provide the ramps needed by people
who use wheelchairs. A person who
uses a wheelchair cannot sue for the
Braille signs needed by people who
are blind. By being a co-plaintiff
All Disabled Americans can help
plaintiffs who are interested in
themselves and in all people with
disabilities make sure that all
barriers to equal access are
eliminated through their enforcement
litigation. Stated simply, the
primary purpose of All Disabled
Americans is to help our members
enforce their civil rights through
federal and state litigation and to
join our members as an association
co-plaintiff in those cases so as to
maximize the positive outcomes of
the cases.
In the best of
all worlds lawsuits to enforce the
rights of people with disabilities
would not be needed. A desire to
comply with the law was a hope in
the days of lobbying the ADA through
Congress but that hope was shown to
be inconsistent with how businesses
and local governments operate. Short
of voluntary compliance with the law
the next best thing is for our
rights to be enforced by local and
state governments. The other purpose
of All Disabled Americans is
therefore to lobby local and state
governments to pass laws allowing
local enforcement of our civil
rights. State governments can pass
building codes that incorporate the
requirements of the ADA
Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG).
With the ADAAG part of a state law
these requirements can then be
enforced by local building
departments and by local code
enforcement officers. Local
governments, that is city and
county governments, can pass
ordinances that require
accessibility, that require on
street parking for people with
disabilities, that require temporary
events, such as arts and crafts
shows, to be accessible, etc. Local
governments, as well as state
governments, can revise their budget
priorities so that they have the
money to remove barriers to equal
access in their buildings, their
programs, and their services. All
Disabled Americans will work with
city governments, county
governments, state governments, and
with Congress and the executive
agencies of the federal government
so as to promote better laws that
protect the civil rights of people
with disabilities.
All Disabled
Americans cannot simply run around
filing lawsuits against business
operators or local governments that
violate the ADA. The Supreme Court
of the United States ruled in a case
known as “Hunt” on the issue of
associational standing and created a
three prong test. For us to have
standing we must first have a member
who was “injured” by the existence
of one or more barriers to equal
access. Then, the issues raised by
the lawsuit must be related to the
purpose of the association. Finally
the lawsuit cannot raise issues or
seek relief that would require the
individual participation of the
members. We will only participate in
lawsuits where one or more of our
members has experienced
discrimination by a business owner
or operator, or by a local or state
government. Our purpose clearly
states that we exist to enforce the
civil rights of people with
disabilities granted by federal and
state laws and to assist our members
in their enforcement of such rights.
Lastly, since we will not be seeking
damages on behalf of the Association
or the membership there will be no
issues in our cases that will
require the individual participation
of our members other than the
member(s) who is named as a
plaintiff in a lawsuit. That is not
to say that members suing under
Title II of the ADA, Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act, or under the
FHA cannot seek damages. Damages
will not be sought for the
Association itself or for members of
the Association who were not
“injured” by the lack of equal
access that is the subject of any
cases.
A comment about our name; we are not
just a group of people who use
wheelchairs. We are not just a group
of people who are blind. We are not
just a group of people who are deaf.
We are not just a group of people
with mental or cognitive
impairments. We are, as our name
states, All Disabled Americans. Our
membership currently includes people
with all of the above types of
disabilities. It is important to us
that all of the litigation in which
we participate and all of the
lobbying in which we engage be for
the benefit of all people with
disabilities, not just one or two
types of people with disabilities.
After watching an association
attacked in a federal court fairness
hearing on a class action lawsuit as
being, “just an organization of
people using wheelchairs” (an
incorrect characterization of that
association) we decided that the
right name for our organization was
“All Disabled Americans”. |
