Change didn’t happen right away. When the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, passed July 26, 1990, there had already been a law that required public universities to provide access for students with disabilities in place for 17 years. “The ADA put teeth into the law,” said Valerie Nilson, learning disabilities specialist for the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, or RCPD. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, prohibited any program or activity that received federal money to discriminate against people with disabilities, Nilson said.
By the time the ADA passed, the university already had about 300 students with disabilities registered, and MSU had had an office to assist students for 19 years, said Michael Hudson, director of the RCPD.
“Many of the rights were already afforded to college students and employees,” Hudson said. “But awareness became higher. The privileges given to higher education were expanded to the private sector.”
The ADA became a civil rights act for people with disabilities, said Johnson Cheu, a writing, rhetoric and American cultures visiting assistant professor who uses a wheelchair. Yet, there were major differences. Unlike civil rights movements for African Americans and women, making buildings and institutions accessible to people with disabilities costs money, he said.
“It’s not an issue when you talk about race and gender,” Cheu said. “In civil rights, they all have issues, but not economic (issues).”
Every institution was given a timeline to finish any accessibility problems, though many missed their deadlines because there was nothing to hold them accountable, Nilson said. As part of the law, the university added ramps and widened doorways, not only at academic buildings but at residence halls as well. MSU is now compliant in nearly all of its buildings with only a few older buildings, like Morrill Hall, being inaccessible.
It was the ADA that gave people with disabilities legal recourse to make the institutions change, Nilson said.
“It gave them a mechanism where they could file a grievance to have something done if there was a problem they were experiencing. It brought attention to their needs,” Nilson said.
It also brought attention to the needs of many other students who weren’t thought of as disabled, Hudson said.
Of the about 300 students who were registered with disabilities in 1989-90, most were with visible disabilities, such as mobility issues and visual or hearing impairments, Hudson said.
“Today we work with more than 1,000 students,” Hudson said. “While the numbers of people with mobility, visual or hearing issues has remained the same, students with chronic health problems became more prevalent. We have over 500 students with learning disabilities.”
The center also notices disabilities that weren’t talked about before the ADA, with psychological disorders like bipolar disorder and depression now being recognized.
The RCPD provides students with disabilities accessible textbooks, alternative testing, housing and class accommodations as well as snow removal in the winter.
Rehabilitation counseling graduate student Wonsun Seo, who is legally blind, said he recently ran into a problem shopping for groceries at a local retailer.
“I need to have an assistant to help me pick up items,” said Wonsun. “This time they said they were busy. I needed to buy 20 items; they told me they didn’t have an assistant available right now.”
Al Swain, associate director of the Capital Area Center for Independent Living, said the biggest thing people with disabilities can do in the future is protect the ADA.
“I think overall the aim is we need to protect our civil rights law,” Swain said. “Whenever we see discrimination we need to challenge it.”
However, the act has brought much more freedom to people with disabilities, he said.
“The ADA is giving people with disabilities the right to go where everyone else has gone before,” Swain said.
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