Balancing Sc^tha^e les:

The ADA Slowly
Gains Weight

Now ending its 17th year, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) gradually is moving toward its avowed goal of removing barriers that prevent people with disabilities from full and equal access to public accommodations and employment. The ADA was signed on July 26, 1990. Although the legislation has scored its share of milestones, the ADA’s journey to 2007 hasn’t been without complications. Rules that spell out how businesses and government agencies must comply with the ADA have changed, at times almost to the point of contra-

diction. Language in the original federal legislation sometimes has been subject to widely varying and conflicting interpretations by the courts.

Complicating the situation: The ADA itself doesn’t provide specific details about how facilities are to be made or kept accessible. Suggestions for heeding ADA general requirements are contained in the ADAAG (ADA Accessibility Guidelines), but they’re only guidelines.

And when people with disabilities seek redress for ADA violations, often their only recourse, apart from asking the U.S. Department of