Urgent: New Information on How to SAVE the ADA!

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied!
Tell Congress To Keep Their #HandsOffMyADA

Please share with your affiliates and members!

Next Wednesday, February 14 or Thursday, February 15, the House of Representatives is likely to vote on H.R. 620, a dangerous bill that seeks to reverse nearly three decades of civil rights protections for people with disabilities. H.R. 620 not only allows equal access violators to keep breaking the law, it rewards them for it!

The misleadingly titled “ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017,” rewards law-breakers by letting them continue to deny access to disabled customers—without any consequences—and punishes the person being discriminated against by forcing them to detail all the ways that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is being violated. 

It gives law-breakers six months or longer to make “substantial progress”—without defining what that is—in fixing the problem before the person being discriminated against can see their doctor, buy a cake, eat at a restaurant, or go to the movies with friends or family members.  

Help Stop H.R. 620:
Join the Following DAYS of ACTION

  • Friday, February 9 through Monday, February 12, send EMAILS urging members of the House to VOTE NO on H.R. 620. Contacting Congress provides links to email your Representative directly;
  • Monday, February 12 is “Save the ADA” CALL IN DAY. Pick up the phone and call your representative! Tell them to VOTE NO on H.R. 620;
  • Tuesday, February 13, attention shifts to SOCIAL MEDIA (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).  Please post your opposition to HR 620 all day long. See Contacting Congress for how. On Twitter, the hashtags we’re using are: #HandsOffMyADA, #StopHR620, and #CripTheVote.
  • Write a letter AT ANY TIME opposing H.R. 620 to all House offices (see how to send below);
  • On the day of the vote (likely Wednesday or Thursday), please CALL and TWEET all day and tell members of the House to VOTE NO and Stop H.R. 620!

Write your representative online., go to https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative and enter your zip code. From there, click on the envelope under your representative’s photo.

For a list of additional resources including Talking Points, sample tweets, action alert templates, phone scripts, graphics for social media, etc. go to: https://dredf.org/hr620/ or download the CCD Toolkit

Also see DREDF’s earlier alert, “Thirty Years of Holding It Is Long Enough.”

5 thoughts on “Urgent: New Information on How to SAVE the ADA!

  1. Lawrence Carter-Long

    Good judgment and common sense says that people should follow the law. A law that, need we remind you, is nearly 28 years old. If businesses haven’t cared enough to provide equal access to disabled patrons by now odds are they aren’t going to — unless the law makes them. Plenty of businesses are doing the right thing. Why should law-breakers get special treatment?

    Reply
  2. Linda Maneen

    Equal rights, as specified in the Constitution, ought to be protected and not eroded. H.R. 620 will remove access rights from citizens with disabilities and reward discrimination. Stop this onerous bill now, please!

    Reply
    1. JMoore

      I’m a person with disability. I support HR 620 all the way. It has nothing to do with denying our ADA. Did you read the Bill carefully, I mean without people comments and opinions? It is about ADA being badly abused and taking advantage of by who? Lawyers! We need to protect businesses from cruel lawyers with their lawsuits. The Congress do still care about ADA and for people with disabilities, but they have to jump in to deal with abusive issues. Why can’t you read and understand? Stop that non-sense runoff emotions and screaming to the sky! Just face the reality and deal with the issue with good judgment and common sense. HR 620 – YES!

      Reply
      1. LISA M RICE

        Why would you be in favor of disabled people STILL not getting the care they need??? My God, do all of us disabled that still don’t get care have to prove to you too, that we are indeed disabled?? We have a hard enough time, as it is!! I agree with Linda Maneen!!!

        Reply
      2. Ingrid Tischer

        I’m a disabled woman and of course I’ve read HR 620 carefully before deciding to oppose it. Here’s why:

        1. The courts and the legal profession have very well-established mechanisms for disciplining those who abuse it or behave unethically. H.R. 620 is unnecessary.

        2. It’s long past time for disability access to be fully integrated into business planning and budgeting. Disability advocates have been providing ADA-compliance technical assistance for over 25 years. As this letter details: https://dredf.org/2017/05/25/letter-california-house-co-sponsors-hr-620/. ADA website, the DOJ hotline, the ten federally funded regional ADA centers (http://adata.org/find-your-region), and California’s Certified Access Specialist Program and its Commission on Disability Access. Businesses that come into compliance can use existing tools to respond to and shut down unjustified access claims. If business owners want to cure the problem of too many greedy plaintiffs, far fewer access violations is the way to go.

        3 .H.R. 620 sends contradictory messages: It’s reasonable to expect an adult living with a disability to be responsible for educating a business owner about ADA access violations and the ADA is so complex we can’t expect a business owner to be in compliance.

        4. My having muscular dystrophy or any other disability does not make me Access Gandalf. Not every person with a disability is an advocate, much less someone who has technical expertise in ADA-compliance. It’s unrealistic to task people with disabilities with the required labor of researching and providing notifications to business owners about access problems.

        5. The business community and groups such as Chambers of Commerce need to own cross-disability access as an essential component of success. If business owners will not do this, I’m reluctant to spend my limited energy criticizing how other people with disabilities are using the law.

        Reply

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