The ADA Is Under Serious Attack! Tell the House of Representatives to OPPOSE H.R. 620

Americans with Disabilities Act Civil Rights Disability Rights General H.R. 620 The Americans with Disabilities Act

A poorly maintained parking lot. The Handicap parking symbol is faded and trash is strewn about.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED:

“The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017”

H.R. 620 and similar ADA notification bills are gaining more steam in Congress than ever before. If any passes, it will take the heart out of the ADA by denying people with disabilities the power to enforce its requirements.

H.R. 620 has passed the House Judiciary Committee and could proceed to the House floor at any time. The entire House needs to hear from us, starting immediately and for the next few weeks!

We must counter the business lobby, which wants to make it much more difficult to attain accessibility when businesses such as stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. disregard their ADA obligations. We can stop this bill, with your help!

Tell your Congressional Representative to OPPOSE H.R. 620, and any other bill that weakens the ADA! See more about this bill below.

What to do:

  • Go to contactingcongress.org and insert your zip code to find many simple methods for contacting your House representative and others in your state: via e-mail, phone, Facebook, Twitter, fax, etc.
  • Call your House of Representatives Member using the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. They will help you find your Representative’s name if you don’t know it, and transfer you to your Representative’s office. If you know your Representative’s name, see the House of Representatives phone list.
  • See sample letters to email your House member:
    1. See a recent DREDF letter
    2. See a shorter letter (scroll to the bottom).

Point out that H.R. 620:

  1. Removes any incentive for voluntary compliance.
  2. Rewards non-compliance by allowing businesses generous additional timelines, even though the ADA’s very reasonable requirements are over 25 years old! The ADA is already carefully crafted to take the needs of business into account.
  3. Would allow businesses of any size, large & small, to postpone ADA compliance if they claim they’ve made “substantial progress.”
  4. Pretends that money damages are allowed by the ADA. Actually, this part of the ADA does NOT allow money damages, so changing the federal ADA will not affect any state-level money damage provisions.
  5. Ignores the extensive, free educational resources and tax incentives for ADA compliance that are already available today to any business.
  6. Ignores the effective & extensive methods already available to courts and state bar associations to deal with a very few unscrupulous attorneys filing frivolous lawsuits. These methods should be used, rather than denying the civil rights established by the ADA for people with disabilities.
  7. Look behind the media myths: The vast majority of ADA attorneys and plaintiffs are seeking solutions to fix real denials of access. But the business community has pushed the media to portray a few bad apples as a landslide.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Additional questions? E-mail info@dredf.org

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