U.S. Attorney's Office Western District of Louisiana issued the following announcement on July 29.
30thAnniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA). The ADA was signed into law on July 26, 1990, and is the nation’s preeminent civil rights law for providing access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana is proud to play a critical role in enforcing the ADA to help eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities, U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph said today.
“Since its passage 30 years ago, the ADA has been instrumental in ensuring equal access and opportunity to individuals with disabilities,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph. “The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana will continue to diligently enforce the ADA to remedy discrimination and ensure compliance. Our friends, family, and neighbors with disabilities must be afforded full access to the rights, privileges, and opportunities we all enjoy as Americans.”
In recent years the U.S. Attorney’s Office has investigated and resolved a number of ADA cases, including:
Ensuring Barrier-Free Access to Health Care Facilities: The U.S. Attorney’s Office has successfully resolved multiple matters to ensure that medical providers are using effective means of communication with patients, including qualified sign language interpreters provided at no cost to the patient, including Tri-State Physical Therapy Bossier and Acadiana Family Physicians.
Ensuring Equal Access for Children with Disabilities in Summer Camp Settings: The U.S. Attorney’s Office has conducted outreach to public and private camps within the Western District to ensure that the camps provide reasonable modifications of their policies and practices when necessary to enable campers with disabilities to participate fully in camp programs.
Ensuring Equal Access to Local Government Services: The U.S. Attorney’s Office has successfully resolved complaints with the Parish of DeSoto to ensure that people with disabilities can access local governmental services and facilities.
Ensuring Physical Access to Places of Public Accommodation: The U.S. Attorney’s Office has also resolved multiple matters to ensure physical access to public places to accommodate those with mobility disabilities.
The promise of the ADA is its wide-ranging efforts to eliminate disability discrimination across the range of services, programs, and activities that most Americans take for granted, but were largely inaccessible to individuals with disabilities prior to the law’s enactment. Whether in employment, areas of civic life, or in the day-to-day activities and access to goods and services that we all enjoy – the ADA ensures that individuals with disabilities enjoy the same opportunities as all Americans to participate in everything this nation has to offer.
Over the past 30 years, the United States has undertaken the challenge of changing perceptions about disability, tearing down barriers to equality, and altering the systems that have historically excluded people with disabilities. The Justice Department commemorates the many ways that the ADA has transformed society—by replacing exclusion with access, segregation with integration, and limitations with self-determination.
Original source can be found here.