Two federal departments have come after the ADA since President Trump took office. Here’s what you need to know.
President Trump signed an executive order on January 20 that states his intent to “reduce the cost of living”. In order to accomplish this goal, the Department of Justice removed 11 guidelines that help businesses comply with the ADA. These include regulations involving:
- Disabled people’s use of service animals, which is legally protected by the ADA
- guidance on how hotels can accommodate disabled guests
- Information about outdoor seating at restaurants, making sure that disabled patrons have what they need.
These guidelines Were passed while both democrats and republicans were in office. Nevertheless, they have been revoked. Mac Warner, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, stated that: ““Putting money back into the pockets of business owners helps everyone by allowing those businesses to pass on cost savings to consumers and bolster the economy”.
One in four American adults are disabled, and need these accommodations in order to live, work, and thrive. Language like this, combined with the actions the Department of Justice took to remove these guidelines, puts our rights at risk.
The Department of Energy is trying to put a new rule into effect that would take away certain accessibility requirements for new construction of buildings for programs or activities getting federal assistance. This covers accessible features such as Braille signs and auditory announcements in elevators. It would let private organizations comply with these important laws when and if they feel like it, which is not something we want to be encouraging. The Department of Energy did allow people to leave public comments on the proposed rule, but they only gave people a month to do so, an unusually short amount of time for a rule this significant. They kept it such a secret that most of the disability community didn’t find out until 10 days before the comment period closed.
The rule is set to take effect on July 15 of this year, unless the Department of Energy thinks the comments that people have left are strong enough to make them revise it. If they go forward, both Section 504 and the ADA could be impacted.
This article was written in plain language. Plain language is a writing style that makes information more accessible to more people, including some people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities.