Equity, Access, and Inclusion: ADA’s Promise 30 Years in the Making

By Kimberly Knackstedt

On a hot summer day in July 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law with a crowd of onlookers on the South Lawn of the White House. It was a momentous day. The first broad reaching civil rights law that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, not limited only to entities receiving government funding. Several decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the civil rights movement, disabled people [1] in the United States finally had a path toward equality.

The ADA established four key outcomes for people with disabilities: equal opportunity, independent living, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency. In the more than thirty-three years since the passage of the ADA, we have made significant progress in achieving these goals. Prior to the signing of the ADA, disabled people could be openly denied access to a job, housing, a movie theater, voting, health care, a local business, and more. Today, we have disabled leaders at the highest political ranks in the Biden-Harris administration with more political appointees with disabilities than any administration in the past. While physical and technological accessibility are still challenges in the workforce, we have the highest rate of employment of disabled workers. Further, we have more disabled people living and participating in their communities than ever before. Yes, we have huge gaps still to fill, but progress must be celebrated. This generation of leadership in the disability community grew up with the ADA as the law of the land and will settle for no less than equity, access, and inclusion in every aspect of life.

Looking forward, the path to continue achieving equity, access, and inclusion begins with connecting research, policy, and practice at every level to fully realize the promise of the ADA.

Research

Research is the backbone of policy and practice. It is the connector and builder that allows innovation, explore possibilities, and provide the evidence for every critical decision point. Research must include disabled voices as participants and as those conducting the research. Research must be equitable at every level and inclusive of identities that are intersectional. As our world changes and grows, so must the research that continues to inform how disability is a natural part of the human experience and every part of our lives. Creating research for the next thirty years of the ADA means taking the experiences of those that lived the realities of denied access, exclusion, and inequity and learning to build that into what those experiences can be for the future of more equitable and just research and learning.

Practice

Practice is defined as the implementation work: teaching, employment, carrying out the policies, and the work we do each day. Practice is informed by research and policy, and practice informs policy and research. Embedding equity, access, and inclusion in our practice is necessary to sustain and build on the future of the ADA. That can take many forms. This work can be ensuring we lift up the voices of colleagues or ourselves to have lived experiences informing our work. We can assess the work we do each day: Is it equitable? Is it accessible? Is it inclusive? These questions will not only help align with the goals of the ADA and improve the work for disabled people but make it better for all.

Policy

Policies impact our lives every day from big, sweeping federal policies, such as the ADA, to the policies that guide our organizations and decisions. Each of these policies can be informed by research and our practice. And to truly fulfil the outcomes of the ADA, we must start by embedding values into our policy making. At the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative, we began this work with a values-based framework for federal policy. Centering values into our policymaking allows for shared goals and priorities rather than tinkering on the edges of equity, access, and inclusion. This is the way to make change for the next thirty years of the ADA.

The ADA, Then and Now

The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the most significant laws in our country’s history. The law set a floor, not a ceiling, for equal rights for disabled Americans, creating an opportunity for true access. From curb cuts of sidewalks to websites, everyday activities are easier to navigate for all of us because of this law. Now, thirty-three years later, we have an opportunity to "curb cut" research, policy, and practice and put disability at the forefront of all our work to achieve equity, access, and inclusion for all.

[1] This blog uses person first and identity first language throughout. The intentionality behind this choice is to honor the preferences, cultures, and identities within the disability community.

Issue Details
Special Series–The 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act: Progress and Next Steps
Guest Editor: Jane E. West
Published: December 2023
DOI: 10.1177/DPSA_34_3
Journal of Disability Policy Studies

About the Author

Featured

Kimberly Knackstedt, Ph.D. is the principal consultant of Unlock Access, LLC and has more than a decade of accessibility and disability policy experience. She previously served in disability policy positions in Congress and the White House and brings experience as a person with chronic illnesses to her accessibility and policy perspectives.

Prior to launching Unlock Access, LLC, Kim was the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Public Policy Fellow, serving on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in 2016. She then served as the disability policy advisor for Chairman Bobby Scott on the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives. Next, she was the senior disability policy advisor for Senator Patty Murray on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the U.S. Senate.

In January 2021, Kim was appointed as the first ever director of disability policy for the Domestic Policy Council for the Biden–Harris Administration. Following her experience in the White House, Kim was a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, Director of the Disability Economic Justice team, and Director of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative.

Kim received her Bachelor of Education in special education and elementary education from Gonzaga University, Master of Science in Education in special education from the University of Kansas, and Ph.D. in special education and policy from the University of Kansas.