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321 – USA’s Federal legislation promoting accessibility and inclusive
education, United States of America
Responsible body:
US Federal Government; implemented by obligated organizations
Country of implementation:
USA
Beneficiaries targeted:
Persons with disabilities
S
UMMARY
In the USA a number of federal laws that complement each other, work towards ensuring that information and
education are accessible to, and inclusive of, persons with disabilities. To these laws belong, in particular, the Americans
with Disability Act, Sections 504 and 508 of Rehabilitation Act, Section 255 of Telecommunications Act, the 21st Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Together they provide
that accessibility requirements have to be respected in all education services, in public procurement as well as by
telecommunication operators, ICT manufacturers and service providers, and that individuals with disabilities receive
reasonable accommodation – and they have therefore been comprehensively nominated.
C
ONTEXT
/P
ROBLEMS TARGETED
(W
ITH
A
DDITIONS FROM THE
Z
ERO
P
ROJECT
T
EAM
)
In the USA a number of federal laws address that information and education are accessible to, and inclusive of, persons
with disabilities: The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and its amendment of 2008, Sections 504 and 508 of
Rehabilitation Act, Section 255 of Telecommunications Act, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility
Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). From a legal perspective, a profound and historic shift in
public disability policy occurred with the passage of
Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act
, which banned
discrimination on the basis of disability. For the first time, the exclusion of people with disabilities was viewed as
discrimination and they were viewed as a class – a minority group. This “class status” concept has been critical in the
development of the movement and was incorporated into subsequent civil rights laws such as the 1975 IDEA. After a lot
of pressure, on May 4, 1977 the Section 504 regulations were issued, which formed the basis of the ADA. Another
important step was the passage of the
Telecommunications Act
and, in 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with
disabilities (
Section 508
). The
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
was previously known as the Education
for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) from 1975 to 1990. IDEA was amended in 1991, significantly in 1997, as well as in
2004 by the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act. In 2009, President Obama signed the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including $12.2 billion in additional funds for the implementation of IDEA.
The
Americans with Disability Act (ADA)
owes its birthright to the many thousands of people who made up the
disability rights movement – people who have worked for years organizing and attending protests, licking envelopes,
sending out alerts, drafting legislation, speaking, testifying, negotiating, lobbying, filing lawsuits, being arrested. Spurred
by a draft bill prepared by the National Council on Disability, Senator Weicker and Representative Coelho introduced the