ADA still not universally enforced

Dear Editor

In August 1990, President Bush signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA. This law was meant to put an end -- forever -- to discrimination against Americans with mental, emotional and physical disabilities. This includes an estimated 55 million Americans as of 2009, according to the Associated Press.

In early September 2009, almost two decades later, Florida television and newspapers reported that a man had been denied service at a Tampa area bank because he had no arms and could not provide the fingerprint or thumbprint necessary to complete the transaction. This was a clear violation of the ADA. Florida and bank officials are looking into complaints that Steve Valdez was discriminated against, and hopefully will correct it.

This is only one of thousands of violations of the ADA that are still being committed almost 20 years after it became the law of the land. For the past several years, my family and I have traveled the country extensively and still find scores of public buildings that are not accessible to people in wheelchairs.

In addition, in small cities and towns around the U. S., many streets and sidewalks are still not in compliance with the ADA. Curb cuts do not exist in all cities and many elevators and doorways barely have room to accommodate wheelchairs.

These are not the only violations of the ADA going on. This fall, stores around the country are selling a Halloween costume called "Blind Referee," which blatantly makes fun of blind people and is a clear violation of their rights under the ADA.

It is time to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act the way the Voting Rights Act and other Civil Rights legislation has been enforced. It is time to put an end to discrimination against people, based on disability, once and for all.

Sincerely,

David Shipp,

Nevada