the americans with disabilities act was signed into law 33 years ago on july 26 1990 finally offering federal discrimination protections to people with disabilities in employment transportation public accommodations and more yet discrimination against people with disabilities including in the workplace persists americans with disabilities continue to face higher unemployment rates than their nondisabled peers and a recent survey of 3000 workers from the employment platform monster found that 17 of workers had experienced discrimination due to their disability either in the job application process or in the workplace related ‘it’s the reality of life’ disabled and doordashing for extra money at 67 what’s more employers are still allowed to pay disabled workers subminimum wages if the employer receives a special government certificate resulting in some disabled workers making an average hourly wage of 334 between 2017 and 2018 according to a report from the us commission on civil rights a society for human resource management poll released this week also found nearly half of workers with “invisible” disabilities like adhd or depression haven’t informed their employer of their condition in part because they fear colleagues will see them as incapable scrutinize their behavior or talk about them behind their backs because they’re not disclosing their disabilities though those workers aren’t receiving workplace accommodations “the ada has had a profound impact but we still have much more work to do” president joe biden said in a proclamation wednesday to commemorate the ada’s anniversary “disabled americans are still three times less likely to have a job and when they do they often earn less for doing the same work voting locations transit and public spaces are too often inaccessible and we need to continue building a culture that not only protects disability rights but also celebrates disability pride” from the archives january 2023 ‘i can no longer be an executive at a high level’ workers with disabilities including long covid are finding their place as companies become more flexible before the americans with disabilities act became law disabled workers in the private sector had to rely on local policies to fight back against mistreatment and courts often favored the opinions of employers a schoolteacher sued new york city in 1965 after he was denied work solely due to his blindness for example only for the new york state court to rule the school board was authorized to disqualify him according to a government report from 2000 another aspiring new york city teacher judy heumann said in a 1970 lawsuit that because she used a wheelchair she couldn’t get her teaching license despite being otherwise qualified the new york times reported at the time “before the ada no federal law prohibited privatesector discrimination against people with disabilities absent a federal grant or contract” arlene mayerson wrote in an article on the law’s history for the disability rights education and defense fund where she has been the directing attorney since 1981 “the job of the disabilityrights movement during the ada legislative process was to demonstrate to congress and the american people the need for comprehensive civilrights protections to eradicate fundamental injustice to demonstrate not only how this injustice harms the individual subjected to it but also how it harms our society” heumann who contracted polio as a child and went on to become a prominent international disabilityrights activist until her death in march of this year eventually won her teaching license but even 18 years after her lawsuit in 1988 heumann testified before congress that she continued to face discrimination regularly while calling for the passage of the ada speaking about her multiple experiences of discrimination she said “at the age of 25 i was told to leave a plane on my return trip to my job here in the us senate because i was flying without an attendant” “in 1981 an attempt was made to forcibly remove me and another disabled friend from an auction house because we were ‘disgusting to look at’” heumann continued “in 1983 a manager at a movie theater attempted to keep my disabled friend and myself out of his theater because we could not transfer out of our wheelchairs these are only a few examples of discrimination i have faced in my 40year life i successfully fought all of these attempted actions of discrimination through immediate aggressive confrontation or litigation but this stigma scars for life” decades later speaking at a virtual urban institute event to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the ada in 2021 heumann said more still needed to be done to address discrimination against people with disabilities “while we’ve made important progress … as everybody knows we’re not yet where we need to be” she said from the archives april 2021 a google exec on boosting representation of people with disabilities and bringing them into the csuite from the archives october 2018 9 simple ways your workplace can be more inclusive of people with disabilities