Watching the Clouds with Charlie and Lucy

What is it like to be a person with a disability in the United States some 18 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act?

For my money it's like those old Peanuts cartoons where Charlie Brown and Lucy are on their backs gazing at the clouds and telling each other what the clouds resemble. Of course in order for that analogy to be effective you will have to concede that Charlie Brown and Lucy each had an invisible disability, but I don’t think that's a hard stretch.

Unemployment remains high for PWDs but if you look long enough it looks better than that. The ADA has certainly raised the consciousness of employers and the advent of better and cheaper assistive technologies has been a means of employment progress. In turn the people with disabilities who have jobs are very productive and attractive members of the labor force.

Yet the unemployment figures for PWDs remain high. The stigma associated with disability and the lack of substantive managerial knowledge about disability are the most likely causes of these problems but if you're looking for mainstream political or editorial engagement with the issues you will be hard pressed to find it. A recent event for the presidential candidates of both parties which was held in New Hampshire and was designed to promote discussion of disability issues drew only five of the candidates (Clinton, Biden, Kucinich, Dodd, and Gravel)--John McCain joined the event via telephone and John Edwards sent a representative.

If you're thinking "Peanuts" you could say: "Well, five candidates in person and two in spirit, that's a helluva good cloud!" That would be the Charlie Brown position.

Lucy would say: "Where was Obama? And what about Richards and Giuliani, Huckabee and Romney; and what happened to Ron Paul and Thompson and Tancredo?"

Lucy would argue that eight candidates didn't bother to show up.

Charlie B. would respond that five were there and one was on the phone and another sent a surrogate and that's a long way from nada.

Both would be correct. The clouds are suggestive.

What did the candidates say about disability?

Senator Clinton spoke about the "ADa Restoration Act" and the "Community Choice Act" and said that she would reintroduce President Bill Clinton's plan to have the federal government hire 100,000 employees with disabilities.

Senator Biden called for state implementation and Department of Justice enforcement of the Olmstead decision and spoke about Education for All.

Senator Dodd

spoke about the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and called for strengthening enforcement of the ADA. He also mentioned affordable, accessible transportation; fully funding IDEA; improving access to telecommunications and technology; he also mentioned his sister Carolyn, who is legally blind.

Congressman Kucinich mentioned

his single-payer health care plan and his childhood experience with a speech impediment.

Congressman David Bonior (on behalf of Senator Edwards)

discussed the connection between disability and poverty; improving accessible transportation; and fully funding IDEA; reinstating President Clinton's executive order of hiring 100,000 people with disabilities into the federal workforce.

Congressman Gravel

spoke about his criticisms of representational government and his recommendation that laws be made by the people directly and he mentioned his childhood experience with dyslexia and his adult experience with neuropathy.

Senator McCain

called for improving services for returning veterans with disabilities and strengthening the ADA.

Charlie and Lucy watch the clouds in Iowa and New Hampshire and everyplace PWDs live in these United States.

They know that public transportation in this country has never been worse.

They know that despite the Olmstead decision, PWDs are still being denied the basic right to live in their own homes and that thousands upon thousands are being warehoused in institutions against their will.

They are aware that IDEA and other education rights legislation is routinely ignored by school districts and municipalities and that gaining enforcement of disability rights by the Department of Justice is an uphill struggle at best.

They know that veteran's services are currently in a disgraceful state.

They know that fair telecommunications and access to the "digital highway" is still just a dream for PWDs.

They know that a quarter of a century of diminishing public programs has left PWDs with fewer opportunities for education and rehabilitative services than ever.

They know that these problems do not get discussed on Fox or CNN or MSNBC or the three mainstream networks.

And yet Charlie wants to think that the cloud above the barn is shaped like Thomas Jefferson.

Lucy thinks it looks frighteningly like the entire U.S. Supreme Court which has been largely hostile to the ADA much to the consternation of congress.

Charlie says that seven candidates out of fifteen participated in the New Hampshire event.

Lucy counters that Tom Tancredo has dropped out and therefore there are only 14 candidates and if you subtract the two who weren't really "there" you have only a 36 per cent participation rate.

Charlie thinks that's pretty good. He remembers zero.

Lucy says that just about all the candidates are "zeros" when it comes to disability issues but she thinks that Senators Dodd and Clinton and Senators Edwards and McCain are the best of the lot.

"Good grief!" says Charlie, "That's still a winning hand!"

Lucy says: "Charlie, if you play poker the way you play football, we're in big trouble."

S.K.