Introduction

Think about how you arrived at school. If you walked or took the bus, did you notice anything about the sidewalk along the way or as you stepped out of the bus near the curb? Take notice of the curbs and ramps at crosswalks next time. Ever wonder about the slightly bumpy yellow part of the sidewalk near a crosswalk? Why do you think they are there? Do you know it's breaking the law to build a new curb ramp without them? They're called warning strips. By feeling the difference of the surface below, warning strips help people know that they are coming up on a crosswalk or street.

Use these stories about individuals with disabilities, all conceived of, filmed and edited by middle and high school students, to explore empathy, common feelings of difference and how stories help us walk in another person’s shoes. The series is called Limitless: Breaking the bounds of disability.

Watch more videos in the Student Reporting Labs series “Limitless: Breaking the bounds of disability” to find additional examples of the role empathy plays in people’s lives.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990

While the stigmatization and marginalization of the

56 million Americans who live with disabilities still lingers, many of them are capable of leading self-affirming lives defined by their personhood rather than by their disabilities with the help of the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on June 26, 1990, was the country's first comprehensive civil rights law addressing the needs of people with disabilities. In a response to widespread and systemic prejudice against people with physical and mental impairments, it prohibited workplace discrimination and guaranteed access to public places and transportation.

Watch this PBS News Hour Student Reporting Lab video on the story of the United States' first blind state supreme court justice.

Before the law was passed, large numbers of disabled children were excluded from public schools or denied adequate accommodations, treatment facilities were low in quality and the public transportation infrastructure was inaccessible to the disabled, according to former Sen. Tom Harkin speaking in front of the Vera Institute.

Discrimination was so severe that throughout the 20th century, federally-funded coerced sterilization programs took place in 32 states to limit the spread of "undesirable" genes.

Some of the worst eugenics programs took place in North Carolina, Virginia and California. However, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was confined to a wheelchair due to a case of polio, was an advocate for the rehabilitation and rights of people with disabilities. His presidency helped dispel the popular view that people with disabilities were unable to contribute to society.

In addition, disabled World War II veterans increased pressure on the government to provide them with rehabilitation and vocational training. Their advocacy made the rights of the disabled more visible to citizens concerned about the long-term well being of young men who had sacrificed to serve the country during the war.

During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, disabled Americans were excluded from the language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion and national origin, but disabled people were offered no such protection. As a result, beginning in the 1980s, lobbyists and activists for the disabled began to campaign for the consolidation of various laws into one broad civil rights statute.

The ADA was the end result, and it prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability in regards to employment, services provided by the government, public places, transportation, and telecommunication services.

The implementation of the ADA

Watch this PBS News Hour Student Reporting Lab video: Transitioning into the community

The implementation of the ADA has manifested in infrastructural improvements such as curb cuts and ramps for those in wheelchairs and plentiful and easily accessible handicapped parking spaces. In addition, places of employment are required to provide accommodations to disabled workers if they ask for them. For example, a deaf job candidate might require an American Sign Language interpreter for a job interview or an employee with diabetes might need regular breaks to check their blood sugar.

And while the ADA placed immediate legislative demands to ensure equal access and equal treatment to disabled people, it could not realistically change longstanding attitudes with the stroke of a pen. Disabled Americans are still subject to stereotypical portrayals of disabled people in the media, unaffordable health care, lagging employment, bias and stigmatization. Over 25 years after the passage of the ADA, formidable discrepancies remain part of the lives of disabled Americans.

For further reading:

• Disability advocates were arrested outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office during a protest of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Some of the protesters who did not immediately cooperate were removed from the premises without their wheelchairs.
• A disabled woman is calling for a wider disability pride movement and for us all to change discourse about disability for the better. It was the first essay in a The New York Times series about life with disabilities.
• Millions of disabled people depend on Medicaid for various services, and life without it might not be an option.

This lesson was originally published on December 3, 2021, and updated on July 2, 2026.

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