Sweet Sixteen for the ADA

One of my old posts, looking at a French ad campaign, looks at a completely alternative view of disability, where accessibility is an integrated part of life.

Often, the argument against compliance to the ADA is that disabled people are demanding something "extra" and their quest for equality oppresses business owners or employers who must suddenly provide something additional to the disabled person that no one else is asking for. The implied belief is that the nondisabled person never asks for anything "extra," though this is not really true. Rather, the built world is "conceived" to include the extras they might need.

The excuse of architecture examines how inaccessibility can create the justification for discrimination.

The belief that disabled people's exclusion from mainstream society is benign neglect is mostly an illusion. Ask any architect if he considers who will use his building when he designs it. Consider that disabled folk have been a part of the human experience since time began. Modern science has altered the number of people surviving health crises and age, and it's given us elevators and TTY machines, but ramps existed before steps were invented and yet we lack them everywhere.

But for a truly exciting list of writings on disability, check out Disability Studies, Temple U,'s latest blog roundup.