As we Defend Our Freedom at the state level and call on the administration to enforce our rights established by the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision, we can't let Congress off the hook. After all, Congress has the power to end the institutional bias by passing the Community Choice Act (S683/HR1670). So how are we going to step it up? We're going to take on FIVE of them at a time, together!

Right now, we have 121 co-sponsors in the House (at least until Eric Massa's resignation takes effect) and 25 co-sponsors in the Senate. About one-quarter of each house has signed on as a co-sponsor of the CCA!

The number of people signing on slowed down a bit while we focused on health care reform legislation, so we are changing our approach. Instead of asking everyone to contact their local Representatives or Senators, ADAPT's Community Choice Workgroup is identifying FIVE specific members of Congress that we will ask everyone across the country to work on. We will do electronic action alerts that allow us to fax and email the DC office, encourage local people to call the office, and coordinate visits in the DC offices.

WAI Resources on Introducing Web Accessibility

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

Complete List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

Jean Ryan is the kind of New Yorker who makes everyone else feel lazy. She has two master’s degrees and a black belt in tae kwon do. She serves on her local community board. You know the type? Try this one: When she had eye surgery two weeks ago, she refused sedation.

She and her husband moved to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn , in 1972, counting on the R train to get to Manhattan galleries and museums and plays and restaurants.

Then Ms. Ryan developed neuropathy in her legs and feet. Now she uses a motorized wheelchair, which pretty much rules out the subway. There’s an express bus near her home, but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposed cutbacks include curtailing it on weekends. Car services are out, since her chair cannot be folded up and thrown into a trunk. So Ms. Ryan, 65, increasingly relies on Access-a-Ride, the vans that provide door-to-door transportation for disabled people, for $2.25 — the same as for a subway or a bus.

...The Arizona Attorney General's Office sued the Harkins theater chain, claiming that the business violated both ADA and Arizona state law by failing to show captioned and described movies. The AG was not suggesting that the theaters themselves had to provide the captions or descriptions, but only that they need to install the equipment necessary to show the captions and descriptions provided by the studios.

The theaters took the position that ADA does not regulate the contents of their products or services, and that they offer non-captioned movies. "We have the right to choose what services we provide, and that is our choice," said the attorney for the theaters. "We let everyone come into our theaters and see our (non-captioned) movies, and that is what ADA requires us to do."

The AG's office, on the other hand, said that captions are the kind of "auxiliary aid and service" that the ADA requires to enable people with hearing and vision losses to gain the "full enjoyment" of the businesses' offerings.

The judges basically said flat-out that they thought the theater argument is preposterous. Alex Kozinski, the chief judge, said, "What if we took the position that this building is a building with steps, and if someone in a wheelchair wants to come in, they can find somebody to carry them?"

Kozinksi went on, "Actually, that case happened, and some lawyer argued that being able to crawl up the steps was good enough. Today, people are laughing at that argument, and I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, people are laughing at your argument."

The attorney didn't back down. And the judges started laughing.

To commemorate the extraordinary life of Justin Dart, widely recognized as the “father of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the Detroit-based Matrix Theatre Company is creating a giant street puppet in his likeness for use in demonstrations and parades.

The ADA became the law of the land on July 26, 1990 through the tireless efforts of trailblazers like Dart, and the puppet will ready in time to mark the 20th anniversary of this landmark legislation. The Dart puppet will make its debut during the U.S. Social Forum, an event held in Detroit on June 22-26 which brings people together to solve global and ecological crises, and will be featured in Chicago ’s 7th Annual Disability Pride Parade on July 24.

The Matrix Theatre Company “uses the transformative power of theatre to change lives, build community and foster social justice,” and has a tradition of calling for a united community effort to see their puppet projects to fruition. Once the $7,500 is raised and the tribute is completed, the Dart puppet will join the Matrix ranks of puppet activists like Martin Luther King, Ceaser Chavez and Mother Jones.

"If the giant Justin Dart puppet is used to communicate his cry for everyone to 'Lead the Revolution of Individual Empowerment' particularly to youth with disabilities, it would be awesome, and extremely meaningful and valuable," said Yoshiko Dart, his wife.

Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr. was born on August 29, 1930 in Chicago . He contracted polio at the age of 18 and, as a result, spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Also called “the godfather of the disabilities rights movement,” Dart lead the movement for more than three decades and was a staunch advocate for human rights. In fact, his first foray into social activism was during college when he organized a pro-integration student group at the whites-only University of Houston.

He made name for himself on the national stage, receiving five presidential appointments and numerous honors including the Hubert Humphrey Award of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest award that can be bestowed on a civilian. A brilliant entrepreneur, he began and ran several highly successful companies and devoted much of his wealth to further causes of social justice, calling himself “a little PAC for empowerment.”