Abstract
As an unfunded federal mandate, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public and private entities to ensure disability accommodations without providing state funding to pay for these accommodations. Disability accommodations under the ADA can take many forms, including audio description of a museum exhibit, designated parking for people with disabilities, or accessible toilet stalls. For each of these examples, once it is established or installed, the accommodation is available to serve the needs of numerous disabled individuals. Individualized service accommodations for disability accessibility emerge only once the individual with the disability makes the request. For example, a deaf job candidate requests communication access for a job interview. The request for the accommodation is individual-dependent, and in the case of signed language interpreting, individual-specific and not fungible. Given that the unfunded mandate of the ADA does not directly provide a mechanism to alleviate expenses related to providing service accommodations to individuals, which can serve as a deterrent to inclusive practices, the question arises as to whether the ADA discriminates against individuals who require ongoing service accommodations.
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Notes
- 1.
Access to private communication and nonlinguistic communication lies beyond the scope of this chapter and will not be discussed.
- 2.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended, Public Law 110–325 (2009), United States Code Title 42 Chapter 126 §12101.
- 3.
For more a detailed history about the ADA, see the website ADA.gov.
- 4.
Unfortunately, although disability accommodations may be in place, access to said accommodations may not be readily available. Numerous first-person accounts by people with disabilities exist regarding accessible entrances that are kept locked or accessible restrooms on a floor that is inaccessible. For a first-person account of this phenomenon, see Bill Peace, “An Unexpected Humiliation At A Conference on the Humanities, Disability and Health Care”, Bad Cripple (blog), November 17, 2013, http://badcripple.blogspot.com/2013/11/an-unexpected-humiliation-at-conference.html; also Mark Boatman, “William Peace: Scholar, Advocate,” New Mobility Magazine, September 1, 2014, http://www.newmobility.com/2014/09/william-peace/.
- 5.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended, Public Law 110–325 (2009), United States Code Title 42 Chapter 126 §§12131–12189.
- 6.
Typically, employment-related accommodations fall under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, United States Code Title 42 Chapter 126, §§12111–12117.
- 7.
Americans with Disabilities Act, Chapter 126, §12103.
- 8.
For a historic account of the role of readers shortly before the passage of the original ADA in 1990, please see Joyce Scanlon’s article “Readers: What Are They and How Do Blind People Use Them?” in Future Reflections 6, no.1 (Winter 1987) https://nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr6/Issue1/f060109.html (Future Reflections is the National Federation of the Blind Magazine for Parents and Teachers of Blind Children.)
- 9.
Sherman Wilcox and Phyllis Perrin Wilcox, Learning To See: Teaching American Sign Language as a Second Language (Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1997), 2–8.
- 10.
As an example, consider the ASL sign for group, a sign that begins two hands positioned in a classifier C handshape touching each other positioned in front of the torso. These hands simultaneously move away from each other and away from the body to form a circle, joining together to touch again. In ASL , the nature of the group is conveyed through context or finger spelling; in an artificial signed English system, this meaning would be conveyed by altering the classifier handshape (a feature of the natural language) to an initialized handshape, such as the manual alphabet letter “T” (for team) or “G” (for group). This handshape is sustained throughout the movement. ADD link to sign?
- 11.
Some examples of manually coded English include LOVE, SEE1, SEE2, Rochester Method, as well as cued speech.
- 12.
For a historic account of the challenges that contact sign presents in language acquisition and communication, see Robert E. Johnson, Scott K. Liddell, and Carol J. Erting, “Unlocking the Curriculum”, Gallaudet Research Institute Working Paper 89–3 (Washington Gallaudet University, 1989), 4–12.
- 13.
U.S. Department of Justice, ADA Requirements, “Effective Communication,” Federal Register 75, no. 178 (September 15, 2010): 56163–56236. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-09-15/html/2010-21821.htm See also https://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.
- 14.
U.S. Department of Justice ADA Requirements, “Effective Communication,” https://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.
- 15.
U.S. Department of Justice ADA Requirements, “Effective Communication,” https://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.
- 16.
U.S. Department of Justice ADA Requirements, “Effective Communication,” https://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.
- 17.
U.S. Department of Justice ADA Requirements, “Effective Communication,” https://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.
- 18.
There are several proposals for written forms of ASL, but a standard form that is taught in all schools does not yet exist, nor is there substantial literature existing in written ASL.
- 19.
Americans with Disabilities Act, Chapter 126, §12101 note: Findings and Purposes of ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110–325, § 2, Sept. 25, 2008, 122 Stat. 3553.
- 20.
I thank Kelby Brick for raising this point in conversation.
- 21.
In the past (through 2017) tax credits to small businesses and tax deductions for disability accommodations were available to commercial and other entities providing public accommodations. At the time this status was inconclusive for 2018, given the absence of published information regarding this for the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, (Public Law 115-97) on the Internal Revenue Services Tax Reform website updates. revised 2018 tax (CHECK current 2018 tax code—David, I have an inquiry out on this).
- 22.
An exception to this might be public emergency broadcasts on television, highly visible public addresses by politicians, or large public events such as a university commencement, which may arrange for signed language interpretation without first waiting for a request from a member of the public.
- 23.
Jackie Leach Scully. “Hidden labor: Disabled/Nondisabled encounters, agency, and autonomy.” IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 3, no. 2 (2010):25. https://doi.org/10.3138/ijfab.3.2.25.
- 24.
Personal communication with Anne Vikkelsø, March 2014.
- 25.
Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice: Power & The Ethics of Knowing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- 26.
Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, “Choosing Accommodations: Signed Language Interpreting and The Absence of Choice” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 27, no. 2 (June 2017):267–299.
- 27.
Alva Noë, “On Failing To Spot Gibberish”, 13.7 Cosmos & Culture: Commentary on Science and Society, National Public Radio Blog (December 20, 2013). http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/12/20/255872895/on-failing-to-spot-gibberish.
- 28.
This example is analogous to those offered by José Medina as examples of epistemic injustices involving racial and gender oppression, but in this case, the oppression would be classified as ableist or audist. See José Medina, The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 27–29.
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Burke, T.B. (2018). Does the ADA Discriminate Against Deaf People?. In: Boonin, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93907-0_30
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