My name is Jeff Moyer. I am a 71 year old disability rights advocate,
writer, and musician. I've been involved with the ADA since before
it's inception when we were working to establish the
beginning of disability rights through the 504 regulations
that were signed in 1977 following a 26 day sit in at
the San Francisco federal building and I was a musician
during that, although I did not live there like those heroes did.
I came and went. I had a young child. My involvement with the ADA began
when I heard Justin Dart speak in 1988 I was captivated by his soaring oratory,
and his unifying message. I introduced myself and
asked if I might one day record his oratory, he said yes and that
began our friendship which led to him inviting me to perform my song
the ADA anthem at the U.S. senate at the evening reception following
the signing of the ADA at the white house in the morning.
I then became involved as a member of the ADA implementation network
and worked pro bono with people all over the country.
Helping ensure that the rights created by the ADA were realized in their lives.
I began to go blind the summer of 1954, two weeks before my younger
brother was born with a severe cognitive disability and I think my
realization of exclusion and such occurred for me as I was trying to see
in first grade, to read and the materials were not accessible,
but my teacher had to write out everything she wrote on the board
and hand it to me separately. So it was my first realization
of a need and also the human intervention that met my needs.
For my brother it wasn't so easy and he became the victim of
extreme thuggery, and childhood violence and there were no schools
that would accept him, not even the schools for kids with disabilities.
As a result, he was institutionalized when he was 9 years old and that
opened a chapter in my life that continues about understanding
the needs of people with cognitive disabilities that thanks to the mighty
Olmstead decision as part of the ADA institutional life was considered a
violation of civil rights. There's so much to that story.
The ADA was a wonderful construct, however in it's construction,
the decision was made by the senate to exclude blindness so
every intersection in the country had curb cuts, but putting in accessible signals
for people with visual disabilities is a local option and I'm afraid that
and I know that for a fact. A dear friend of mine who's since passed
was part of that whole process in Washington. Her name was
Mary Jane Owen. So the ADA is a great promise, but it's only realized
through individual action when people apply the skills of advocacy
to make sure that case by case, it's realized.
I was invited to the white house for the signing ceremony and I got
there early just by virtue of when my plane landed so I was seated
in the front row of the public section. There was a section for congress, and
the administration and then a section for the public.
When the president walked out crossing the platform that had
been constructed so that he could be seen by the crowd, by the
audience rather, of course the congressional section rose as one
in applause and then there came people yelling, "We can't see, sit
down!" Senator Kennedy was sitting right in front of me
and the woman who I met who was sitting next to me said that
he whipped around and realized that they were blocking the
view of people in wheelchairs. So there was this moment of
collision of protocol and accessibility
Of course people sat down. So it was the first time, as the ADA was
being signed, that accessibility was realized by virtue of personal action.
I think this is going to be a difficult time for realization of anything new
concerning disability rights, because as our country is now
wrestling with the economic outcome due to being shut
down due to Coronavirus, I think we're going to be
working real hard just to maintain the ground we have.
If I could have anything I wanted in terms of accessibility, it would
be to reopen the ADA's mighty pages to include information
and orientation access and by that I mean if you're able to
ambulate and you're blind or you can't read by virtue of a
cognitive disability, simple things like street crossings, bus numbers,
signs in buildings are difficult, impossible to read if you can't
see or can't read. This technology is called talking signs, and we came
very close. All of this is not required by the ADA, to see that
realized as part of the ADA. However, the republicans blocked
the highway bill because they didn't want President Obama
to have any victories and we had a high priority amendment
to that, that would've made Washington, D.C. the first
accessible city in the world for people who can't see or can't read.
When that happened after 10 years of effort to get to that
point, the little company went under. I had been a volunteer
for it for 10 years and with it came really a crushing defeat
for that type of accessibility. Now, there certainly are many
types of access through one's cellphone if you're able to
do that, but so many people aren't able or can't afford it
that it makes accessibility something that requires money
and the responsibility that the ADA made clear is that the
responsibility for access is on behalf of the government.
People have disabilities, situations create handicaps.
I think what the ADA did was open the possibility for people
that employment was going to be open to them.
In fact we've lost ground since the ADA was passed, because people
hid behind it in terms of their response to hiring.
We need to make greater progress in terms of employment equity.
As well as orientation and information access.
The ADA, I just heard Robert Moses who is one of the great
heroes of the civil rights movement, freedom summer 1964
and he said the Civil Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
are ideas, but they have yet to be fully realized.
The ADA, it's an idea, it's a construct, it's a mighty
accomplishment, but to see it fully realized in our lives
requires accessibility and said decision addresses
what I consider to be the most extreme need we have.
That is safe and accessible housing for people with
cognitive disabilities. Institutions still exist, and even
in the community it takes advocates to make sure that
people are able to live in safe and welcoming environments, even in
their own home. I saw this with my brother who died of lung cancer
because of being addicted to cigarettes in the institution
when he was a child.
But even in his last days there was thievery and violence in the home
which is of course what we expected we would be getting
away from when I was able to move him from the institution
into a supported living home. So the greatest need is the
needs of the least among us. Once again, we must listen to
our heart intelligence, know what is right and then find
the way that one's rights can address that.
The ADA, IDEA, 504, the Voting Rights Act, or the Fair Housing
Act amendments. There are many laws in the quilted protections
we have, but each of them require individual planning and each of
them require advocacy. So all of you advocates,
all of you young people there that are reading this or
watching this, the torch is being passed and it's
important that younger generations now take on the
mantle of continuing to move forward with our beloved, hard
won disability rights, which are our civil rights.
I hope that people are able to think more broadly about what we
need as a community and pull as one in common direction,
common cause for possibly the good of a few in the
community, but we all benefit when we are lifted up through
accessibility.
I added music to our demonstration to the signing
of the ADA, to the commemoration of it's 10th anniversary.
Throughout I've understood the power of music.
It communicates to the wider community. It buoys us up as
advocates and it unites us. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
widow said it the day of national service, the Martin Luther King
holiday, that we have when we were involved in the civil rights
movement, the 60's the disability rights movement
in the 70's, it was music that helped us create a community
because we sang together as one and I do hope that
music is not lost as a means to pull us together.
If there's one thing we need now, it is to know that we are one
as people with disabilities, that we all share the same histories of
in different ways of discrimination and exclusion and our rights
are protected by the same laws. I do hope that culture continues
binding us together and giving voice through it's myriad ways
so that people are able to express the reality and hope.
Hope is what we need more than ever right now and
that is what the ADA provided, was a great beacon of hope.