9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Hi, I'm Beth Haller. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'm a professor of Mass Communication[br]at Towsen University in Maryland. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I also teach Disability Studies there[br]and at several other campuses. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I teach at City University of New York[br]and their Disability Studies programme; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I teach at York University in Toronto[br]and their Disability Studies programme; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I teach at University of Texas, Arlington[br]and their Disability Studies minor. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I've been doing research since[br]the early 90's 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about media representations of people[br]with disabilities. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I have a kind of unique[br]relationship to the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because I did my dissertation on[br]how the news media covered it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So before I went to Temple University[br]in Philadelphia to get my PhD, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was at University of Maryland College[br]Park getting my Masters. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I started that in 1989, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and there's a reason for all these numbers[br](laughs) these dates, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and in 1988 is when the Deaf President[br]Now movement happened 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that gathered at university in DC, and I[br]think somewhere in the back of my mind 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I knew about what was happening because I[br]was a journalist before I became academic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when I started at College Park in 1989[br]I ended up doing an article for a class 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about a deaf student at Gallaudet and I[br]got very interested in the deaf community, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there's a huge deaf community[br]in the DC area. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Doing my Masters thesis on how the[br]deaf community was represented 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 before, during and after [br]Deaf President Now 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the New York Times and the[br]Washington Post, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that was a jumping-off point. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I left College Park it was 1991[br]and so the ADA had just been passed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and when I got to Temple to start [br]working on my PhD 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I knew that I wanted to still work in[br]the area of disability 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we just had this major disability[br]rights law passed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I remember it more as a focus[br]of my research 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cause I don't necessarily remember seeing[br]the actual coverage on the day it happened 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in 1990, but I do remember looking at all[br]the coverage cause that was the subject 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of my dissertation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it was really interesting to look[br]at it as an academic 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and to kind of watch it happen and[br]then not happen (laughs) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as it moved into the future. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So my dissertation looked at how the[br]mainstream news media, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you know, all the big news magazines[br]and the major newspapers back then. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I finished my dissertation in '94,[br]graduated in '95 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so it was very early days of the ADA so it[br]wasn't really being implemented yet 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because they gave several years for[br]people to get into compliance 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but as the years have passed it's been[br]very interesting to watch how things 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 weren't happening. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I think what we all thought was[br]going to happen was: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Congress was going to pass this major[br]disability rights law 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and people would then follow it[br]because it's now federal law 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not to discriminate based on disability 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but that isn't what happened (laughs). 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And from a media standpoint, that really[br]kind of hurt ADA because- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I've even had this conversation with[br]disability rights scholars and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 disability rights activists-[br]because they I think thought 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in that same way that it's now law[br]and everything will be fine, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and there was such a history of being[br]covered in the media so badly 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that the activists thought they could get[br]this past and everything would be fine 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they didn't need the[br]media for anything. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I come onto the scene, I start going[br]to Society for Disability studies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 meetings in the early 90's,[br]started presenting my research 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and even the disability community in those[br]first early years right after the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 didn't understand why the[br]media was important. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because I remember presenting[br]at a conference, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at a Disability Studies conference,[br]and people coming up to me and saying 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "That's really nice that you do work on[br]media, but we have bigger things we 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 need to be dealing with: getting people[br]jobs, getting people proper education 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 getting people out of nursing homes."[br]My response to everybody was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "How do you think you're going to do that[br]if you're not getting out information 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into public opinion, so if you're not[br]able to change public opinion 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 how can you get these[br]things accomplished? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And how do you get public opinion[br]changed? You get a proper narrative 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 going in the media." And now there's[br]actual disability studies, research 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and disability activists who've talked[br]about this in the early 2000's 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about how they took the wrong tactic[br]after the ADA was passed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and decided that when it was passed[br]it would get enforced. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Yay we can move on."[br]Unfortunately the business narrative 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 came into the mix and they controlled[br]the message that was in the media. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so from quite a number of[br]years after the ADA was passed, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it wasn't being enforced because there[br]was this narrative in the news media 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that it was an unfunded mandate and[br]"Well, we never saw a person with a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 disability in our store, why do [br]we have to do all this stuff?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well of course, the reason they didn't see[br]a person with a dis- as a wheelchair user 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in their store is because it wasn't[br]accessible, or nobody came to their 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 website because it was inaccessible[br](laughs) but they didn't get that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A lot of the journalists didn't know[br]people in the disability community 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the disability community was[br]very wary of the news media 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because they'd done such a bad job, but[br]any news coverage in my opinion is better 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than no news coverage usually (laughs). 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so the business community really took[br]over the narrative and had this really 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 negative perception of the ADA[br]that was funnelling into the media, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then people just didn't know about it[br]cause it wasn't getting covered that much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There was a national poll done, I believe[br]in, like, 1995, of Americans 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about what they knew about the ADA[br]and other disability rights issues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Only 18% of Americans in 1995 had even[br]heard of the American Disabilities Act 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if I'm remembering the stats right. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To me, that is the fault of not engaging[br]with media to do stories about that, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I know it's very difficult. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Even today I know it's difficult to get[br]the media to do a more complex, policy, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 legal, government related[br]story about disability 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and not one of those [br]inspiration narrative stories, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it's still worth fighting to try to[br]get those stories into the media. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the other data point I would say,[br]what I always tell my students when we're 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 talking about the ADA: the ADA's[br]enforcement depends on who's 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the White House. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we had quite a number of[br]Republican Presidents 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who did not care about the ADA being[br]enforced for, like, 8 years, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so that is why it really only got more[br]enforced when Obama became President. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's a lot of external factors[br]that meant that the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was not going to be changing things[br]as radically as we would have hoped, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or what we were thinking back in 1990. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The ADA has had impact in more recent[br]years since President Obama 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 came into office and it was[br]just getting enforced. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I use a lot of these example in my class,[br]of news stories about the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 finally being implemented. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A couple that I use, one is about a[br]little city in Pennsylvania. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The headlines of a lot of ADA stories,[br]still, I say they have this blaming tone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Things are expensive because of the ADA;[br]things are closing because of the ADA." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I always tell my students that[br]narrative should be flipped. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The story really is, "Why didn't this town[br]in Pennsylvania comply with the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for however many years, 20 years."[br]So that, to me is the real story. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This one headline was about this town, I[br]believe was Logansport, Pennsylvania, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the headline was, "They must pay $8[br]million" for some kind of ADA compliance 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that they were finally going to do, I[br]think in, like, 2008 or something. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I'm like, okay that $8 million[br]would have been a lot less 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if they'd just been compliant back in 1992[br]like they were supposed to be compliant, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but they're still blaming the ADA. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But now I think people, the general[br]public now knows a lot more 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I actually chalk a lot of it[br]up to social media, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because now people are getting, not a [br]mediated story through the news media 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and some journalist or some newscaster. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They're actually on social media[br]with people with disabilities 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and see what their life is like. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I know in the last couple of years[br]when there was an assault on the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and people in Congress were thinking about[br]and the President was thinking about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 figuring out a way to knock it out. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I saw lots of allies on social media[br]because they were finally aware that there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was a disability rights law and they said[br]it should stay, it should not be repealed, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and so I think the media[br]have a lot of power, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and now that we have this very[br]personal media of social media, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 people get to know actual people with[br]disabilities in their community 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they see the benefits of having[br]things in braille or having captioning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or having wheelchair ramps, or just[br]thinking about asking somebody before 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you barrel ahead and create something[br]that may be inaccessible. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I think the general public is a lot[br]more aware than they were in 1995 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when only 18% of people had[br]even heard of the ADA. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And even if they haven't heard of the ADA,[br]they're in favour of disability rights, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I think that one thing that came out[br]of that survey, even back in 1995, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that, they might have never heard of[br]the ADA, but if you pose to Americans 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the concept of disability rights[br]then they agree with that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They don't think people should be[br]discriminated against just because they 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 need a ramp to get into a building or[br]need a sign language interpreter 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to apply for a job. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I think there's a better feeling among[br]the American public in terms of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 understanding disability rights and making[br]sure that everybody has equal access. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And also I think people now understand[br]people with disabilities are them, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are their friends, are their family [br]members, and so a lot of the hidden stuff 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that was happening before the ADA where[br]people with disabilities were being 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 hidden in their families, where[br]nobody talked about it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I even noticed that, in my teaching at[br]Temple when I was a grad student, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that the younger generation, because[br]a lot of them had grown up 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in inclusive education, there was no shame[br]they were proud to talk about their own 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 disability, their parent's disability,[br]their sibling's disability. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I still remember a student, we had a [br]discussion, actually one of my journalism 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 classes, and one student, she was talking[br]about, her mother was fluent in sign 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 language cause both of her grandparents[br]were deaf, so her mother's first language 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was sign language even[br]though she was hearing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Another kid was like, "My brother[br]has Down's Syndrome" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he said it with pride. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I think the cultural change that the[br]ADA brought was really powerful too, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cause that is what gets you to the[br]place, if you're a business person, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Oh okay, maybe I should be more open to[br]hiring somebody with Down's Syndrome 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to work in my grocery store, or whatever." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I think having that cultural change[br]where people are now including 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the disability community as[br]part of the American citizenry, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then that is a very powerful thing, I[br]think that the ADA did. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Yeah. If the ADA stays around, I think[br]that's a really good part of our future 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because it's a really good law.[br]It was written really well, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it just needs to be[br]enforced at all times. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We learned about how it could be enforced[br]in those 8 years that President Obama 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was in office, and I think we[br]can continue to learn that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the Justice Department and Department[br]of Ed. and all the other federal agencies 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that enforce it, I think the[br]community knows how to reach them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and tell them to enforce things, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and people are even getting a little bit[br]better, even the business community 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 understands now that people with[br]disabilities are a major part of our 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 consumer culture, and now with the[br]pandemic and everybody working online, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 people with disabilities have[br]been, can be the leaders. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They're the ones that have been doing the[br]workaround to try to make a living 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when they've not been able to go[br]to an inaccessible building. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I think the future is bright if we[br]will listen to disabled people about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what the world needs to basically embrace[br]everyone and accommodate everyone, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it'll be a better future for everyone[br]because we talk about the hidden benefits 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of access for everyone, so think about[br]all the people that use curb cuts 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for their wheelie luggage and[br]all the UPS guys that use curb cuts 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for rolling their hand carts. All the bars[br]that use closed caption cause they're loud 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So everybody gets benefits from disability[br]related access and I think it can only get 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 better, if people learn to trust that the[br]disability community can lead us, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because they're the ones who are most[br]innovative and entrepreneurial 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about making sure that they can move[br]forward in the most access-friendly ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think there should be a lot more[br]listening to people with disabilities 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the future cause they've[br]already worked out the problems 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we're now dealing with in a pandemic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think they can help us build a[br]future that's better for everyone, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whether you have a disability or not. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What steps can we take right now? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think if you're not a person with[br]a disability, being a good ally. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you're a family member, being- [br]helping to make sure that the person 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in your family with a disability is[br]empowered to be independent, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and giving them all the support they need. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you're a person with a disability,[br]making sure that the world 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is accommodating to you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And everybody needs to focus on making[br]the world completely accessible. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A lot of people live in houses that[br]cannot be made accessible, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and a lot of things were grandfathered[br]into the ADA because they were built long 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 before the ADA existed,[br]but there's other locations. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's online, there's video chatting,[br]there's all kinds of workarounds 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that I think we can all embrace, and we[br]got to quit whining about this stuff 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because, I'm talking to you in the[br]middle of a pandemic (laughs). 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But I hear so many people complaining[br]about things that I'm like, you know, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this is all good, we can all[br]still be connected, it's fine, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and things are going to change,[br]we need to learn to adapt. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 People with disabilities can teach us how[br]to adapt, and they have a major disability 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rights organisation called[br]Adapt as well (laughs). 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I think that's the key for all of us,[br]is to start learning to roll with it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 learning to adapt and make sure[br]that we're bringing everyone along 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into this new world that we're going to[br]have to fashion post-pandemic, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that it's accessible to[br]everyone, that we're all equal, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we're making sure that supports[br]and what people need are in place, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then we can be a better community. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's kind of a weird time to be[br]talking about all this (laughs). 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I mean, I know it's the ADA's 30th[br]anniversary, I'm very glad that it's here 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and still exists, but I really feel like[br]we can use the model of the ADA 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from 30 years ago as we move forward. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We're going to have to [br]restructure so much of our world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 why not do it accessibly this time?