Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
122241478
label
Americans with Disabilities Act
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
122241478
contentType
document
title
Americans with Disabilities Act
citationUrl
collections
Records of the Office of the Public Liaison (Clinton Administration)
Ilia Velez's files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
122241478
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
otherTitles
42-t-26437309-20070143F-Seg3-046-018-2018
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
7ba8577601b74488
ocrText
FOIA Number: 2007-0143-F
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
Public Liaison
Series/Staff Member:
Dan Wexler
Subseries:
OA/ID Number:
10144
FolderID:
Folder Title:
Americans with Disabilities Act
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
S
30
6
1
1
Whitever Voluntar- 301 843 7900 Bus
Bill Aure
401-4713608
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
ROUTING SLIP
DATE: 6/28/96
5.4 ADN
FROM:
Stephanie Streett and Anne Hawley
Deputy Assistants to the President and Directors of Scheduling
SUBJECT: Video message for 6th Anniv. of passage of ADA
(Americans W/Disabilities Act)
Don Baer
Mack McLarty
Peg Cusack
Leon Panetta
Rahm Emanuel
Jack Quinn
Jack Gibbons
Carol Rasco
Laura Graham
Paige Reffe
Marcia Hale
Patti Solis
Alexis Herman
Doug Sosnik
Nancy Hernreich
G. Stephanopoulos
Kitty Higgins
Todd Stern
John Hilley
Ann Stock
Harold Ickes
Kim Tilley
Jennifer Jose
Jodie Torkelson
Ron Klain
Laura Tyson
Anthony Lake
Melanne Verveer
Evelyn Lieberman
Michael Waldman
Bruce Lindsey
Maggie Williams
Mike McCurry
haura Schwar +2
Bill white
FILE: pending
Danny wexler
COMMENTS:
VIDEO PROPOSAL
June 25, 1996
ACCEPT
REGRET
PENDING
TO:
Stephanie Street and Ann Walley
Directors of Scheduling and Advance
FROM:
Alexis Herman
Assistant to the President and Director,
Office of Public Liaison
REQUEST:
For the President to tape a video message to
commemorate the sixth anniversary of the passage of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
PURPOSE:
To energize disability rights activists around the country
by articulating the Administration's commitment to the
ADA.
BACKGROUND:
There are 49 million Americans with disabilities.
The ADA Anniversary on July 26 is the most important
day of the year to the disability community, a day that is
as important to the disability community as Martin Luther
King day is to the African American community.
This landmark civil rights legislation guarantees equal
rights and equal opportunity for the millions of
Americans with disabilities. The ADA is the foundation
for the Administration's national disability policy of
inclusion, independence and empowerment.
The President's video message commemorating the 6th
Anniversary of the ADA will be distributed and shown at
hundreds of ADA celebrations that are being organized
around the country.
DURATION:
5 minutes.
REMARKS:
Draft script attached.
RECOMMENDED BY:
Alexis Herman
CONTACT:
Bill White, 6-7032
ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL:
White House generated.
Draft
ADA SIXTH ANNIVERSARY
I am pleased to join citizens across the country in celebrating the sixth anniversary of
the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In 1992, I issued a challenge to our nation. I said we must not rest until America has
a national disability policy based on three simple creeds: inclusion, not exclusion;
independence, not dependence; and empowerment, not paternalism. I remain committed to
that vision.
More than ever before in our history, America's greatness in the next century will
depend upon the ability of all our citizens to make the most of their own lives. Americans
with disabilities are an enormous, largely untapped reservoir of that potential.
Like the civil rights laws that came before it, the Americans with Disabilities Act is
grounded in the principles of equal opportunity and fair play. These principles lie at the core
of our national identity and at the heart of our national hopes and aspirations. They provide
common ground.
But the vision of the ADA will not be realized without the strong commitment of all
of us. As we know from our Nation's still unfinished attempt to eradicate race and gender
discrimination, the commitment to protecting the rights of persons with disabilities requires
perseverance, vigilance, and sustained enforcement efforts.
We have made vigorous enforcement of all laws protecting people with disabilities a
top priority of this Administration. We will stay this course until all barriers to the full
participation of individuals with disabilities come down.
Consistent with this commitment, my FY 1997 budget proposes a 3.9 percent increase
over the current budget for the Department of Justice's ADA enforcement activities. Given
the difficult task of balancing the budget in seven years, this increase dramatically
demonstrates my commitment to ADA enforcement.
Our commitment goes beyond the nuts and bolts of law enforcement. All too often
we hear attacks on the ADA that are based on misinformation. We in government have a
responsibility to counter these attacks with the truth.
The essential challenge we face is that too many people fail to appreciate the essence
of discrimination that people with disabilities face in their daily lives. Many still don't see
discriminatory barriers -- whether they are based on architecture or attitudes. Many still
remain trapped by society's stereotypes about disability. Many still think the barriers faced by
people with disabilities stem from their disabilities -- and not from what we as a society have
erected.
The promise of the ADA -- and all other disability rights laws -- will never be realized
until we respond, vocally and visibly, to this challenge. We must work to assure that all
Americans fully comprehend that it is wrong to exclude anyone from full participation in
society simply because of a disability -- just as wrong as it is to exclude someone because of
race, or ethnic origin, or gender, or religion.
We all must remember as we celebrate the ADA that a civil rights law alone will not
achieve our vision of inclusion, independence and empowerment for people with disabilities.
That's why I fought so hard for measures like the Family and Medical Leave Act. And that's
why I am committed to preserving the Federal guarantee of Medicaid coverage for people
with disabilities.
For three decades Americans have stood on common ground about the need for
guaranteed Medicaid coverage for older Americans, pregnant women, low-income children,
and people with disabilities. But last year Congress sent me legislation to repeal that
guarantee -- legislation that would have taken away health care coverage from millions of
Americans who need it most. I vetoed that legislation, and if they send it to me again and
they want to repeal the guarantee, I will veto it again.
Let me be clear. We can balance this budget without repealing guaranteed Medicaid
coverage for six million Americans with disabilities who depend upon it, including one
million children. Medicaid is a family issue, as people with disabilities know, which makes it
possible for more people to get care at home and in their communities. Without the
guarantee, a middle-class family with a child with a severe disability could be forced into
poverty to pay for the child's medical care. Parents could be forced to give up their jobs to
stay home to care for a child. Children and adults who live independently today might be
forced into institutions. I will not let that happen.
Access to home and community-based, consumer-directed, long term supports and
services is critical for many Americans with disabilities to achieve independence. The vision
of community integration, independent living, and competitive employment at the heart of the
ADA depends on the existence of home and community-based supports, and I will continue to
fight any attempts to roll back these critical services.
Another cornerstone of our national disability policy that undergirds and complements
the ADA is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This law will make it
possible for students with disabilities get their share of the high-wage jobs that are opening up
in this new economy. I know how much IDEA means to the millions of students with
disabilities and to their parents, and I strongly support it.
High school graduates with disabilities who went to school under IDEA have an
employment rate of twice that of the overall population of individuals with disabilities.
Recognizing the value of investing in quality education, I have requested a 12% increase over
1996 funding in my FY 97 budget for state grant for special education. Some in the
Congress have proposed reducing the federal share to its lowest level ever. Just as with
Medicaid, I believe we can balance the budget and maintain a strong federal role in the
education of disabled children. I will continue to fight for IDEA because I know it works.
Spending money on education, health care, and personal assistant services is an investment in
our future.
America is in the best position to be a winner in the global economy of the 21st
century because of the depth of our values, the strength of our diversity, the power of our
economy. But we don't have a single person to waste. We have to continue to expand
opportunity and demand responsibility from all of our citizens. And that means inclusion, not
exclusion.
Six years after the historic passage of the ADA, we must redouble our efforts to
achieve the law's vision. We must remain committed as we face new challenges, and we
must bear in mind the ultimate wisdom embodied in the ADA. As Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. reminded us, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."