ADA Under Attack! Tell FOX's John Stossel What the ADA Means to YOU

From the JFAModerator:

I post the below attack on the ADA with a mixture of shock, disgust, and sadness.  I do not know how anyone could argue that we should have fewer accommodations and less access, but as you will see below,  John Stossel, host of "Stossel" on the Fox Business Network, sees people with disabilities as manipulative parasites and the ADA a debilitating law that encourages discrimination against people with disabilities and is financially draining for employers. 

Please send him your reaction at stoss@foxbusiness.com 

You can also send comments to feedback@foxbusiness.com 

If you have feedback for Walter Olson, Stossel's analyst source, you can contact him at editor@overlawyered.com 

*** Take Action: Defend the ADA TODAY ***

From FOXNews (9.2.10):

Disabilities Act Feeds a Suing Public

By John Stossel

... Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of the blog, Overlawyered.com, says that the [ADA] was unnecessary...Under the ADA, Olson notes, fairness does not mean treating disabled people the same as non-disabled people. Rather it means accommodating them. In other words, the law requires that people be treated unequally.

The law has also unleashed a landslide of lawsuits by "professional litigants" who file a hundred suits at a time. Disabled people visit businesses to look for violations, but instead of simply asking that a violation be corrected, they partner with lawyers who (legally) extort settlement money from the businesses.

Some disabled people have benefited from changes effected by the ADA, but the costs are rarely accounted for. If a small business has to lay off an employee to afford the added expense of accommodating the disabled, is that a good thing -- especially if, say, customers in wheelchairs are rare? Extra-wide bathroom stalls that reduce the overall number of toilets are only some of the unaccounted-for costs of the ADA. And since ADA modification requirements are triggered by renovation, the law could actually discourage businesses from making needed renovations as a way of avoiding the expense...

...More money for the parasites.

>>> For the Full Article

Stossel featured this attack on the ADA during his show on September 3.  It is (of course) uncaptioned and inaccessible, but the segment titled "Does ADA Promote Discrimination?" is available at http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4329019/does-ada-promote-discrimination/?playlist_id=87247 

During this segment Stossel interviews two guests who are members of protected classes, a woman who is pregnant and a business owner who is blind, each of whom claim they are offended by the protections set up for them.  Steve Lonegan asserts that his is offended by the the term disability and is glad he got his start before the ADA was passed because the law has done more harm than good.

Comments

[Kevin Murphy]

I first read about Stossel's attack on this blog. http://jeromymurphy.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/john-stossel-continues-to-frivolously-attack-the-ada/

I wish Stossel could spend the day living like some of my clients who are getting "special" treatment. ADA has made so much possible at such a low cost.

[Susan Sampson]

As usual, the story is incomplete. Before people get riled up, they should look around their inner circle of family and friends. They probably know someone who has been impacted by the ADA. Any of us could become disabled and need the protection of this legislation at any time. Rather than make broad sweepring statements about what this will cost and who will ben sued, how about some actual facts and cases? The courts have been tough on this one and no free rides are being given. Shame on you.

[Rodrigo]

Correction, Mr. Murphy: ADA has made so much possible at such an INCREDIBLY HIGH cost. Despite the virtues of the ADA, and just because you haven't had to foot the bill, never aattempt to minimize the financial cost to small businesses, state and local governments, places of worship, etc. to make the ADA a reality. Frankly, these financial sacrifices should be honored, not downplayed.

[Kathy Podgers]

His comments, and language are reprehensible, but he makes some points that the disability community has and continues to ignore. The fact that he exposes his pure ignorance of the law should not surprize any of us, in fact many PWDs are also ignorant of the ADA Regs, and in fact, have never even read the Code.

The fact is that for those who use wheelchairs and who are blind, most folks redily treat them with consideration, and they expect that kind of consideration. However, for those of us who have serious physical disabilities that cannot be redilly seen, we not only do not recieve consideration, we often are subjected to abuse for asking nicely for accomodation, and then brushed aside when we bring out complaints to the disability community.

Things would improve if the disability community ...

1. Focused on Title II enforcement

2. Fosused on the regs rather than the standards (to better establish discrimination based on disability that denied equal enjoyment)

3. treated others as we would wish ourselves to be treated, not the way we are actually treated.

4. Began to get EFFECTIVE laws passed in the States, and locally. By this I do not mean seperate bpdy of law for disabled, but under self evaluation laws are policies, and when state and local laws blatently violate the ADA, because they were never reviewed nor modified, we have Institutional Discrinination big time, IGNORED by the disability community.

5. BTW Attornies only exist is some states, those of us in other states need help. There should be assistance for us. For example, a deaf/blind man was just charged with assault and battery in Cambridge MA for inadvertantly "hitting" a lady with the sweep of his white cain!!!!!
..............................

I plan to respond to his writen drivel, with a copy to you all, however, after spending Sunday on Huffington Post, if you think progressive Dems are any more enlightened, thing again.

Kathy Podgers
Community Access Monitor
617 642 3154
.

[Beth]

I would gladly trade my disease, MS, and my wheelchair to any of the small business owners who have to make modifications.

Or, they could borrow a wheelchair for a day. I'll take them and show them what it's like. But they wouldn't have all the fatigue I have thrown into the mix, so they'd only experience a bit.

Fox News - are you really this bad?

[Martha]

A shame... I cannot even hear what they discussed. CAPTIONS are needed! HELLO anybody home? ACCESS for all!

[Denny Neff]

I sent the following to Fox and John Stossel in response to his lopsided opinion piece on the ADA: Mr. Stossel, I applaud your willingness to have a discussion on the merits of the ADA with regard to questions asked and expenses to small business. I do however think your panel, thus your program was biased and one sided against the ADA. I feel your program would have benefited by having a panel that consisted of a person in a wheelchair and a person with hearing impairment. I have been a fan of your program as well as a fan of your writings, but I have to say I am troubled and disappointed that you would host a program that could have truly been informative and discussed all sides of the ADA issue. I also hope that your producers and sponsors feel the same way. There certainly was no "fair and balanced" reporting in this program.
SSG Denny Neff, US Army (ret)
Disabled American Veteran

p.s. I am confined to an electric wheelchair and am hearing impaired.

[Richard Cortez]

I hope John Stossel never gets a disability! He and this country has alot to learn! You go tell the returning vet that he or she can't have a normal life! Go tell the woman or man that has to go through chemo treatments that they don't have the right to so-called normal life. Some people should KEEP THERE MOUTHS SHUT!
Until your there! You have no F--KING IDEA!

From: Richard & Gi Gi My Service DOG!

[Kathy Podgers]

here is my blog post on this topic. I will add to this over time.

http://lawbutdisorder.blogspot.com/2010/09/john-stossel-and-walter-olsen.html

BTW, go to the main blog, and scroll down to the restarant manager and police plotting to unlawfully tresspass a woman with a disability because she is accompianied by a trained service animal.

kathy

[Patricia Sprofera]

I wish Mr. Stossel a long life; but he fails to realize. that he if lives long enough, even his body will wear out and slow down. He may even be admitted to the Community of People with Disabilities. Mr. Stossel, think before you speak about a Community you know nothing about - yet.

[Albert Donnay]

Shame shame shame on Stossel who actually has a disability himself -- he stutters so badly that he rarely gives live interviews and always works on pre-taped shows so that his stuttering can be edited out. How nice of his employers to accommodate his disability in this way!

[Colleen Hickey]

That is an insult, Mr. Stossel! I have Asperger's syndome, not my fault! You must think we're parasites too!

[S. Weiss]

Mr. Stossel,

It is with great disappointment when I came across the piece that you wrote entitled, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished?" I am disappointed that you have come to a point in your life where you have lost your humanity. For all of the stories that you cherry picked to soothe the Libertarian or right wind base you have sold your soul to, you have missed the reasons why the American's with disabilities was such important legislation. What about the fact that many people with disabilities are tax payers? Should they not have equal access to a court of law? If a restaurant wants to increase their bottom line by opening their doors to the millions of consumers who happen to have a disability, why would you want to get in the way of commerce? What about our elders who may also have a disability? Should they not have access to their Doctor because there is no way to get in the building? That happened to my Father, and may have shortened his life.

You see John, in all of your smarminess and words dripping with sarcasm, you left out a few things. You don't hear about the changes the ADA has brought to people around this country. Sorry to put you out about the service animal issue. But what about service animal that was trained to sense when her human companion was having a seizure, and positioned itself to brace her fall?

My last point is regarding the last line of your piece. If you were referring to those of us with disabilities as parasites, shame on you for taking the cheap way out. I had such high hopes for you.

S. Weiss

[Paul]

(Closed) Captions were not provided for deaf to read/view your discussion since we can NOT hear what you said. Also, no special reading accommodation for deaf-blind to "read" using their hands to know what you are discussing as they can NOT hear the audio tapes at all. Also, the hiring managers at many employers focus on deafness instead of focusing on our qualificaions and experiences et al and let them distort their reasoning negatively. Deaf do not appreciate the interviewers' attitudes and reaction without knowing our facts first. So on!!! Let us sue, sue, sue those audists.

[Tom Willard]

So what if a few people take advantage of the ADA? There are bad apples in every area of life. I'm sure people scam Social Security, does that mean we should get rid of Social Security? I actually feel that we need ADA Police, because the ADA is toothless. I am deaf and my ADA rights are violated all the time. My options are to spend my own money on a lawyer or send a letter to Washington and wait six months to get a form response. When other laws are broken, we can call the police and they come right away and it doesn't cost us anything. We need the same kind of thing to enforce the ADA.

[Mike]

You totally took Stossel's comments out of context. The parasites he was referring to are the lawyers, not the persons with disabilities.

And for the commenters that wish John Stossel live a day in a disable person's shoes, if you had watched the show you would have seen the segment where he talks about the disability he has and has to overcome everyday.

[Edward Janus]

Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activist (Disabled).
Fighting for Persons with Disabilities. Making Our Voices Heard.
Doing Daily Internet Activism for Supporting Causes of Change.
Taking Actions, Clicking for Sponsored Donations, Signing Letters, Petitions, Pledges, and many other Important Causes. Governmental, Political Issues and Government Accountability.
Sharing Disability Connections, News and Resources.
Founder: www.EdwardJanus.net | Disability Network Connections.

I am a AAPD member.
Took Actions and I posted to ALL my weblogs.
Thank You,
Edward

[jdare]

Stossel has become a 'shock jock' a far cry from his more mellow pieces on 20/20, at some point in his career he found that the more controversial his statements, the higher ratings. I am not going to justify his opinion with a response beyond that, but I will say that 'fair is not equal' in response to Stossel's outrage that "the law requires that people be treated unequally".

That is a lesson we teach to elementary school kids, but it appears John is still whining about the fact that one person gets to leave class 2 minutes before the rest b/c they were in a car accident and lost their legs and are now in a wheelchair.

I am sure this won't be that last controversial statement Glen err... John makes.

[Daryl]

Your comments are dispicable. How can anyone possibly defend the cottage industry that has sprung up to profit off of people's disabilities? That is what Stossel is arguing against. Your representation of what Stossel actually said is completely ridiculous. AAPD should be ashamed.

[James]

This is such a sad misrepresentation and undignified attack. Unfortunately it works since most people do not read or think for themselves.

I find it belittling to persons with disabilities that this represents the response to constructive criticism of a piece of legislation. It's basically sending the message that one can't comment on the abuses included in the current policy without being demonized and accused of opposing its benefits.