In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — bipartisan, landmark legislation that affirmed the right of Americans with disabilities, like me, to fully participate in our communities. Like other civil rights laws that came before it, the ADA reinforced that our nation’s founding ideals — chief among them equality, independence and self-determination — are not a given, but rather a goal toward which we must continuously strive.
For me and so many Deaf Americans, key to achieving these ideals is the ability to effectively communicate. That’s why, on the 25th anniversary of the ADA in 2015, I wrote about the importance of ensuring that the federally regulated Video Relay Service (VRS), which many of us rely on to do so, be properly supported in order to keep pace with advances in telecommunications for all Americans.
Unfortunately, six years on, the gap in equity — or “functional equivalence” in the legal parlance of the ADA — has only widened.
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