One can’t help but understand this is driven by the increasing number of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with severe disability which renders them useless to their former employer, the US Military. However, the end result is that people who may have been formerly overlooked, without a war to spur initiative, may benefit. About.com offers a comprehensive and insightful look at President Bush’s initiative.

President Bush has asked Congress for sweeping changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) designed to improve educational, employment and social opportunities for over 54 million disabled Americans.

Signed into law eleven years ago by President George Bush, the ADA represented the first major piece of civil rights legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and opened many of the real and virtual doors of society closed for years to the disabled.

“Because of that law, millions of Americans can now compete for jobs once denied them; enter buildings once closed to them; travel on buses and trains once unequipped for them,” stated President Bush in a Feb. 1, 2001 announcement.

# Lower cost and improve access to “assistive” technologies (text telephones, adaptive computer equipment, lightweight and powered wheelchairs, modern artificial limbs, etc.)
# Expand employment opportunities for the disabled, including opportunities for the disabled to work from home.
# Offer new transportation solutions for the disabled.
# Improve access to places of worship.

Colleges are carefully watching the political wrangling concerning the ADA and what it means to already stretched budgets and resources. While most colleges already go above and beyond the ‘letter of the law’ in regards to accessibility, mandating certain levels of compliance can end up causing a poor return on investment with colleges spending more money to administrate the program than the actual output provided to benefit the intended recipients. Red tape is almost never good. Stay tuned.

Although it has been stalled in Congress for several months, legislation that would broaden coverage under the Americans With Disabilities Act has recently been on the radar of some college officials and the associations that represent them. Their concern: that expanding the definition of a disability could overwhelm offices that work to accommodate such students on university campuses.

Several higher-education associations have met recently about the bill, both with one another and with key Congressional staff members. Though the bill faces opposition from the Bush administration, its key sponsor hopes to get a modified form to the floor by this summer.
Most universities voluntarily go beyond the letter of the law in accommodating students on their campuses. But broadening the definition of a disability could add even more demand for campus offices that already work with hundreds, if not thousands, of students.

“There is a concern that having too many more students coming forward looking for accommodations would cause the resources of the disability offices to be extremely stretched,” said Ada Meloy, general counsel for the American Council on Education.