It was a sweltering July afternoon on the South Lawn of the White House, as a crowd gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It reminded me of a July afternoon twenty years ago, when I watched President George H.W. Bush sign into law the Americans with Disabilities Act that I had helped draft.
At that time, I thought the enactment of the ADA would forever be the landmark in challenging the status quo for disability civil rights. But when President Barack Obama announced that the United States has joined 140 countries in signing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, I felt we were rolling up to the threshold of a new world of opportunities for all people with disabilities.
Challenge