Brief Thoughts on the Americans with Disabilities Act 35 Years: Onward and Why

Mark Seifarth

As July 2025 Disability Pride Month and the 35th Anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act draw to a close, I offer my brief thoughts and reflections as we go forward:

Brief Thoughts on the Americans with Disabilities Act 35 Years: Onward and Why

Mark Seifarth

On July 26, 1990, I was on the White House lawn with 3000 of my closest friends watching George H.W. Bush sign the Americans with Disabilities Act.

President H.W.Bush and his administration demonstrated bipartisanship in working with many legislators on both sides of the aisle in Congress in bringing the ADA to his desk to be signed into law.  Many legislators, elected and appointed officials, and people with disabilities & advocates were instrumental in the passage of the ADA and I pay the utmost respect to all of them, but they are far too numerous to list. It was unifying and bipartisan across the political and disability spectrum. I submit, we must work to regain that bipartisanship in federal, state and local government.

During the July 2025 35th ADA anniversary, I have been posting many opportunities to learn about and participate in events online to grow in your knowledge of the ADA on the Ohio Disability Blog, Twitter X, and Linked In. One example providing a great deal of education and information is the Film and Panel Discussion on “Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act.” Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-06), and the American Association of People with Disabilities hosted the event in the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC. The panel discussion was moderated by Judy Woodruff and featured guest speakers Former Congressmen Tony Coelho and Steve Bartlett.

Here is a YouTube link to the two-hour film and bipartisan panel discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqU7EjWZkKA  (If there are any difficulties with the link, please search –- discussion and screening of Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act –- and the search should yield a link to the film on PBS and a YouTube link to the film and panel discussion above.)

My reasons for these brief thoughts on the ADA 35th Anniversary are twofold.

First, we must learn and remember our history. As a person with a lifelong physical disability born 33 years before the ADA became law, I am now closing in on 70 years old. So, these anniversaries give us the opportunity to learn and grow from people who worked on the passage, and how that long advocacy journey resulted in the ADA. Please continue to learn. We also have entire new generations of people with disabilities and advocates who continue to push for equal access, equal treatment, and informed choices in their communities for people with disabilities. We must all mentor, educate, and support succeeding generations coming of age since 1990 as they are assuming leadership roles and championing new advocacy efforts and initiatives.

Second, in many ways the current public and policy environment should cause concern, and highlight the need to educate, inform and advocate on services and supports that help people with disabilities work, live, and grow in their own local communities. All people must have real opportunities to learn and make informed decisions about their own lives. In the current policy environment, many federal programs are being cut or combined with other programs under the guise of streamlining and efficiency when hard fought supports to work and live in your community may be diminished or not be available.

One example is cuts to Medicaid and other programs described as cuts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. Now these are taxpayers’ dollars. We must be sure they are well spent and result in the legally prescribed outcomes. We must all identify misuse or abuse of tax money and correct these misuses.

But, in some ways we are not being given all the information. Yes, perhaps recent cuts in Medicaid funds and other programs are not directly in programs meant to support people with disabilities. Many of these cuts in programs will be sent to individual states to implement. With much less money available to states to administer these programs, each state must decide where to make cuts to make up for the significant reduction in federal funds. The federal government can say, they didn’t make the cuts, but they may give individual states no choice but to cut work and community programs for people with disabilities. Further, states are being forced to implement additional onerous paperwork and reapplications for services, not annually, but twice a year. This is not only costly to states but may result in loss of services due to the difficulties posed by new compliance mandates for consumers, such as additional unanticipated deadlines.

Finally, we may begin to encounter a decline in respect, understanding, and acceptance of people with disabilities – from changes in housing opportunities, to increased reluctance to any costs to fully incorporate people with disabilities in community and public life. 

I believe it is not happening often at this point. But it highlights that now more than ever we must utilize all we have learned in the advocacy for and passage of the ADA of 1990. We must continuously educate, inform, and combat misinformation, or incomplete information on cuts and changes to federal, state, and local programs that support people with disabilities living, working and contributing in their local towns and cities. We must highlight how these programs give everyone the chance to work and live together in society.

Please celebrate the ADA after 35 years of law. It is a great milestone as we continue to learn and grow.

So, let me leave you with this final thought: advocacy is constant.  We must continuously work to not return to the days when people with disabilities were not to be seen or were not your neighbor.

When I gave the Commencement Address at Kent State University some years ago, the title of my remarks was “The Finals are Never Over.” For as we celebrate our accomplishments and triumphs, the next challenge or opportunity to use what we have learned is just around the corner. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the fight for equal access for people with disabilities is never over.