Giving Compass' Take:

• The American Disabilities Act should be central to the work of professionals such as architects, engineers, urban designers, town planners, and public officials. 

• How does failure to acknowledge the American Disabilities Act contribute mightily to the marginalization of disabled people? What are you doing to draw awareness towards unaccommodating gaps in city planning and design?

• Learn more about the American Disabilities Act and the obstacles facing those with disabilities.

While many cities have shown efforts to implement accessible design since the 1990 adoption of the American Disabilities Act, more must be done.

When the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) turns 30 this month, everyone whose work impacts the built environment — architects, engineers, urban designers, town planners and public officials — should be scrambling to observe the landmark federal civil rights legislation.

My wife and I are only in our mid 50s, but we remember many buildings at the state university we attended being totally inaccessible to wheelchair users in the mid-1980s. And some of the worst offenders were not old red brick halls from the early 20th century — they were modernist monstrosities of inaccessibility built not long before we went to college.

The ADA made things better, but it did not wave the magic wand. Despite billions in explosive real estate development that could have supported desperately-needed redesign and retrofitting, only a fraction of New York’s subway is accessible.

That is why I am calling on all professional organizations that impact the built environment to celebrate the ADA. Millions of their members can be inspired to build beautiful, graceful, human-scaled design that will make life more equitable for people who have mobility, sight, hearing and intellectual disabilities.

This is not about special privileges. This is about removing the tens of thousands of barriers that continually make people with disabilities some of the most under- and unemployed of any minority group. Those unacceptable employment figures rarely are because of a person’s disability — they exist because even in the 21st century, the built environment makes it difficult for people with disabilities to access education, transportation, healthcare, recreation and housing, essential to finding work equal to their capabilities.

Read the full article about the American Disabilities Act by Steve Wright at Smart Cities Dive.