Opinion: 20 Years Ago, Disabilities Came Out of the Shadows

(July 26) -- Seventeen years before the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted, I heard the words "learning disabilities" for the first time.

My daughter Allegra was diagnosed with severe LD, which affected every aspect of learning and created enormous challenges with friendship and social skills. Her disability became a looming presence in our family, always there, always influencing our lives in both small and large ways.

My life became consumed by it, with time devoted to doctors, testing services, tutors, pediatricians and neurologists, and, equally important, with time taken from my son without a disability. Everything changed, everything turned upside down and even though everything now seemed to revolve around my daughter's disability, I felt completely alone.

No one in my circle of friends had ever heard of a learning disability. When I mentioned it to my daughter's pediatrician, he gave me a blank stare. No one in the media talked about it. Some education professionals declared the problem was "laziness" or "lack of trying" rather than a disability.

LD took over my family, and yet, in the world at large, it seemed to lurk in the shadows as something barely understood and easy to ignore.

I remember, too, a television show I saw from the 1950s -- I can't remember the show or the characters, but one scene still stands out in my memory. In it, a man in a wheelchair enters a restaurant and takes his place at a table. Everyone around him stops talking or begins to speak in low whispers while glancing at him, some in surprise and some scowling in disapproval as if to say, "How dare you bring your troubles into a public place?"

This is how things were for people with disabilities 20 years ago. Society's answer was to avoid any direct acknowledgment of the problem.

Everything changed on July 26, 1990, when President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act into law.

The "troubles" of others were brought into the light and into public, and an entirely new and vital segment of the population was suddenly granted rights and opportunities previously unattainable. Buildings with impassable stairways now installed ramps and elevators. Employers could no longer discriminate based on a disability. Public transportation became more accessible.

By these actions, we as a country told our disabled citizens that they too belonged to our nation's family, and that their skills, their talents and their lives were valued.

Disabilities came out of the shadows. People began to talk openly and understand, and most important, to accept. Today the idea of a person in a wheelchair stopping conversation and getting looks of disapproval for entering a restaurant is inconceivable.

As for learning disabilities, more and more young people with LD are successfully transitioning out of high school into the workplace or college because they have access to accommodations such as extra time for tests and note takers. Before the ADA, these accommodations did not exist.

The aura of secrecy has disappeared as well. I no longer have to keep my fears and worries bottled up inside for fear no one will understand -- far from it! I meet people nearly every day who have some connection to learning disabilities. All I have to do is mention LD in casual conversation and I invariably hear from someone whose own life, or the life of someone they know, has been similarly affected.

An estimated 15 million Americans have a learning disability, but thanks to the ADA, we have learned that with understanding and acceptance, with simple and usually inexpensive accommodations and with the protections afforded by the ADA, people with disabilities can succeed.