Communications Technology:
Extending Opportunities in Business and the Community
to People with Disabilities

Currently, people with disabilities face grave unemployment and underemployment, according to Paul Steven Miller, Deputy Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs. Technologies will not only foster skills in children previously excluded from the classroom; they will also make all children familiar with technology-aided integration and thereby eliminate some phobias and stereotypes. In these ways, he explained, an inclusive classroom can foster an inclusive workplace and society.

Miller, whom President Clinton recently nominated to be Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, stressed the importance of empowerment instead of paternalism. "For too long we have had able-bodied people sitting around talking about what is best for the `other,' for that group of people." To develop workable, sensible policy, people with disabilities must be included in the discussion, particularly the discussion about the national information infrastructure. "When building standards were developed, people with disabilities were not part of developing those standards, and we saw what happened," he said.

According to Carol Rasco, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Clinton administration is working toward full social inclusion for people with disabilities. Rasco cited some of the administration's actions in this area, such as signing Goals 2000 into law, implementing the ADA, and encouraging public-private partnerships to develop technology.

When asked about financial assistance to provide technology for those who need it, Rasco suggested that government incentives, through the tax code or otherwise, might be appropriate. "There are a number of financing approaches we could look at," she said. In the workplace, she added, employers are often surprised to learn how simple and inexpensive inclusive technology can be. "Information-sharing is key here," Rasco said.

The United States has established the basic principles of a disability policy, said Robert Silverstein, Staff Director of the Senate Subcommit-tee on Disability Policy. Congress is now "making sure that every piece of legislation that goes through is consistent with that policy." The guiding principles, Silverstein said, are "inclusion, not exclusion; independence, not dependence; and empowerment, not paternalism."

Silverstein summarized the provisions of the ADA that cover employment and public accommodations. He stressed that the ADA is premised on the view that "disability is a natural part of the human experience, and we have to remove those attitudinal, architectural, and physical barriers that prevent people with disabilities from fully participating."

Katherine Seelman, Director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the United States Department of Education, noted that the issues have advanced substantially since 1986, when she helped to organize an Annenberg Washington Program forum on communications technology for people with disabilities. Several statutes, most notably the ADA, have been added to the federal code since then. Neverthe-less, she said, "some issues seem to remain very pressing: financing, training, and especially the involvement of individuals with disabilities in all of this."

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Both personally and professionally, I have a deep commitment to inclusion. As the parent of a 20-year-old son who carries a label of disabled, I have seen what technology can do. . . .

Two quotes from the President on work really say something to me about people with disabilities without using the word disability. Maybe it's because I'm going through that transition with my son, and I'm seeing how powerful work is in his life at this point.

I think back to the President's speech in Memphis a few months ago, where he said this about work: "I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life. It gives meaning and self-esteem to people who are parents. It gives a role model to children." . . .

I think also of a remark he made in 1987, when he was chair of the National Governors Association. . . . "America won't work if Americans can't work or learn or believe in the promise of tomorrow."

I believe that says a great deal about what we are about here in this meeting today, and it certainly helps characterize how we are looking at policy.

Carol H. Rasco,
Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy

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I feel as if I am giving a historical perspective today. When we started together down this road, there was no Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act. There was no Television Decoder Act, which poses a model for all of us on piggybacking a major technology and the needs of smaller sectors of the economy. There was
no ADA. . . .

I asked my colleagues if there were any issues remaining after all these years, and they assured me that there are. There continues to be a lack of match between the user and the device in the education setting and in the work setting--and when people get into the work setting, they don't have the same technology that they had in the education setting. . . . We still have tremendous requirements in training for both individuals with disabilities and teachers. . . . There is still the problem of implementation and continued support within the work environment, which is a financing problem. . . .

So some issues seem to remain very pressing--financing, training, and especially the involvement of individuals with disabilities in all of this.

Finally, I think that if we had written the Bill of Rights today, we would have shown greater consideration for those who are challenged with technological accessibility--not only individuals with disabilities or individuals who are poor, but all underrepresented individuals in society.

Katherine Seelman,
Director of the National Institute
on Disability and Rehabilitation Research,
United States Department of Education

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For years the physical environment--buildings, public places, schools, and so on--were constructed without regard to people with disabilities. One reason is that disabled people were sheltered away, and they were simply invisible. Not ignored, but invisible.

But today, disabled people are invisible no more. Today, through legislation like the ADA, we recognize that public accommodations must be accessible. . . .

I want to add this notion: The information superhighway is not just new technology. That is not what we are talking about. What we are talking about is a vehicle for social and cultural change--for shaping public behavior and changing the way that business and social life are organized and conducted.

This is what Professor Blanck wrote in his 1993 white paper: "The Americans with Disabilities Act is not just another law. It is also a vehicle for social and cultural change, which will shape public attitudes and behaviors toward people with disabilities well into the next century."

It is imperative that these two great social changes be brought together at the inception of the national information infrastructure. No one should be left behind.

Paul Steven Miller,
Deputy Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs

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