Health Care: Americans with Disabilities Act

[Unspun]

Penn and Teller did an episode on the American's with Disabilities Act...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT2YET6sg5I

 

[Omphfullas Zamboni]

Ah, yes; I think that video was posted earlier in the thread. Thanks again, though, Bagman.

 

[lchik]

My thread on ADA
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=154732

I just wish solutions were easy. I am glad my daughter who lives with epilepsy is strong emotionally and physically. Even helping her mom walk through Vail Village at times.

 

[Omphfullas Zamboni]

Hi,

I wish solutions were easy, too.

With Sincerity,
Omphfullas Zamboni

 

[muzzled dogg]

never really thought about this til just now

 

[Omphfullas Zamboni]

Hi there,

Come to any conclusions on the topic, Mr. Shemdogg?

Regards,
Omphfullas Zamboni

 

[Danke]

bump

 

[JosephTheLibertarian]

bump a 1 1/2 year old thread? wtf

but yes. eliminate ADA.

 

[MelissaWV]

bump a 1 1/2 year old thread? wtf

but yes. eliminate ADA.

The "bump" is probably because the ADA, while rooted in something a bit more tangible than the CRA, walks the same line.

I've had the distinct pleasure and displeasure of meeting a lot of blindguys these past couple of years. Since they're all in Canada, it's a little different, but the bottom line is that they fall into two hugely different camps.

The first group of people stay on assistance. They get checks, they don't go out much, and they generally just exist at home. Most of them are the proverbial "guy living in their mother's basement," except since they get so much "free money" they are living alone. They don't usually take orientation and mobility classes, and they feel a sense of entitlement. This is a generalization based purely on the people I've met who accept assistance checks, but most of the other blindguys seem to agree it's a cause/effect relationship. People who never have to work for anything, and are taught they are owed something by society out of pity, will wind up pretty pathetic.

The second group stays off of assistance. These people take orientation and mobility classes, and get jobs. They don't usually make much more than their "on assistance" counterparts, but they want to work. They get out, they meet people, they get to be social. Their level of interaction with the outside world is a lot healthier, and they have better attitudes about their sightlessness. Going out with someone from this category is actually pretty eye-opening in its normalcy. Other than getting used to what might, to others, appear to be questionable table manners... it's mostly the same. Of course, some other people do stare, make comments, discriminate, and generally make things entirely difficult, but that's their right (imo) and I just don't spend my time or money in those establishments.

Trust me, the places that blindguys frequent get to know them, and are eager to make them at home for the most part. You have an opportunity, as a business owner, to seal the deal and gain a customer for life just by doing something super simple. One of the pubs my boyfriend frequents now has a Braille menu. It wasn't particularly hard for them to do, nor very expensive, and now they have a good dozen blindguy regulars (who almost always come in with a crowd). Not bad for business!

Life is never going to be fair to everyone, and forcing it doesn't make it so, either. Okay, so we're putting ramps in so that people in wheelchairs can get into the store. Then? Will all the shelves have to be reachable from the wheelchair? Well, they can't be TOO low to the ground, either; the elderly can't stoop over. Should all the prices also be in Braille, with a description of the shelved item? Should every public address made over the speaker also be transmitted to electronic devices available at the front, so that hearing impaired persons within the store can keep up to speed on the specials or any emergency information? This could go even further than it already has, and it would need to in order to really make things "fair."