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Bush Marks Disabilities Act Anniversary

Posted on: Saturday, 26 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

President Bush marked the 13th anniversary Saturday of the Americans With Disabilities Act with a name change that reflects his efforts to promote equality for people suffering from mental illness.

Bush changed the name of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities the same week that a commission he created recommended a campaign to bring the mentally ill more into the mainstream.

"With changes in old ways of thinking, the development of new technologies and the federal government's firm commitment to equality, more and more people with disabilities continue to become full participants in the American life," Bush said in his weekly radio broadcast Saturday.

The federal advisory committee, established in 1966, advises the president and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and coordinates between different federal agencies.

Seventeen members of the advisory committee attended while Bush taped the weekly address and signed the executive order, which made official a change the committee members had requested, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The Americans With Disabilities Act was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in 1990. The civil rights law forbids on-the-job discrimination against the disabled and mandates access to most public places such as restaurants, stores and businesses. It requires public buildings to have wheelchair ramps and restrooms equipped for use by the handicapped.

Recent Supreme Court decisions have narrowed the law's reach, strengthening employers' hands while making it more difficult or impossible for some workers to claim the law gives them special protection.

Earlier this week, the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health said in its final report that care for the mentally ill must go beyond medication and managing symptoms to helping people find jobs, go on dates and live productive lives.

The report said Americans must be taught that mental illness is not shameful so that people will seek out screening and treatment. Innovative treatments and ideas must get into the field as soon as they are proven effective, it said.

Bush created the commission just over a year ago.

"There is much more we can do to assure that Americans with disabilities are treated with dignity and respect," Bush said.

He said his administration is seeking record levels of federal funding for special education programs, focusing on providing better care.

Bush's New Freedom Initiative seeks to improve transportation for disabled workers; encourage private companies to develop technologies to help them do their jobs; and assist community groups, civic organizations and houses of worship in improving handicapped access to their facilities.

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On the Net:

The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health: http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov

President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/pcmr/

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