Accessibility

Access means being able to get in. In to the doctors office. On to the exam table in the doctors office. Into the voting booth. Into the bus or airplane. Into the shopping mall, the restaurant, the baseball park. Accessibility has come a long way in recent years, thanks in large part to a generation of advocates in the 1970s and 1980s whose efforts fostered legislation at the state and federal level.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that all public accommodations – defined as public or private property that people use in their everyday goings about – must be accessible. You may have noticed there are still countless exceptions to the accessible goal. Alas, there are some loopholes in the law. For example, a barrier removal must be accomplished only when it is "readily achievable" to do so. That means no undue expense or hardship to put ramps on certain businesses or facilities. What defines hardship is often left to the courts to decide. Meanwhile, we present this section of www.paralysis.org to offer some extended resources to help you get in. To whatever it is you’re trying to get in to.