If you've been keeping up with the news lately, you should know that the House of Representatives has passed the HR 620 Act. This Act concerns the disabled community and the issue of compliance with the American Disabilities Act. Essentially, it allows public establishments who aren't ADA compliant, meaning that they are fully accessible for people with disabilities, to operate as normal for 180 days while not being ADA compliant, and if they do not meet ADA compliance standards within that timeframe and as long as notification of the issue is filed, the establishment suffers consequences, which keep in mind, aren't specified by lawmakers as of yet.

In my opinion, the passage of HR 620 clearly illustrates the ever-increasing prominence of ableism in today’s society. The American Disabilities Act was passed in order to allow those with disabilities, such as myself, to have the same liberties as our non-disabled counterparts, and this new act is totally negating the purpose of the act that the disabled people of this country fought so long and hard for. More than anything, this new act should prompt those of the disabled community to fight harder than we ever have, to obtain the rights we deserve. In truth, not only does this new piece of legislation foster a sense of oppressiveness for the disabled community, it makes us feel as if we are being trapped in our own cities and towns due to the limited amount of places that are actually accessible for those with disabilities, not just those that are considered to be ADA compliant.

Now, in terms of the individuals who agree with the passage of this act, they believe that this act needs to be instituted because of the overwhelming abundance of lawsuits that are being made against businesses that disabled individuals believe to be inaccessible and not compliant with the ADA. In other words, the people who champion this new act believe that it will decrease the number of lawsuits being made against businesses for being inaccessible, by employing the 180-day "rule" that demands that those public establishments do everything they can to make sure they become ADA compliant.

However, it can be said that with this new act, comes loopholes. For instance, the Act, while not intentionally so, allows businesses to operate as usual while not being ADA compliant until notification of this is filed. Which, consequently, can result in disabled individuals not being able to access those businesses, causing them to feel even more restricted than they already do. To conclude, while the HR 620 Act has, in general, good intentions and somewhat of a justified purpose, it also has many negative aspects that could potentially have a negative impact on the disabled community at large.