Hands of those with disabilities, ranging from the deaf and blind to those with cerebral palsy and rare genetic disorders, joined together Tuesday, along with able-bodied advocates around Missouri's Capitol, forming a circle to show their solidarity as a community.
They traveled from across the state for the first Around the Capitol event, which brought speakers to the south lawn to give testimony on disability rights and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Advocates called for changes in legislation and attitudes before holding hands in the symbolic gesture.
Chris Worth, the organizing team manager for the St. Louis-based company Paraquad, said the U.S. is in its second wave of the disability rights movement. When those with disabilities have full inclusion into society, he said, there will be ultimate success, but the disabled community must push forward to accomplish that goal.
"We have to start getting together as a community," he said to the crowd of more than 200. "It's not about our individual soapboxes, it's about the power we have as a community. This is our house (referring to the Capitol). As a person with a disability, you have rights. ... Those rights are inalienable. They belong to you. You are a builder of this house. ... All of Missouri is my community, right? So that means we have a unique point, a radical point in disability rights. We've made it 25 years with the ADA. Twenty five years, that's pretty amazing. But, our house still needs some work."
Subminimum wage, Worth added, is a major challenge facing the disabled community, as they are sometimes paid less than the standard minimum wage for their work.
Employers often take advantage of disabled workers by incorrectly qualifying their work as training, Worth said, and they are paid 25 cents to $2 per hour in jobs, sometimes for decades.
Rob Honan, director of the Governor's Council on Disability, said the ADA helped propel those with disabilities to new opportunities and advancements, especially in terms of accommodations in buildings like movie theaters and hotels.
However, the disabled still face employment setbacks and attitudinal barriers. Businesses that don't hire the disabled, he said, have a misconception that accommodations for disabled employees are expensive. Tax credits can overthrow that concern, Honan said, adding fear and ignorance need to be squashed to ensure improved employment opportunities.
Nationally, 17.1 percent of the 57 million disabled Americans are employed - compared to 64.6 percent of the population without a disability, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Opeoluwa Sotonwa, executive director of the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, said he plans to lobby for legislation to give tax credit incentives to private companies that hire the disabled. He plans to work toward convincing private insurance companies to provide hearing aids for those with hearing loss, including veterans. In addition to those policies, Sotonwa called for the Missouri legislature to expand Medicaid.
"Going forward, we must not only focus on ensuring our own access to the world, but that the world has access to the unique talents and perspectives of people with disabilities and everything we each have to offer," he said.
Reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the ADA, former state senator Chuck Graham, now the associate director of Great Plains ADA, remembered being on a different south lawn - the one in Washington, D.C. - as the 1990 act was signed into law. Graham, who is wheelchair bound, was one of more than 3,000 present for the historic moment, and he faced obstacles traveling there. At the time, D.C. operated no accessible buses or cabs and hotels accommodations were unpredictable.
"We are so far behind other movements in terms of having true opportunity and true access, but we've made a ton of progress in the last 25 years," Graham said. "I was able to get on an accessible metro, get on an accessible bus, have an accessible cab, have an accessible room - all of those things the last time I visited Washington, D.C. So, we have to remember we have made progress, but there's so much more to do."
The disabled need better and increased health care options, Graham said, as Medicaid is their primary option. The Affordable Care Act has been helpful, he added, but it doesn't cover the "unique issues" the disabled endure, such as the need for attendant care. If the state expanded Medicaid, Graham said the health care benefits for himself and the nearly one million disabled Missourians would improve.
"All they (the Legislature) have to do is say yes, and people can move from 85 percent of poverty to 138 percent of poverty and be able to go to work," he said. "Why would we say no to getting our own tax dollars back and provide health care for those with disabilities and the poor to be able to go to work in this state? It doesn't make any sense."