United States of America¹

Key Factors: U.S. disability laws have attracted worldwide attention, particularly since passage in 1990 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which is America's comprehensive federal statement affecting the lives of persons with disabilities.² In the U.S., disability laws have undergone a shift from a model of medical oversight to civil rights.³ Contemporary U.S. disability policies and laws emphasize social and economic participation of persons with disabilities and reducing their dependence on government entitlement programs. However, despite legal protections for people with disabilities, advances in technology and transportation, integrated education, accessible homes, and advocacy, people with disabilities remain disadvantaged in the United States compared to people without disabilities.⁴

1. Report by James Schmeling , Helen Schartz, and Peter Blanck. James Schmeling is the Associate Director of the Law, Health Policy and Disability Center (LHPDC) at the University of Iowa; J.D., University of Iowa College of Law. Helen Schartz is the Director of Research at the LHPDC; Ph.D. and J.D., University of Iowa. Peter Blanck is the Charles M. & Marion Kierscht Professor of Law and Director of the LHPDC; Ph.D., Harvard University; J.D., Stanford University. For information on the LHPDC activities see http://disability.law.uiowa.edu.

^2. See Peter Blanck, Eve Hill, Charles Siegal, and Michael Waterstone, Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy, 2003, herein referred to as Treatise.

^3. Peter Blanck,(Ed.) Employment, Disability, And The Americans With Disabilities Act: Issues In Law, Public Policy, And Research, 2000. See also Peter Blanck & Michael Millender. "Before disability civil rights: Civil war pensions and the politics of disability in America". Alabama Law Review, 52, 1-50 (2000).

^4. The disability rights movement in the U.S. has more than 50 years of history from which to draw. This chapter relies on the body of disability research generated in the U.S. to gather and report information as well as research studies of the authors of this chapter where appropriate. We did not conduct interviews with leading figures in the disability field, but drew from survey data and reports from the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2004 National Organization on Disability (NOD)/Harris Poll and from legislation and policy pertaining to disability or impacting people with disabilities.