LETTERS: ADA MISCONCEPTIONS

To the editor:

I feel I must respond to the George Will column and quote of the day published April 5.

While the Americans With Disabilities Act column is not wrong, it is very misleading to your readers. Many readers do not know what exactly ADA is or what it covers. There are five parts to ADA, one of which deals with employment. The statistics quoted in the article lead the reader to believe the statistics relate to employment. Eighty percent of these complaints relate to public accessibility, transportation and communications, not employment.

Dr. Harlan Hahn of the University of Southern California and myself have been working on a new classification system for disabilities. It puts them in categories of traditional (polio, multiple sclerosis or loss of mobility) or 20th century (asthma, obesity or various mental or social disorders. Most of the complaints associated with ADA are 20th century in origin. The traditional disabled dislike this as much or more than the general population. The parking problem is caused by a few bad apples who violate the law, but it is viewed by the public as all people with disabilities are bad apples. These misconceptions foster bad attitudes toward people with disabilities. That is unfair.

As long as I am writing, I would like to talk about ADA and Cape Girardeau. I retired in 1994 and moved into the area. I wanted to open a part-time consulting business on ADA. I did a survey and found 86 percent (856 of 1,006) of targeted businesses were not accessible. There is not a restaurant within 20 miles of where I live that is accessible. If the NAACP found 86 percent of businesses had signs saying "whites only," do you think for one minute they would stand for it? Think about it.

The following are my credentials for speaking out on this issue. I have a Ph.D. from USC and taught psychology at Antioch University in Marina Del Ray, Calif. I have written and published papers and books, including "A Study of Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities" published by USC Press in 1991. I have also taught statistics and have written a textbook, "Stat 101," which is an introduction to statistics.

I have been active in the disability community for over 30 years. I am considered one of the five top experts on attitudes toward people with disabilities in the United States. I was helpful in formulating ADA, and I also worked with the Social Security office in Baltimore in establishing guidelines for Social Security recipients who wished to return to work. I did research in Latin America with Dr. Hahn for the Society for Disability Study. I have presented papers on my research to several scientific conferences. I have won many awards, including the National Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Award in 1990.

HUGH H. McDONOUGH

Chaffee