Bush Launches New Freedom Initiative

Part 1: Proposes sweeping upgrades to Disabilities Act 

More of this Feature • Part 2: New Freedom Initiative - Complete Text    Join the Discussion "I just want to speak up as another sick person. I also think that Clinton often did a good job in office." JHSWAN "Our society is reaping the results of what was sown. They took God and morality out of our schools, and the harvest is a spiritually bankrupt generation." LEASADGRANT     Related Resources • Job Hunting Help for the Disabled • Supreme Court Tests the ADA • Disabled Access to Voting • Sources of Govt. Aid • Faith-Based Initiative    From Other Guides • Federal Resources for the Disabled • Disability Issues News • ADA Regional Contacts • ADA in non-legalese • About the US Courts    Elsewhere on the Web • Justice Department - ADA Home Page • Text of ADA

President Bush has asked Congress for sweeping changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) designed to improve educational, employment and social opportunities for over 54 million disabled Americans.

Signed into law eleven years ago by President George Bush, the ADA represented the first major piece of civil rights legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and opened many of the real and virtual doors of society closed for years to the disabled.

"Because of that law, millions of Americans can now compete for jobs once denied them; enter buildings once closed to them; travel on buses and trains once unequipped for them," stated President Bush in a Feb. 1, 2001 announcement.

"But there is more to do, and today I propose we move forward," said the President, speaking from the East Room of the White House. "This morning I sent to Congress a set of proposals called the New Freedom Initiative. It is an important step in ensuring that all Americans with disabilities, whether young or old, can participate more fully in the life of their communities and of our country."

Among the many goals of the New Freedom Initiative, the President Highlighted the following:

• Lower cost and improve access to "assistive" technologies (text telephones, adaptive computer equipment, lightweight and powered wheelchairs, modern artificial limbs, etc.) "In our New Freedom Initiative, we're asking Congress to significantly increase federal funding for low-interest loans so that more Americans with disabilities can purchase assistive technology." - President Bush
  
  
• Expand employment opportunities for the disabled, including opportunities for the disabled to work from home. "In our New Freedom Initiative, we are asking Congress to create a fund to help people with disabilities to buy the equipment they need to telecommute." - President Bush 
  
  
• Offer new transportation solutions for the disabled. "Specifically, we're asking Congress to fund pilot programs for innovative transportation plans that serve people with disabilities.  And we'll provide federal matching grants to community groups to provide alternative methods of transportation." - President Bush
  
  
• Improve access to places of worship. "In many houses of worship and civic centers, Intentions are good, but resources are scarce.  We can help make these community places open to all." - President Bush [Also see: Bush's Faith-Based Initiative]

In his closing remarks, President Bush again referred to his goal of a "welcoming society," free of exclusions to any person. "Our progress toward that goal is really the great American story," said the President. "It is a story of inclusion and protection extending across our history to more and more Americans."

Next page > New Freedom Initiative - Complete Text > Page 1, 2

 

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