Disabled Rights Movement Is Counterproductive (From America's Victims: Opposing Viewpoints, P 76-82, 1996, David Bender, Bruno Leone, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-165502)

• NCJ Number: 165511
• Author(s): P K Howard
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Greenhaven Press
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Opposing Viewpoints Series

Annotation

The author argues that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and similar statutes have provided unassailable rights to the disabled and have imposed unfair costs on everyone else in society, including other disadvantaged groups, and that government should balance the rights of different groups and spread the costs evenly.

Abstract

Almost every government program benefits one group more than another, and most people expect their elected and appointed leaders to balance these benefits and make decisions in the public interest. The language of rights is used everywhere in American society, but rights have taken on a new role--whenever there is a perceived injustice, new rights are created to help victims. Handing out rights has become the preferred method of staking out a place for those who feel disadvantaged. Rights, however, leave no room for balance and do not resolve conflict. Further, the fight for rights tends to be obsessive. Rights for the disabled are particularly paradoxical because what benefits a person with one disability may harm someone with another disability. For example, the ADA claims to protect 43 million Americans but most ADA regulations relate to wheelchair users.