Assignment 2

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITY ACT 5

Americans with Disability Act

Deanna Buchanan

Southern New Hampshire University

Americans with Disability Act was enacted in 1990 and prohibited the discrimination of individuals based on disabilities in all areas of life, whether private or public, in schools, transportation, and jobs. The main aim of the act is to ensure that all people who have disabilities are treated fairly and given similar opportunities as people without disabilities, in this case in higher education schooling institutions. In schools, the act requires the school administration, board of governors, teachers, subordinate staff, and the students who are not physically challenged to give the physically challenged students equal opportunities in extra-curricular activities such as clubs and bands and in academics (Francis & Silvers, 2015).

The stakeholders in the high school institution, are required to ensure that all the buildings can be accessed by any student who is physically challenged. For instance, all the buildings constructed after the act was enacted should be fully accessible by the physically challenged, ramps and wheelchair parking space, for example should be taken care of during constructions (Zazove et al. 2016) The club matrons and patrons, with permission from the school principal should move the extracurricular activities’, for example band classes to other rooms that are more accessible by the physically challenged. An interpreter should also be supplied in school events in case there are students who are hearing impaired.

The act has been effective after it was enacted. The managerial stakeholders have made an effort by modifying the way experiments and tests in laboratories are done and the class schedules to accommodate students with disabilities. They have allocated extra time for classes for the blind, who use the braille and note-takers, for example. The high school institutions have also helped the deaf and the blind get note-takers and readers in the library. Also, some high school institutions that offer computer classes have purchased special computer equipment for the visually and hearing impaired.

Most institutions, however, have insufficient funds to take care of the Act’s requirement. It is recommendable that they partner with welfare institutions such as USAID, private hospitals and the government to meet the stipulated requirements and to accommodate all the students equally.

References

Francis, L., & Silvers, A. (Eds.). (2015). Americans with disabilities. Routledge.

Zazove, P., Case, B., Moreland, C., Plegue, M. A., Hoekstra, A., Ouellette, A., ... & Fetters, M. D. (2016). US medical schools’ compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act: findings from a national study. Academic Medicine, 91(7), 979-986.