Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

"Let the shameful walls of exclusion finally come tumbling down," declared President George Bush as he presided over the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.1

Exclusion of the so-called "handicapped person" or "cripple" from the mainstream of life has been the world's ignoble history. Thousands of years of intended and unintended discrimination have shown that people with infirmities have not been valued as highly as those with unblemished minds and bodies; that people with disabilities were to be "provided for" because it was the "right thing to do" with no expectation that they could be contributing, productive citizens who added value to society, not detracted from it.

The passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) means the walls of prejudice, bias, stereotyped thinking, myths and misconceptions, classification and misclassification are finally coming down. The ADA has leveled the playing field.