The Dark Side of the ADA

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-03-12 10:16:00 UTC
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creepy silhouette of tree branches against a dark skyI'm usually writing about the ADA and similar disability rights laws as a Very Good Thing, but Dubner and Levitt of Freakanomics point out some Unintended Consequences and The Price of Disability Law in their New York Times column and blog.

Unintended Consequences points out first the example of doctors finding the cost of accommodating prohibitively expensive, then the example of employers becoming so terrified of the law that they just avoid any situation where it would come into play,

Acemoglu and Angrist found that when the A.D.A. was enacted in 1992, it led to a sharp drop in the employment of disabled workers. How could this be? Employers, concerned that they wouldn’t be able to discipline or fire disabled workers who happened to be incompetent, apparently avoided hiring them in the first place.

The Price of Disability Law goes into more depth on the specific issue of medical care for people who use sign language interpreters.

Auditory processing issues that might benefit from an interpreter or captioner aside, the issue particularly of doctors not wanting to work with autistic patients because of the (at times very real) cost to them is a big problem. Cost may not be direct in terms of needing to hire an interpreter, but indirect in needing to spend more time with the patient. I'm also reminded of the barriers to health care in the U.S. experienced by all people who do not speak fluent English (perhaps we need more doctors who themselves know sign language, Spanish, or PECS?).

More generally though, the idea of trying to weasel around the ADA and causing more discrimination in the process is disturbing. Part ignorance (in the case of employers thinking accommodations will cost them a lot or that they won't be able to discipline an employee) and part seriously broken systems (in the case of the U.S. medical system), there are obviously some areas in the real-world implementation of the ADA that need to be examined. How can society do better?

Civil rights are human rights, not something only bought when they have the right price tag or happen to be convenient.

Dora Raymaker
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