July 26, 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was passed on July 26, 1990. The ADA is a civil rights act that prohibits discrimination against deaf and hard of hearing individuals and individuals with disabilities. The ADA protects the right of deaf and hard of hearing people to have equal access to many parts of life including but not through: captioning on TV and the Internet, the right to an interpreter, the right to have jobs, and much more.
We know we would not be where we are now if not for the ADA because it has paved the way for many people with disabilities, including deaf and hard of hearing people. Through the ADA, we are able to take legal action against organizations that discriminate against people with disabilities. With this law, it has been possible for the NAD to achieve much more and advance our civil rights further than before, even though we still have much to do.
We wanted to do something different in honor of this special anniversary of the ADA. We have created a series of short videos that will be released daily via social media, starting on July 1st and continuing to July 25th. 25 videos over 25 days in honor of 25 years! View the entire series!
Each video segment explains a different part of the ADA — such as how the ADA came to be, the four substantive titles in the ADA, the NAD’s first ADA case, what the ADA requires, how the ADA impacts deaf and hard of hearing people, and more! We hope you enjoy our video series and that you learn something new every day!