The Americans with Disabilities Act on This Day in History

This day in history: The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on this day in 1990. "The ADA is known as 'attorney’s dreams answered' because it, and similar state laws modeled on the law, have spurred hundreds of thousands of lawsuits, often for violations of arcane architectural standards. As early as 1995, one federal judge denounced an ADA case as 'a blatant attempt to extort additional money' — something for which the law is now notorious."~James Bovard

For instance, a P.F. Chang's was sued because the coat hook was too high in bathroom stalls. A strip club in Los Angeles had to close a shower stall on its stage because it wasn't accessible to strippers in wheelchairs...never mind that weren't any such strippers. Many swimming pools had to close because they couldn't afford expensive automated spatulas. Target paid $6 million in a lawsuit because their website wasn't sufficiently accessible to blind customers.

Because of fears over ADA lawsuits, businesses now hire less disabled people as well. "It's difficult to think of a piece of legislation that failed more abysmally than the ADA."~David H. Auto