wandering stars

The Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, and included discussion about accessibility. The fact that 20 years later, many public areas were still inaccessible and new guidelines were necessary is telling. Many of those facilities had been built in a post-ADA landscape, by businesses well aware that ADA rules would apply to them. They were aware because they’d already spent years and substantial dollars trying to dodge the original 1990 guidelines, coming up with creative ways to argue they shouldn’t apply. Those businesses fought for extensions of grace periods left and right while digging in their heels on modifying existing facilities and designing new construction.