Disability Justice continues to monitor this situation. We will post updates.
City of Burlington Undermines Federal Civil Rights Law
BURLINGTON, WISCONSIN – The Burlington City Attorney, John Bjelajac, advised the Burlington City Council their vote against a provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act is legal.
“It’s aggravating how casually people with disabilities are dismissed.” Dorothy K Dean, CEO of Disability Justice, a civil rights organization in Franklin, Wisconsin. “Attorney Bjelajac trivializes the Constitutional right of every person to be part of society.” The Americans with Disabilities Act is Federal Civil Rights Law.
The City Attorney told the Burlington City Council they could, and then they did, vote to override the ADA. The vote illegally “approves” a five-year delay to install an ADA compliant restroom in a local business. “Mr. Bjelajac rejects the reality that Federal Civil Rights law supersedes building codes,” according to Dean.
The Burlington City Council vote is just one example of the discrimination faced every day by people with disabilities.
Attorney Bjelajac, publicly announced that the Burlington Police Department, across the street from the business, has restrooms for people with disabilities. The Police Department does not.
Civil rights attorney for Disability Justice, Jeffery Spitzer-Resnick, in his opinion on the City of Burlington, writes, “What will be next; exemptions to other building codes; violations of other anti-discrimination laws?”
It is never just the restroom. It is the aggressive violation of the other person’s right to be included in society. The impetus behind the Americans with Disabilities Act was to stop the discrimination against people with disabilities. The acts of discrimination in education, employment, civic engagement, ordinary shopping trips are banned by the ADA.
Congressional intent fueled by decades of activism, was to guarantee Constitutional rights to people with disabilities. These are the same rights guaranteed to everyone. The ADA is necessary to put the weight of law behind what is right.
In 2008, Congress strengthened the civil rights of people with disabilities with an amendment. Why? There were too many official decisions narrowing the ADA down to an approved disability. The individual was being squeezed out of the law. The individual first; disability is second. Persons with disabilities are guaranteed the same Constitutional rights as everyone else.