Spirit of the ADA Month, 2000

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7327 of July 1, 2000

Spirit of the ADA Month, 2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) 10 years ago this month signaled a transformation
in our Nation's public policies toward people with
disabilities. America is now a dramatically different--
and better--country because of the ADA.

In the last 10 years, we have worked hard to eliminate
harmful stereotypes and have grown to understand
disability as a natural part of the human experience.
We are taking steps, such as renovating and
constructing public accommodations to make them fully
accessible, to ensure that people with disabilities are
fully integrated into our communities and workplaces.
And we have come to appreciate that people with
disabilities are a key element--and an untapped
resource--in sustaining our Nation's historic economic
growth.

Throughout our Administration, Vice President Gore and
I have worked hard to achieve the ADA's core goals--
equality of opportunity, full participation,
independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. Our
Administration has vigorously defended the ADA in court
cases across the Nation; we are collaborating with
State Medicaid directors to implement the Supreme
Court's 1999 Olmstead decision, which prohibits
unjustified isolation of institutionalized persons with
disabilities; we helped ensure that 80 percent of
America's public transit buses are now accessible; we
are implementing the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives
Improvement Act, which I proudly signed into law last
December; we have worked closely with schools and
colleges to improve the enrollment, retention, and
graduation of students with disabilities; and my Task
Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities is
developing far-reaching policies for a comprehensive,
coordinated employment agenda.

We still have much to accomplish. Because the many
barriers confronting people with disabilities took
generations to develop, breaking them down requires
consistent, coordinated, and farsighted effort. We must
work aggressively to increase the employment rates of
people with disabilities by attacking a range of work
disincentives, including barriers to education, health
care, technology, housing, and transportation. We must
provide real choices for people with disabilities to
live and work in their communities with the necessary
services and supports. And we must be vigilant in
protecting the rights we have secured through decades
of legal activism. I am encouraged that the first 10
years of the ADA's life have provided us with a solid
foundation for meeting these challenges.

To mark the ADA's 10th anniversary and the 25th
anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), the American Association of
People with Disabilities has organized a nationwide
``Spirit of ADA'' Torch Relay. Twenty-four cities from
coast to coast are hosting official relay events, and
hundreds of communities are organizing additional local
events as part of this national celebration. The Spirit
of ADA's organizing theme is ``Renew the Pledge'' to
encourage individuals, organizations, and government
entities to reaffirm their commitment to the principles
of the ADA and IDEA. Vice

President Gore and I are proud to join in the
celebration and to renew our own pledge to help advance
the cause of disability rights.

Promoting disability rights not only improves the lives
of the 54 million Americans with disabilities, it
improves all of our lives. As President Franklin
Roosevelt recognized more than 60 years ago, in words
that are now inscribed on the FDR Memorial in our
Nation's capital: ``No Country, however rich, can
afford the waste of its human resources.''

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim July 2000 as Spirit of the
ADA Month, 2000. I urge government officials, business
people, community leaders, educators, and all the
people of the United States, to celebrate the
contributions people with disabilities have made, and
continue to make, to the progress and prosperity of our
Nation, and to renew our commitment to upholding the
nondiscrimination principles of the ADA and IDEA.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of July, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.