Twenty-five years ago this month, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. It was a milestone event for this country -- not just for the tens of millions of Americans with disabilities who were directly impacted by its passage, but for America as a whole, and our ongoing quest to be a more just and equitable nation. The ADA made clear that people with disabilities may not be discriminated against, and deserve equal access to every aspect of everyday American life.
The work which Teach For America corps members, alumni, and staffers do every day is all about access -- in our case, ensuring every child in our country has access to an excellent education. The ADA changed the game for our students and teachers with disabilities. It sought to give them -- and all Americans with disabilities -- access to public buildings, transportation systems, and sidewalks, and universally designed these spaces to be inclusive of all. The ADA also sought to give kids with disabilities access to the supports they need to get the opportunities they deserve -- in education, recreational activities, and in the workplace.
That access didn't come without a fight. It came in large part because of a movement pushing for equity. From the activism of then eight-year-old Jennifer Keelan, who joined 60 activists in the "Capitol Crawl" -- abandoning their wheelchairs and mobility devices to climb up the capitol steps in support of the passing of the ADA, to the political leadership of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who helped push the bill through the Senate, to the many collective and individual actions of the thousands who organized, protested, and spread the message -- the disability rights movement fought for years to see the passage of the ADA.
Of course, the fight for access and equity isn't over, and those in the disability rights movement are still organizing, protesting, and spreading the message that we have a long way to go. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is double that of those without. Kids with disabilities are bullied at a much higher rate and go to college at a lower rate than other students. We're making progress--but we're still falling short on giving all students access to the American Dream.
As we've seen in other fights for equity, passing landmark legislation only goes so far. It's also about challenging established mindsets and rallying a diverse group behind a common goal. In education, it's about demonstrating a belief in all students, no matter how they learn, and regardless of whether the particular ways their bodies and brains work conforms to our society's sense of what is "normal" or lines up with the typical ways our schools and classrooms are designed.
As I've shared before, I've had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) for my entire life. The way my brain works makes me really shine in educational situations like hackathons, where hyper-focus and intensity is demanded for short periods of time, but it makes listening to lectures a nearly impossible task. It's not worse -- just different -- except when I'm in an environment that heavily emphasizes a particular way of teaching that doesn't come easily to me. Teachers, schools and others in education need to be innovative in "designing to the edges" to better support all learners.
Teach For America's Diverse Learner Initiative is working to ensure all educators have the inclusive mindsets and skills needed to embrace all students. We know that all of us have different strengths and weaknesses in our learning, that we learn better in some ways while other situations are more challenging -- and approaching classroom instruction with a one-size-fits-all mentality misses the mark for many students and can inhibit them from reaching their full potential.
To help rally our diverse Teach For America community around this common goal, we are excited to partner with parents, schools, communities, and organizations like Learning Ally, Understood.org, and the Friday Institute's MOOC-Ed on Learning Differences to create supportive and differentiated learning environments. Alumni and staff from across the country are participating in the Teach For All -- Oak Foundation Learning Differences Fellowship, an international program helping teacher coaches build the skills to support teachers who address learning differences in their classrooms. Our regions are also doing innovative things that fit the needs of their unique communities. Our Miami-Dade region is partnering with Learning Ally to train all educators to design with all students in mind. In Milwaukee, we're providing corps members and staff with training on disability etiquette and awareness. As we continue to learn how to universally design our classrooms for the unique learners we serve, we will continue to see benefits for all of our students.
A generation that's never known life without the protections of the ADA has come of age in the last quarter century. That's progress. More Americans with disabilities have real access to their schools and communities, and to the promise of America, than ever before. That's progress too. But there's still work to do to make sure the next generation of kids can grow up with the support -- and protections from discrimination -- they deserve. The ADA helped us turn one page on this issue of equity, but the rest of the story is far from written.