From the Fair Housing Act to the Americans with Disabilities Act

We start with Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act (FHA).  In 1988, Congress passed the Fair Housing Amendments Act.  The Amendments Act expanded coverage of Title VIII to prohibit discriminatory housing practices based on disability and family status.  In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and followed in 2008 with the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act.

The FHA and the ADA both address disabilities issues as it pertains to housing.  FHA disabilities issues are addressed by government officials of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and all litigation is by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  The ADA has no comparable government officials to (HUD) and all litigation of the ADA is by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), almost.

The reason why ACCESS says almost is because the ADA really has a double track.  ACCESS even goes so far as to say the system is broken.  Sandra Day O'Connor, the former Supreme Court judge said she does not understand how anyone can understand the ADA.  In 1993, the professional accessibilities architects of ACCESS limited their practices to accessibility issues in buildings.  So today, 18 years later, we feel we have a good understanding of building accessibility issues.

For the last year we have been offering our services to wheelchair users free in a program we call "Watchdogs in Wheelchairs".  This program uses the free Federal Courts to enforce the ADA building requirements.  The ACCESS "Watchdogs in Wheelchairs" for ADA building enforcement is the same as the government HUD program for FHA.  Therefore, all advocates of ADA building compliance, we are your HUD and we at ACCESS guarantee that with our program we will certify buildings to be ADA compliant.

Give us your questions or thoughts on the above article.  You can post them here or on our FaceBook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Access-Technologies-Services-Inc/268659564730.  You can also reach us at hfalstad@accessts.net or call us at (702) 649-7575.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Hank

The above are opinions of Hank Falstad, AIA, Managing Senior Associate of Access Technologies Services, Inc. (ACCESS).  See our web site for additional information:  www.accessts.net.