Thursday, March 19, 2009

President Obama addresses disability issues at Town Hall meeting in LA

From the Los Angeles Times blog:

President Obama had asked questioners to stand, but the man who asked the second question could not.

"I am unable to stand up, I believe I am entitled to that exception under the ADA," he said with a smile. The young woman who had handed him the microphone apologized.
The man's question was about how to encourage the "emerging population of people with disabilities" to work, and how to appreciate the value of those who, while disabled, are eager to work. He called this "your disability agenda."

"We need everybody, and every program that we have has to be thinking on the front end, how do we make sure it's inclusive," Obama said. "That's true on the education front where our recovery package is increasing funding for children with disabilities, it is true with how Hilda Solis, our secretary of Labor will be thinking about our training programs.... It means enforcing the ADA and fighting back on some court opinions that have tried to narrow in ways that I think are inappropriate, the original intent of that legislation."