USA Places - Disabling America: The Unintended Consequences of the Government's Protection of the Handicapped
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List Price: $22.99
USA Places Price: $2.45
Your Save: $ 20.54 ( 89% )
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Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780785262251
ISBN: 0785262253
Label: Thomas Nelson
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2004-01-14
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Studio: Thomas Nelson
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Editorial Reviews:
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Despite what many politicians would like you to believe, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a travesty of government regulation--it actually harms businesses, taxpayers, and, ironically, the people it's supposed to help: disabled Americans. In fact, it is such a disaster that Greg Perry, a man who himself was born disabled, declares in this eye-opening book, "I am so very grateful that I was born long before the ADA was put into law." Feisty and frank, Perry exposes the dangerous consequences of this supposedly compassionate law and shows through personal accounts and sobering statistics that quality of public life for the disabled hasn't been improved since the ADA was signed into law; instead, the liberties of all Americans have been diminished considerably. Citing alarming, outrageous examples of frivolous lawsuits, unnecessary reliance on government intervention, reams of bureaucratic red tape, and stifled economic growth for all, Perry boldly contends that the Americans with Disabilities Act has fostered a culture of dependence, dangerously convincing many people that they can't make it without the government's help. Told with the passion and conviction of a man who has seen firsthand the many ways such intrusive government threatens our freedom, this book finally exposes how the ADA is a legislative disaster that, in effect, disables all Americans.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't believe it all to be True!
Comment: The Americans with Disabilities Act: To Boldly Go Where Everyone Else has Gone Before!
While I think Disabling America is Entertaining and humorous (especially considering the subject matter and amount of information), at the same time I think it's sad and scary! As a Disability Rights Activist who supports the Americans with Disabilities Act, here are my thoughts:
First and foremost, people with Disabilities are not "the handicapped". Perry's continual use of this outdated descriptor throughout his book and in his subtitle is very telling. He may choose to use this term to describe himself, but for the majority of people with disabilities (my wife included), the term is considered offensive. If he really wanted to reach out and educate he would not use this outdated label. Please read Disability is Natural by Kathie Snow or visit her website by the same name for more information. She has made articles available, including "People First Language".
Secondly, Perry continually tries to make the point that people with disabilities were never really discriminated against before the ADA was passed. Absolutely a FALSE claim! For one example take public transportation. Rosa Parks was well known for her sit-in protest for civil rights. At least Blacks were able to get on the bus! In 1978 a group of disability rights activists in Denver, Colorado decided to protest for access as a civil right. In 1983, this issue was taken nationally. This was the beginning of the ADAPT disability rights group (which then stood for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation). The Disability Rights movement spread across the country and for seven years activists blocked buses and got arrested. Try getting up some stairs with a motorized wheelchair or even a manual one - If you can't get on the bus or in a building - it's discrimination.
Thirdly, Perry claims that the ADA has segregated people with disabilities. He points out the accessible parking spaces a lot. ADA requires 1 in 25 parking spaces to be accessible. I would say this is reasonable since according to the US Census, 1 in 5 people in America have some form of disability. Perry can make his strongest argument of ADA causing segregation on these parking spaces because a person must have a parking permit to park in them, yet the parking spaces are located right next to a regular parking space - not segregated.
People with disabilities do not want "special" things - just things that everyone can use. Everyone can use a ramp, but many people can not use stairs. Everyone can use a bigger restroom, but many people can not use narrow little restrooms with narrow doorways. I am always thankful for automatic doors or door openers when I have my two young children in our double stroller or radio flyer wagon!
The ADA was a big step toward integration rather than segregation. People are now able to live in the community rather than be locked away because they have the medical diagnosis (for whatever reason) of having a disability.
Perry does make some very good points - for example, I am not about to argue - some lawyers do take advantage of the ADA. I was looking for a critical view of the ADA and I certainly found it in Greg Perry's Disabling America. His repeated use of the demeaning H-word was the hardest thing to read. I hope he will eliminate the H-word from future editions - afterall, it's no longer used in Federal Legislation. Just know that Disabling America does not give the full story of the ADA.
Other books to look at to understand disability issues, the Disability Rights Movement and the Americans with Disabilities Act include: Understanding Disability: Inclusion, Access, Diversity, and Civil Rights, Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment, The Disability Pendulum: The First Decade of the Americans With Disabilities Act (Critical America), and To Ride the Public's Buses: The Fight That Built a Movement (Disability Rag Reader)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unexpected, but great
Comment: This is a rather focused diatribe against the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), written by a physically handicapped but highly successful individual. He describes how the ADA has fostered a sense of differentiation, entitlement, and passivity among those Americans with disabilities.
As an author of over 80 books (written with his 3 fingers), Greg Perry describes how grateful he is to have grown up prior to the ADA. He criticizes the seemingly well-intentioned legislation as having spawned a nightmare of unanticipated and economically burdensome rules, requirements, and costs.
A scathing indictment of this high-profile political football...
Customer Rating:
Summary: MUST READ
Comment: Insight into the workings of our Federal government and the way they are taking away the rights of the majority to appease the wishes of a vocal and active minority. Mr. Perry takes a position on the ADA that only a person that has been personally effected by it could take. This book is a must read for every citizen who cares about the freedom afforded to us all by our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Truly Remarkable Man Writes a Truly Remarkable Book
Comment: So much in this book is funny because the author writes so well. Given his passion on the way the government mistreats handicapped people in America, his humor keeps the book moving at a pace that is almost like a thrilling novel, except the ADA is far more serious (and often more deadly) than murder mysteries - and it's real life.
Perry exposes the ADA and the people behind this law that is full of contradictions. Perry shows how much destruction the ADA brings to the handicapped in ways you will be shocked to learn.
I'm unsure why our lawmakers in D.C. keep this going. Hey, they even try to STRENGTHEN it every year. When it's proved to destroy the very people they say it tries to help, why is it not shut down TODAY???
Feisty and frank and VERY funny, people's dry wit and stunning writing exposes the harm this does.
If you don't know anything about the ADA, if you're not disabled, you ARE blind. The ADA hurts normal people and you need to see what it's doing to you no matter WHAT your situation!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The ADA's danger is serious
Comment: At first I figured this would be a book touting the problems with socialism. Well, it is, and it reveals the socialism/communistic connections interwoven in today's Americans with Disabilities Act, but Perry goes much further. To a place that will make you uncomfortable even though the book is extremely humorous - he will show you that the ADA is not only costing you a fortune but it endangers you beyond belief.
Although he doesn't rely on anedotal evidence, and although he makes extremely well-crafted arguments, he shows example after example of abuse of the ADA that can cost your children their very lives.
For example, how comfortable will you be the next time your kids go swimming when you know that the ADA requires Deaf Lifeguards to be hired when they apply? It doesn't matter that some little girl might be drowing and he grandmother screams for help and the eaf lifeguard doesn't hear the screams - NO, life and death are issues that take back seats to the income that the ADA advocates and lawyers make.
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