REPUBLICANS to Dissolve the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

27. The fellow behind that was Justin Dart.

Justin Whitlock Dart Jr. (August 29, 1930 – June 22, 2002) was an American activist and advocate for people with disabilities. He helped to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), and is regarded as the "Godfather of the ADA"; although he never reckoned that the cognitively disabled were truly disabled.
....

Background

Dart came from a wealthy Chicago family. His father, Justin Whitlock Dart Sr., was president of Dart Industries. His mother Ruth Walgreen Dart was the daughter of Walgreen founder Charles R. Walgreen and his wife Myrtle Walgreen. Justin's brother Peter Dart also developed polio.

Dart contracted polio in 1948 before entering the University of Houston, where he earned undergraduate degrees in history and education in 1954; however, the university refused to give him a teaching certificate because of his disability. The university is now home to the Justin Dart Jr. Center for Students with Disabilities, a facility designed for students who have any type of temporary or permanent health impairment, physical limitation, psychiatric disorder, or learning disability.
....

Activism

....
He opposed the efforts of President Ronald Reagan, a personal friend of the Dart family, to revise the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, and in 1981 accepted an appointment from President Reagan to be the vice-chair of the National Council on Disability.