The Americans with Disabilities Act: Taking Action for Access Lesson by National History Day

The Americans with Disabilities Act: Taking Action for Access

*This lesson was developed by National History Day and links to an external source.

Summary:

By analyzing various primary and secondary sources, students will determine how citizen activism among the disabled community led to passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. After reviewing ADA provisions that improved access to public facilities and the workplace, students will identify continued areas of need for people with disabilities and develop public service announcements that promote personal responsibility for maintaining accessibility.

Our suggestions when teaching this lesson:

• The format of this lesson doesn’t appear to be accessible.

• The Disability & Employment: A Timeline Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) links are broken. We’ve found and saved them and the content in this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jfIkZdNC0SMLZVQa0a9huCdB_Pg0P-HXB3gIinSH0qU/edit?usp=sharing

  • Some other ADA timelines to consider using include:

    • https://acl.gov/ada/timeline

    • https://adata.org/ada-timeline

    • https://acl.gov/ada/origins-of-the-ada

    • https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/disabilityrights/about_us/timeline/

• An extension activity could be added on to this lesson to discuss things that don’t work with the ADA

Subjects: Social Studies/History/Civics, Disability History

Grade level:

6th to 12th grade

Duration: 

55 minutes

Links to download lessons:

https://nhd.org/en/resources/the-americans-with-disabilities-act-tacking-action-for-access/