Americans with Disabilities Act Lesson by C-SPAN

Americans with Disabilities Act Lesson

*This lesson was developed by C-SPAN and links to an external source.

Summary:

This lesson details the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act signed by President George H.W. Bush. It also looks at the 20th Anniversary speech made by President Barack Obama and his vision for the future of Americans with Disabilities.

Our suggestions when teaching this lesson:

• Refocus the question related to the definition of disability to ask what the definition is according to the ADA

  • Option to expand to discuss why different definitions might be helpful for different purposes

  • Notice the ADA definition leaves out, in its original context, certain disabilities.  

    There’s a place for legal definitions, but people should understand that’s not the whole picture of disability.

• We discourage asking students to talk about people they know with a disability. Find a way to change that question that wouldn’t have them speaking about people who aren’t able to clarify or correct. We don’t want to encourage gossiping or violating someone’s privacy.

  • Consider rephrasing question to ask students about accessibility features they’ve come across instead of talking about specific people

Subject and topic: 

Social Studies/History/Civics, Disability History

Grade level:

6th - 8th grade

Duration: 

one class

Links to download lessons:

https://www.c-span.org/classroom/document/?17001