STATEMENT FROM THE GENERAL COUNSEL

Good News: Exterior Access to the Buildings and Facilities on Capitol Hill Is Improving.

In 2009, shortly after I began working for the Office of Compliance (OOC), we decided to reexamine our Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) inspection program to determine how we could focus our limited resources to most benefit the users of the facilities on Capitol Hill. As part of our program evaluation, we obtained feedback from stakeholders, including the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), members of Congress, and people with disabilities who were familiar with Capitol Hill facilities and offices. Many people with disabilities became familiar with these facilities and offices by participating in the efforts in 2008 that led to the passage of the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) which Congress enacted, in part, “to carry out the ADA’s objectives of providing ‘a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination’ and ‘clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination’ by reinstating a broad scope of protection to be available under the ADA.”

During our stakeholder discussions, we heard complaints about how difficult it was to access offices on the Hill using the exterior pathways. Part of the challenge, of course, was due to geography. Because the Capitol campus is literally on a hill, access for people with disabilities involved many uphill climbs. Wheelchair users frequently found it difficult to traverse the steep curb cuts and the sidewalks and ramps with numerous gaps and cracks.

Our efforts over the past three Congresses to improve access to the buildings and facilities on the campus are consistent with the priority guidance for barrier removal in the Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations: the first priority is to provide access to the buildings and facilities from sidewalks, parking and public transportation.