U.S. Attorney’s Office Observes 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

PORTLAND, Maine: U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced today that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine is proud to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark legislation was signed into law on July 26, 1990, and is the nation’s preeminent civil rights law for providing access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are committed to this work.

“Since its passage thirty years ago, the ADA has dramatically improved the lives of people with disabilities, ensuring them equal opportunity to fully participate in mainstream life without discriminatory barriers,” U.S. Attorney Frank said. “We are proud of our efforts in safeguarding the civil rights of persons with disabilities, but we recognize that our work is far from complete, and we still see unlawful barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from fully participating in many aspects of society. As we mark the 30th anniversary of this historic civil rights law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office remains committed to enforcing the ADA.”

The promise of the ADA is its wide-ranging efforts to eliminate disability discrimination across the range of services, programs, and activities that most Americans take for granted, but for too long were largely inaccessible to individuals with disabilities. Whether in employment, areas of civic life, or in the day-to-day activities and access to goods and services that we all enjoy, the ADA requires that we take those steps necessary to ensure access for all.  

Over the past 30 years, our country has undertaken the hard work of changing attitudes about disability, tearing down barriers to equality, and dismantling the systems that have historically excluded people with disabilities. Today, we commemorate the many ways that the ADA has transformed our society—by replacing exclusion with access, segregation with integration, and limitations with self-determination. The ADA has advanced the promise of the American dream, ensuring that people with disabilities can write their own stories. And as a society, we are better and stronger because of the contributions that people with disabilities make.

For more information about the 30th Anniversary of the ADA, please visit www.ada.gov. To file a complaint with the Department, please visit the Civil Rights Division’s portal at https://civilrights.justice.gov/report/. For more information about the ADA, call the Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TTY).