Mixed Reviews on ADA-Day Speech

Published July 29, 2009 @ 04:00PM PT

A full written transcript of Obama's ADA B-Day and CRPD-signing speech is now available for those of us (this includes me) who start to hear "blah blah blah" after about the first 5 minutes (or less).

While some coverage of the event was upbeat, New Mobility's blog headlines Obama's ADA Speech Bombs. That post points out a number of the disability stereotypes I've railed on repeatedly here in the president's speech, and relates the audience's (duh) lack of enthusiasm over an attempt frame medical treatment in a disability rights context. Wrong crowd to try that with.

The review ends with a sarcastic reference to the current situation with the CCA (apparently I was not the only one who felt the idiom lip service was appropriate).

Too, let's give lip service to the rights of Americans to live freely in the community. Maybe then they'll stop handcuffing themselves to my house.

In the comments to the post, some agreed with the negative assessment, but others did not.

What do you make of the president's ADA-Day speech? Good? Bad? Like ADA-Day itself perhaps a mixed bag?

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Dora is committed to improving quality of life for individuals on the autistic spectrum--including herself! She is Co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education and a member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's Board of Directors.