During the latter phase of his tenure as a United States Congressman from California, Tony Coelho introduced a piece of legislation that was the first version of what became the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Coelho, who served in Congress from 1978 to 1989, and who has held other posts in the private and public sectors, is chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. As such, he is at the center of one of the most challenging issues facing those involved with disability rights. He knows the field well, from personal experience: he has suffered from epilepsy since the age of 16.

Recently, in a conversation with Michael J. Bandler, Coelho reflected on his mandate -- his accomplishments and challenges -- as he perceives it today.

Q: To begin with, what are the contours of the landscape for people with disabilities in the United States today?

Coelho: Well, the thing that's important is that when the ADA was adopted nine years ago, in effect, it only changed the legal landscape. It did not change what is most important -- attitudes. But it also empowered people with disabilities to bring our abilities onto the radar scope, to do our thing, to demand our rights. Now what's happening is that the business community, because of low unemployment in the United States these days, is looking for a ready workforce. Employers don't care about race, gender, handicaps -- only whether someone is ready to go to work. The good news is that a lot of people with disabilities want to work, can work, and are ready. We've gotten the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to join us as a partner for the first time. Tom Donohue [president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce] is chairing the Business Leadership Network [BLN], which is under the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. Businesses that currently employ people with disabilities become advocates in the community to get other firms to do likewise, by relating their experiences. The BLN has chapters now in several states, and we're aggressively trying to increase their number over the next year to produce a national base.

The President's Committee sponsors a project called High School/High Tech. We take kids with disabilities who might have an interest in technology, and place them in after-school and summer programs with government or private employers -- to get them motivated enough in technology to possibly pursue it as a career. Another of our projects, Workforce Recruitment Program, is aimed at college students with disabilities. Some participants find summer work while they're in school and others seek full- time employment after graduation. We're trying to find national sponsors for all these different programs. So it isn't just government aid that's being provided; we have private firms joining us as co-sponsors to get that done.

Q: What is the specific mandate of your office?

Coelho: I am involved in two efforts for the U.S. Government -- as chairman of the President's Committee, and as vice-chairman of the task force that President Clinton set up in March 1998 to make the U.S. Government a model employer. It's a four-year mandate to change attitudes. It isn't a Department of Labor problem, or a Department of Agriculture problem. It's really a government-wide problem. President Clinton accepts the fact that the federal government has had a horrible record. We're now trying to confront it structurally. And it's going to work.

Q: The federal government's record, though, is probably no worse than that of the private sector.

Coelho: Oh, you're absolutely right. But the federal government has been a testing ground in many areas. It's broken a lot of barriers on issues of race and gender. The President's new budget for fiscal 2000 is going to have a program dealing with accommodation that will affect every agency and department.

Q: Elaborate, for a moment, on what you mean by "accommodation."

Coelho: Well, for instance, if you're [relegated to] a chair, it means making the desk able to accommodate you. A private employer might put two-by-fours [strips of wood] under each of the legs of a desk to raise it so a chair can fit underneath.

Q: There's been considerable discussion about ostensible increased costs of accommodation. But isn't it true that businesses don't necessarily have to reconfigure their whole establishment or configuration to comply with the ADA? For example, if a cleaning establishment is located on the top of a flight of stairs, with no other access, all the proprietor has to do is bring the clothing downstairs to the person with a disability. That will satisfy the law, won't it?

Coelho: I was the author of the ADA. We put in some language that became controversial, namely, "economically feasible." We did not define what that meant -- on purpose. If you're a small business, it's different from being a major corporation.

Q: You can find ways of accommodating, as a small business.

Coelho: That's my whole point. If you're a small establishment, you can use the two-by-fours. If you're a major corporation, that may not be reasonable accommodation. The type of accommodation you have to provide for an employee is based on your economic capability. But we do not want to run any company out of business in order to provide accommodations. That does not serve our purpose.

Q: You mentioned a moment ago that some of the language incorporated in the ADA was left undefined. The fact that the Supreme Court has just chosen [in January 1999] to review not one but three cases from the appellate courts dealing with correctable impairments strongly indicates that the process of defining continues.

Coelho: It's obvious that what's going on is that this is a whole new area of law. We knew that the way we had the legislation written, the courts and the administrative procedures would have to put the meat on the bones. And that's what's happening now. It's been going through the court system for a few years. The Supreme Court has already addressed one issue: it said that AIDS and epilepsy and other conditions were covered. Now there are these three new cases. The interesting thing here is that through this process, a group becomes part of established law. The disability community was very upset when we introduced the bill and said it had to go through a process, about which they were fearful. But I think that if we had written the law in a way that mandated certain things, it would have been repealed. By doing it the right way, which is letting the system work, the system is working.

Q: That's what's been happening in the United States in many areas for more than 200 years.

Coelho: Yes, sir.

Q: While we're on the subject of new developments in this fluid field of U.S. society, there also have been several new initiatives by the Clinton Administration aimed at improving economic opportunities for individuals with disabilities. They're linked to your work on the task force.

Coelho: This is the culmination of a major effort. Adopting the ADA, permitting it to go through the process, the administrative and legal procedures are fine. But then you've got to go after the attitudes. And basically, what President Clinton, in effect, said January 13 was that we understand, and we're going to make the federal government a model employer. And here's what we're going to do: If you are receiving benefits from the federal government, and you still want to work, we're going to help you. We're going to help you with assistive technology, and with regard to accommodations for working. The situation is that all the recommendations by the task force to the President were approved. What is significant is that now that he has put these in his budget, disabilities will probably be addressed in his next budgets, and as such, the next administration will include disabilities because it would be hard not to. So we have come of age. We're part of the fabric, and we'll start to see some real progress. It's exciting.

Q: Let's telescope in on attitudes, which we've mentioned in passing. What are some of the misperceptions employers have with regard to people with disabilities?

Coelho: First, fear -- fear of the unknown. What do I do? How do I handle somebody with a disability? Is he going to have a seizure at the workplace? Is he going to frighten clients away, or scare other employees? What do I do with somebody in a chair? Do I push the chair or not? What about somebody with prosthetic arms? Do I shake his hand or don't I? That fear of the unknown has to be broken down. And the only way to do so is through actual contact. That's why we're pushing hard for internships and placing people with disabilities at different sites, so that someone working next to them can say, "gee, these guys are great!"

Q: Tell me about the Job Accommodation Network.

Coelho: JAN is under the President's Committee. We bid it out every five years. West Virginia University has the contract now. Basically, the network is reached through a toll-free number. An employer or employee can call for confidential information. If you're an employer, you're told what accommodations you have to provide or not, and how to arrange it.

Q: Let's take a hypothetical situation. The owner of a restaurant is a good fellow, needs some new hires, and wants to employ some people with disabilities. What can JAN do for him?

Coelho: They'll tell him how to go about the hiring, what to be fearful of or not. What if he hires somebody who then acquires a disability? Over 50 percent of the adult population with disabilities acquired them after reaching adulthood.

Q: Isn't it also true that 85 percent of Americans with disabilities weren't even born with them?

Coelho: That's right. So you call JAN and tell the consultant that Joe Smith or Sally Brown was just injured. The consultant will tell you what you can or cannot do. You cannot fire them for these reasons -- but you can fire them if they can't perform this job. In other words, you'll get all the information you need without having to hire an expensive law firm and fight it in the courts.

Q: By the way, there's also a misperception afoot that there have been lawsuits flying everywhere in the aftermath of the ADA's passage.

Coelho: Right. And there are not.

Q: Let's take another scenario. I'm Phil Smith, and I'm a paraplegic, and I want a job, but I can't find one. Can I call JAN?

Coelho: For now, JAN is primarily for assistance in creating job accommodations for potential and current employees with disabilities. As an employer, what must I do for my employee with a disability? As an employee with a disability, what can I require from my employer? It's not an employment agency. But we are pursuing a new venture with JAN. You are Joe Smith, you have a disability, and you want to start a business. Where do you go? Through JAN we are offering the Small Business Self-Employment Service to help guide people with disabilities who want to start their own businesses. The President's Committee also has a web page called Job Links. Many businesses have posted their lists of job openings in an effort to invite qualified job seekers with disabilities to apply.

Q: I happened to notice in New Mobility magazine how many small businesses there are -- one or two-person operations -- that obviously were created by people with disabilities to meet the need they'd come across themselves for a particular product.

Coelho: That's right. You know, when motorbus owners fought us on the legislation with regard to lifts and so forth, my point to them was, okay, it is expensive today -- that was ten years ago -- but once it is a requirement of law, you're going to have people who are going to spend money, perfect the lift and bring down the cost of it because it makes sense. That, of course, is what happened. It's true with everything in technology. Developers of hardware and software are now taking into account the needs of people with disabilities by anticipating those needs. That's spectacular. A revolution has taken place. It's happening.

Q: Everything we've discussed sounds quite promising. But employment figures for people with disabilities, nonetheless, are quite low. Something like only 25 percent of severely disabled people are employed. Are there any indications that these numbers may be on the rise?

Coelho: Well, you have to remember that until recently the U.S. Bureau of the Census didn't take official readings of people with disabilities. We have no base to go by -- but it'll happen with the next census in 2000. From the best information we have available, though, from 1994 numbers, there was an increase that year of more than a million new jobs among people with disabilities. We presume that the 1995-96 figures coming out soon will be that much better. The thing to keep in mind is that more and more people with disabilities are "coming out." What happened in the past is that we were shoved aside, and that people were benevolent to us, saying, in effect, "we'll take care of you." Now what's happening is that people with disabilities are saying, "I want to participate. I want to get a job. I want to be independent." It's staggering to think that we have basically put out the helping hand, but we've also handicapped a lot of these people into becoming dependent on the handout. And they don't want it any more.

Q: So you're saying that the percentages may stay the same because so many more people are becoming disabled, and more so, identifying themselves as such.

Coelho: That's right. And as the population ages, the number of people with disabilities will grow further. So if you only look at percentages, you're making a mistake.

Q: I realize you're doing a great deal to change attitudes, through internships, through networking and the like. What do you do in the case of an employer who simply balks at the notion of employing someone with a disability?

Coelho: In instances where there's a pattern of abuse by a major employer or an industry, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission have filed actions against them. We've had significant breakthroughs in those cases. But I am kind when I say that the fear factor is a problem. It's also the 1950s mentality of being benevolent, of taking care of those in need. Getting over that is a major problem. Many loved ones don't want their kids or other relatives to be exposed to hurts in the marketplace. My mother desperately did not want me to be exposed and rejected in the marketplace. Her attitude happened to be the worst thing for me. You have to get out there and suffer discrimination like everybody else.

Q: And if you had come along 30 years later, as a teenager with epilepsy, the picture would have been totally different.

Coelho: Absolutely right.

Q: So what do you think are the greatest challenges right now? What haven't you been able to counter?

Coelho: I have to say it again. It's still attitude, attitude, attitude -- of employers, of loved ones, of benefactors, of the community -- and the need to make the system work. It's pervasive throughout the public and private sector.

Q: It's also a global issue. Is anything happening on the international scene?

Coelho: We had a conference last October [1998] in Madrid of the European Union and the United States. We discussed the progress they've made, and that we've made, and looked to how we can help each other. High School/HighTech and some other programs were used as examples. We're trying to get other countries to adopt some variation of the ADA. The EU is considering it as an overall policy for their union, which would be fabulous. And several countries are considering it on an individual basis. That's great. But the only way we're really going to turn that around, internationally, is by making a positive example in this country so that people with disabilities throughout the world will make similar demands. It's happening.

Q: Any final thoughts?

Coelho: I feel very strongly that we're only going to make progress if we work at it. Look at what's happened on the race issue. The laws were adopted in the 1960s, and there are still problems. The same with gender issues. But you've got to keep at it.