Able To Work

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Even with such promising new services and techniques, the battle to integrate the disabled more thoroughly into regular working life is far from over. Formidable obstacles remain. In the U.S., one of the most difficult issues involves health care. "What happens if you get a job that doesn't have health insurance?" asks EEOC Commissioner Miller. "You lose your Medicare benefits, which you greatly need once you get that job, and then you can't purchase a separate health plan because of a pre-existing condition." The answer, he feels, is possibly to amend the Medicare and Medicaid system regarding eligibility, so that if a disabled person gets a job, that person would not lose benefits.

While the ADA has heightened awareness that discriminating against the disabled is illegal, there has been a backlash from some less enlightened employers, sources say. "Because of a greater awareness of the law, sometimes companies are afraid to hire people with a disability. They fear that they'll be sued if that person is fired for any reason," says Patricia Veal, a human-resources placement specialist with the North Carolina division of vocational-rehabilitation services in Greensboro.

To face some of those problems, deeper changes in American attitudes are required, which will take time. "My sense is that things will really change maybe another generation or so down the road," says Mark Donovan of the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities. Others are far more pessimistic. "Give it about another 100 years," says lawyer Pinnock. "Maybe then you'll see some real difference in attitudes." But as Pinnock himself has shown, no one need wait so long to carry the struggle at least a small distance forward.