Editor's note: This column was written by Cherri Buijk, an employee at the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living.

On August 5-8, the 2010 Great Lakes Independence Ride, or “IRide,” brought together more than 30 handcyclists, bicyclists, tandem cyclists and recumbent cyclists for a 240-mile, four-day ride across Michigan, a unique adventure sponsored by the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (Ann Arbor CIL).

The Ann Arbor CIL is a community enrichment, learning and advocacy center in Ann Arbor's south side, providing classes, individual counseling, programming and resources to help individuals with disabilities improve their quality of life.

With this July 26 marking the 20th Anniversary of the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the Ann Arbor CIL and the many cyclists in IRide have a lot to celebrate this summer.

IRiders raced into the Ann Arbor CIL on Aug. 8, greeted after their long adventure by the pain of their sore arms and legs, and by the cheers of family, friends, community members, Ann Arbor CIL staff and local political leaders including U.S. Congressman John Dingell, who was one of the original writers of the transportation section of the ADA.

Dingell, currently the longest-serving Congressional representative, spoke to the group of nearly 200 onlookers about the transformative effects of ADA, which was the first comprehensive legislation in the world establishing the rights of people with disabilities. He stated that in the past 20 years, the ADA has pushed more and more American communities in a direction that allows all people to go to work, drive a car, enjoy movies and use public bathrooms.

Ann Arbor is, in large part, a success story for the ADA and people with disabilities. Rick Weir, a staff member at the Ann Arbor CIL and one of the organization’s founders, noted that Ann Arbor now has a public transportation system that, for its accessibility — incorporating wheelchair lifts, wheelchair accessible seating, and bus stops at more and critical points of interest in the city — is better than 90 percent of such systems in the rest of the country.

Carolyn Grawi, Director of Advocacy and Education at the Ann Arbor CIL, cites the biggest leap forward in Ann Arbor in recent years as being the work on curb ramps. “The basic infrastructure of our community,” Weir summarizes, “is hugely better than it was twenty years ago.”

Yet Dingell, Weir, Grawi, and most people within disability communities and organizations throughout the country are reminding us this summer that there is still much to be done to realize true equality and accessibility for all. The requirements established by the ADA are, truly, the bare-minimum of what is acceptable for people with disabilities, and in the case of buildings built both before and after the ADA’s passage in 1990, even those bare-minimum guidelines aren’t fully and universally implemented, “an issue that needs to be continually worked out,” Grawi notes.

Grawi works closely with parks, libraries, schools and businesses throughout Southeast Michigan on meeting ADA requirements and implementing accessibility features in building and renovation projects. Grawi cites the importance of engaging the voice of people with disabilities in construction projects. Details that may seem trivial to those without a disability can often make the difference between a building that just meets minimum ADA compliance and a building that truly offers easy and comfortable use for people with disabilities.

Despite the advances made in transportation, public accommodations and telecommunications since the passage of the ADA, the fourth area it addressed, employment, remains an area still demonstrating great disparties between people with and without disabilities, a finding echoed by numerous academic, professional, and anecdotal reports this year.

A study conducted by the Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disability found that “of all working-age people with disabilities, only 21 percent say that they are employed, compared to 59 percent of people without disabilities.” Many factors contribute to this gap, including misperceptions about people with disabilties’ ability to perform in a job, discriminatory hiring practices, and misplaced employer fears about the costs of employing individuals with disabilities. In fact, the national Job Accommodation Network reports that 80 percent of all workplace accommodations cost less than $500. “In a way, employment is the last frontier,” says Weir, “and there continue to be barriers to allowing people with disabilities access to economic opportunities.”

To combat these disparities, the Ann Arbor CIL has a strong program to help people with disabilities overcome barriers and find success in the work world. Through a comprehensive array of educational workshops on job-searching topics, active engagement of employers around the community and person-focused individual assistance, its Career Services program helps hundreds of individuals as they weather the challenges of unemployment and the unique challenges of a disability, and ultimately find employment.

“Our program is the only known program if its kind, offering such a comprehensive array of resources and supports to help job-seekers with disabilities,” says Helen Ledgard, director of the center’s career services. “We are showing that job-seekers with disabilties are skilled, talented, among the brightest job-seekers in Ann Arbor. Participants travel up to 60 miles one-way to attend our workshops week after week.”

As the IRiders rolled in to celebrate on Aug. 8, the Ann Arbor CIL’s work was recognized further, not only by Congressman Dingell but also through State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith and County Commissioners Jeff Irwin and Mark Ouimet. Rep. Smith read a tribute from the State of Michigan, which was signed by Reps. Smith and Rebekah Warren and Governor Jennifer Granholm for the “dedication and unwavering support provided to the youth and adults of the Ann Arbor area who live with disabilities...

The Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living has faithfully served the greater Ann Arbor area for 34 years and has shown great diligence in upholding the mandate of equality that was put forth by the signing of the Americans’ with Disabilities Act in 1990.”