The ADA turns 30: How an NJ couple fought for accessibility since its inception

Gene Myers
NorthJersey.com

Douglas Kruse and his wife, Lisa Schur, were in the back seat of a friend's car, minutes away from Kruse’s parents’ Omaha, Nebraska, home.

They were struck by a drunken driver.

Kruse, flung from the window of the car, suffered near fatal injuries and an injury to his spinal cord that left him paralyzed.

“The doctors were not even concerned with my spinal cord injury in the beginning," said Kruse. "I had such extensive chest damage. My aorta was dangling from my heart and my lungs were punctured full of holes."

Six weeks later, on July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Within one year of the accident, Kruse had a new mission: a fight for accessibility. As he worked to make his home and office accessible, he realized the limitations that now framed his life also gave him a new perspective. 

“When this first happened we thought of this as our personal tragedy, and then after learning more we realized that a lot of the issues that we are facing had broader political dimensions to them,” said Schur. ”Our personal difficulties were not just our difficulties. Society was learning to cope with becoming accessible and that affected many other people.”

His advocacy for rights — during which he was ignored, dismissed and discriminated against — helped himself, but helped others, too.

“I couldn’t stay depressed,” said Kruse. “I just thought, ‘What do I do now? What’s next on the agenda?’”

Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations Distinguished Professor Douglas L. Kruse at his home with his wife Professor and Chair, Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations Lisa Schur.

A lightbulb moment

The couple were both academics: Kruse was on the faculty at Rutgers University-New Brunswick’s School of Management and Labor Relations, and Schur joined in 1998.

A friend of Kruse's at Princeton came out with a study on the value of computer skills in the general population that year , Kruse said, and reading it was a lightbulb moment.

“I looked at that and wondered what the value of computer skills would be for people with disabilities," he said. "People who are sitting down can use computers just as well as anyone else.”

Schur, who had been working on her dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley about women and unions at the time, joined him in the new pursuit.

Her husband’s injuries and the passage of the ADA inspired her to switch gears and focus on disability issues.

“I wondered if people with disabilities even knew about the ADA — that they had rights now that they didn’t have before,” said Schur, whose research focuses on political participation and employment among people with disabilities.

That’s the thing about the ADA: In theory, it can open doors for those with disabilities, she said, but only if advocates fight to enforce it.

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Institutional discrimination and little awkward moments

Kruse and Schur learned that lesson early on while making their new home wheelchair accessible. Many of the renovations were covered by Kruse’s insurance. They added ramps, made doorways wider, and adapted bathrooms. But they hit a roadblock when they got to the kitchen.

“The insurance company said, ‘You have a wife who can work in the kitchen and do all cooking and washing,’” said Schur. “It was sexism and disability discrimination. They never would have said that if I were the one in a wheelchair.”

An infuriated Schur marched into the office of the Trenton Times and asked if a reporter would write about their insurance battle. One front-page story later, their insurance company settled and Kruse would be able to cook in an ADA-compliant kitchen.

“That experience gave me a sense of, ‘Hey, we have rights here, and we have some way of fighting this,’” Schur said. “That was in the early days of the ADA when people were learning how to fight for accessibility.”

From institutional discrimination to all of the little awkward moments, like waitresses in restaurants who asked Schur what her husband in a wheelchair wanted to eat, the couple had a new mission together.

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Kruse took on a fight with a former Central Jersey movie theater owner who didn’t see the point of making his building ADA compliant “just to sell a couple more tickets.”

“It was like shooting fish in a barrel. I sent a letter to the chain and told them about our experience,” said Kruse. “I told them, 'I understand the ticket sales may not be worth it, but have you considered the cost of a lawsuit?'”

“It just opened our eyes to the way people with disabilities get treated,” Kruse said.

Thirty years later, a sea change

Things have gotten better through the years. Social stigma when it comes to disability is lessening, they said. This is due in part to advocacy, the media and the ADA.   

“As we were learning to cope and deal with disability, society was learning to cope with becoming accessible and millions of people with disabilities were learning how to use the ADA as well,” said Kruse, who is now co-director of the school’s program for disability research.

The couple co-authored articles and a book, "People with Disabilities: Sidelined or Mainstreamed?" (Cambridge University Press, 2013). They are also part of a team of Rutgers-New Brunswick professors working to create a disability studies minor at the university. Kruse served on multiple disability task forces, including the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

Thirty years later, Kruse and Schur are continuing the fight with a new focus on politics. Their research found 35.4 million Americans with disabilities were eligible to vote in the 2016 elections, while another 27 million people without disabilities lived with them, which together amounts to almost 28% of the entire electorate. 

Could this be the reason presidential candidates are beginning to address disability issues head on? Schur wondered.  

“The 2016 election was the first time any candidate focused — Hillary Clinton in this case — on disability and developed a disability platform and it was really interesting that in Democratic primaries this year all of the candidates developed pretty well-thought-out disability platforms,” said Kruse. “That is such a sea change from 10 years ago.”

Gene Myers is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

Email: myers@northjersey.com Twitter: @myersgene