July marks the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark civil rights law was built on decades of advocacy, culminating in the historic 1990 Capitol Crawl, where over 60 disability rights activists, many of them children, left their wheelchairs and mobility aids behind and crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol. It was a powerful act of civil disobedience that insisted that lawmakers confront the literal and systemic barriers facing people with disabilities.

That moment, along with countless other acts of courage, coalition-building, and relentless advocacy, led to President George H.W. Bush signing the ADA into law on July 26, 1990. “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down,” he said—and, for millions of Americans, it did.

But the ADA is more than a law. It’s a promise. A commitment to build systems and workplaces that center data, equity, dignity, and real inclusion.

Yet 35 years later, we know this work is far from done.

If you know me, you know I believe that ADA compliance isn’t just about checking boxes or staying out of court. It’s about creating work environments where people are valued for what they bring, not pushed aside for how they differ.

Too often, the ADA is treated like a legal trip wire—something to fear or manage in the background. But that approach fails employees and employers. It breeds bias, mistrust, and costly mistakes.

Here’s what 35 years of the ADA has taught us:

• Good ADA practices aren’t just about compliance. They’re about building sound, structured processes that ensure that decisions are based on data—not emotion, preference, or fear. As an HR practitioner, you must ensure that their organization has the process in place to make the right decisions. If you work in a culture where supervisors naturally lean toward “yes” and reasonable accommodations are readily explored, you may not need much more. But if your culture leans toward “no” or assumes requests are wants rather than needs, you must build strong processes to obtain clear, functional limitations or work restrictions. Otherwise, decisions end up based on impressions of the employee’s worth or the request’s ease, rather than facts. Sound processes protect spaces in our organizations for people who need more than just an offer of a job—and protect our organizations from the part of human nature that can guide decisions with bias, preference, or fear. Data is the power equalizer.
  
• The interactive process should be a conversation, not a confrontation. Too often, an employee’s or applicant’s ideas and concerns are dismissed or left out entirely. While employers ultimately decide which reasonable accommodation to implement, truly listening to the employee’s perspective builds trust and leads to better outcomes. Employers carry the legal risk of making the wrong decision—so we need every voice in the room as we find and implement the right one.
  
• Employers who lead with curiosity, not resistance, build stronger teams and earn real trust. Too often, supervisors or employers assume that they already know what a request means or why it was made. We can’t know that. ADA practitioners, whether in-house or external, are best served by approaching every discussion with humility and curiosity. That’s how we make the right decision, with the best information, every time.
  
• Bias and preference can—and do—creep into accommodation decisions. Admitting this doesn’t make us bad people; it makes us human. Some supervisors grew up believing “If they can’t do the full job, they can’t work,” or they may have had negative personal experiences that guide their beliefs about certain disabilities. That’s why we should not let supervisors make yes-or-no calls based on their gut or their comfort level. Instead, ADA practitioners gather clear data on functional limitations, compare them with essential job functions, and create a data-driven analysis that guides decisions. That’s the real work: building processes that protect our people and protect us from ourselves.

As we mark this milestone, let’s recommit—not just to celebrating the ADA, but to protecting it. That means building programs that work. It means holding ourselves and our organizations to the standards the ADA demands. It means ensuring that our ADA practitioners keep data at the center of every decision. And it means investing in the people—HR professionals, risk managers, supervisors—who carry this promise forward.

The ADA gave us a legal framework. It’s up to us to keep its promise alive.

If you’re looking for ways to build or strengthen your ADA compliance program, train your supervisors, or create a workplace culture that supports disability inclusion, that’s exactly what we do at Rachel Shaw, Inc. Because the true legacy of the ADA isn’t in the law books. It’s in how we show up for others—every conversation, every case, every day.

Here’s to 35 years of progress. And here’s to the work ahead.