Aug. 28, 2025
Landmark disability law — championed by Pitt alum Dick Thornburgh — has had a lasting, permanent impact
As the Americans with Disabilities Act celebrates its 35th anniversary, the University’s Disability Resources & Services office is asking students, staff, and faculty to share their stories of how their lives were changed by the landmark legislation.
Beginning now and continuing through National Employment Disability Awareness Month in October, members of the Pitt community are being invited to talk about ways in which the ADA lowered barriers they faced in education and employment, says Leigh Culley (EDUC ’02G), interim assistant vice chancellor for accessibility in the Office of Institutional Engagement & Wellbeing.
“Fundamental to the ADA is the opportunity for equal access, equal opportunity to participate,” Culley says. “This landmark legislation has been instrumental to eliminating barriers to access, and creating a space where all people, regardless of their disability, can engage, learn, work, and experience the full range of educational, professional, and personal growth opportunities.”
Stories may be submitted online through Sept. 30.
Passed by the U.S. Congress with broad, bipartisan support and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, the ADA for the first time protected U.S. residents with disabilities from being discriminated against in housing, education, and employment; required employers to provide reasonable accommodations to their employees; and required all public accommodations, including universities, to make their facilities more accessible.
Jay Hornack, adjunct professor in the Pitt School of Law, says that before the ADA, universities were governed by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Although that law made some provision for accommodations for the disabled, its impact didn’t approach that of the ADA.
The ADA “brought the needs and rights of the disabled community much more front and center,” says Hornack, who sits on the legal committee for the non-profit Disability Rights Pennsylvania and previously chaired the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Law and Disability Committee.
“A college campus is a much better place to be 35 years later because of the ADA,” he says. “Hearing impairments, speech impairments, mobility impairments — it’s gotten rid of a large amount of the stigma for people to ask for an adjustment for their situation. It’s allowed people who have a medical condition that’s not obvious to come forward and ask for an accommodation.”
Support for the ADA came from a broad coalition of elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, who was seriously wounded during World War II and left with limited mobility in his right hand. In the White House, the ADA’s strongest advocate was perhaps U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh (LAW ’57), former governor of Pennsylvania and a Pitt alumnus, who was the father of a child with a disability.
“Governor Thornburgh was instrumental in the implementation of the ADA and a strong advocate for protecting the law's progress and intent,” Culley says. “He championed the impact of the ADA not only on individuals with disabilities but also on society as a whole.
“Governor Thornburgh also emphasized the importance of ongoing efforts to continue this progress—an emphasis that undoubtedly would persist today,” she says.
Hornack says Thornburgh, who died in 2020, visited Pitt about 10 years ago and served as a guest lecturer in one of his law classes. One of the topics discussed was the 25th anniversary of the ADA.
“I could tell just from the tone of his voice how proud he was, 25 years into the ADA, of how much good it had accomplished,” Hornack says. “The other thing he was truly proud of was that it was a bipartisan effort. That piece of legislation had support from both Republicans and Democrats. It was a united effort, and a large part of that is because disability doesn’t recognize political affiliation. It affects every family of every American.”
Passage of the ADA was not without opposition, including from some religious groups and businesses who felt it would cause them financial hardships or infringe on their own personal liberties.
Hornack says ADA has always required students or employees to be able to perform the work expected of them — just with reasonable accommodations, such as technology or time.
“It did get some pushback, and the pushback was generally in those areas where there was some cost involved — building ramps, leveling stairways and entryways,” he says.
Over time, Hornack says, most of the objections proved to be without merit.
“From my own standpoint as a professor, I have never found it to be an undue burden,” he says. “Every year, I’m told confidentially what students might have a disability and need an accommodation. At the University of Pittsburgh, Disability Resources & Services works very smoothly in getting students what they need and making those accommodations.”
Each year, almost 3,000 Pitt students register with DRS with disabilities that may include mobility limitations, sight or hearing impairments, long-term health conditions such as multiple sclerosis or Crohn’s disease, or neurodivergence. They may need to accommodations in housing, dining services, classrooms, or transportation.
DRS also arranges alternative testing arrangements for students with disabilities. About 10,000 alternative exams were accommodated last year. In addition, almost 200 Pitt employees have requested accommodations through DRS.
“A lot of professors may have thought (ADA) was going to be a restriction on their academic freedom, but I have not found that to be the case,” Hornack says. “Over time, some adjustments needed to be made, but in many cases having nothing to do with physical modifications, the change was more to our mindsets.
Allowing students additional study aids or additional time to take an exam doesn’t cost anything — it just requires a little more attention to a student’s situation.”
Technologies — such as automatic closed-captioning and assistive listening devices — also have advanced considerably since the passage of the ADA, he says.
Culley notes those technologies also benefit people without disabilities. Recent surveys have showed that between 50 and 70 percent of people watch streaming TV shows with subtitles, and only about 10 percent of those have hearing disabilities.
“This is why we say that accessibility benefits everyone — both directly and indirectly,” she says.
Culley hopes members of the Pitt community, including students, will be able to share personal anecdotes about how receiving accommodations under the ADA enabled them to achieve their career and educational goals.
Sharing those stories “fosters a cultural transformation that leads to greater inclusion, deeper understanding, and the dismantling of barriers and prejudice, ultimately creating a more equitable society for all,” she says.
Personal reflections transform abstract policies such as the ADA into human experiences, Culley says. “We think these perspectives will help illustrate the ADA's significance and meaning throughout our entire community,” she says.