If you haven’t heard yet, the Americans with Disabilities Act is turning 25 this month! In “human years” the ADA would be out of college, maybe off to grad school or starting a career. With each milestone year, we take an opportunity to look back and see what we’ve achieved, and then ponder what’s in store for the future. NIDILRR has funded more than 100 projects focusing on the ADA since 1991, including the ADA National Network centers, field initiated projects, and more. To celebrate the ADA, we looked back into our collection to see what the NIDILRR community was saying about the ADA at each milestone year:

1995 – The ADA turns 5.

The NIDILRR (then NIDRR) grantee community was writing about compliance in schools, physical access, job accommodation and barriers to employment, tribal governments, and consumer rights. Browse through grantee publications abstracts from 1995.

2000 – The ADA turns 10 in the New Millennium.

The grantees were writing about public schools, employment policies and practices in the federal government and private sector, disability rights in minority communities, disputes and court cases, accommodating psychiatric disabilities in the workplace, the economics of the ADA, and defining disability. Peruse abstracts from the grantees published in 2000.

2005 – 15 years and going strong.

As the ADA hit its “teen years” the grantee community was writing about the hospitality industry (restaurants, hotels, and motels), workplace accommodations, corporate culture, and on-the-job safety. This year’s research included in-depth examinations of data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and workplace discrimination. Look back at abstracts from 2005.

2010 – The ADA marks its second decade.

As the ADA turned 20, the grantee community continued to examine its impact on employment: How do we educate employers to create inclusive workplaces? How does the ADA affect employment outcomes? What about people aging into disability? See what we were talking about in 2010.

These are just a few slices of ADA-related publications and materials available from our collection. We invite you to explore further with these searches:

• ADA research and publications from 2005 to present (NIDILRR and non-NIDILRR)
• ADA and the hospitality industry
• ADA and education
• ADA and employer attitudes
• We invite you to explore the REHABDATA indexing database using the advanced search options to create your own search strategies or work with an information specialists and we’ll help you dive even deeper into our collection!

What does the future hold for the ADA and people with disabilities? We’ll certainly see new technologies at home, at school, and in the workplace, all of which lead to better opportunities for independence and full participation in the community. More employment opportunities will help the disability economy to grow into a mainstream market. Aging in place, accessible IT, and universal design concepts are spreading, making communities (online and offline) more accessible than ever. What do you see for the future of the ADA? Leave your comments below!