Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, recently co-sponsored H.R. 620 — ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017, which I like to call “Make America Inaccessible Again.”
This bill turns Americans with disabilities into second-class citizens by requiring anyone who encounters a disability access barrier to send an exactly written notice. The business owner gets 60 days to even acknowledge there’s a problem, and then another 120 days to begin to fix the barrier to access. Even then, the business faces no consequence for violating the ADA for months, years, or decades if it says it’s “remedying” the violation.
Has Herrera Beutler forgotten we have a Veteran’s Hospital, Washington State School for the Deaf and Washington State School for the Blind in her own county, not to mention countless citizens with disabilities who enjoy visiting microbreweries, their accountants, theaters, etc., and who don’t want to wait months or years to access these public establishments? Please inform Herrera Beutler what you think about this offensive bill.
