The Virtual Word: One Of the ADA's Next Frontiers

Los Angeles (June 19, 2000) - Los Angeles celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act with a day chock full of activities beginning at Los Angeles International Airport and culminating in a reception at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The torch began its journey from Marina del Ray where Sarah Will, a paralympic skier and member of the U.S. disabled ski team, carried the freedom flame across the Santa Monica Bay to Venice Beach on jet ski. The torch was then passed along a 2.5 mile route by 25 torch bearers to the Westside Center for Independent Living.

William Kennard, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a Los Angeles native, told audiences in his speech at the Convention Center, "the important thing about the ADA is that the ADA not only changed the law and policy it changed the way people think."

Kennard confessed that as Chairman of the FCC he was in Los Angeles for the celebration because "?we've made a lot of progress in access in the physical world thanks to the ADA but what we have to do is bring that challenge to the virtual world." He continued, "we've got to make sure that everyone can enter the virtual world of the internet and freely navigate around it just like we fought for the ADA to make sure people could freely navigate our streets and our public buildings and our offices."

Kennard suggested that "nothing in society today has more potential to uplift people with disabilities than technology to allow them access to jobs and education and information and way that were undreamed of just a few years ago."

Inglewood, California native Jorge Sanchez is doing exactly what Chairman Kennard recommends. As a computer access specialist and instructor he helps adults with disabilities learn computer skills such as data entry, spread sheet applications, and data base programs. The project he works with called Independent Employee or I.E. is part of the Computer Access Center, a not-for-profit organization funded by California State University in Los Angeles . Sanchez said the goal of the Center, now in its second year of operation, is "to get people with disabilities out in the work force using computers."

Sanchez, who is 36, suffered a spinal cord injury in 1984 when the car he was riding in was side swiped by a drunk driver in Palm Springs, CA. Following the accident, which left him paralyzed below the waist, Sanchez said he stayed at home for ten years because of the lack of opportunities available for people with disabilities. Finally, after searching extensively, he heard about a computer training program at the Westside Center for Independent Living (WCIL). Having worked with computers as an automotive diagnostician before his accident, Sanchez interest was piqued and he signed up for the 10-month course at WCIL.

Though Sanchez has worked in computer related jobs that have paid much higher salaries than his current position, he prefers to work with the disabled community. "More people with disabilities need to find out how computers can help them get jobs," he said. "It doesn't matter what their disability is, if we can find a way for them to use a computer we can get them a job."

In his spare time, Sanchez works on cars. His first car was a 1970 yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

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