ADA In The CSUSOP Report

Mar 13, 2024

Courtesy photo of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation of the Florida Department of Education

Interestingly, there is no mention of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) in the Findings Section (pages 61-119) of the Final Report of the Commission of the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics (CSUSOP).

There are only five paragraphs that mention ADA in the entire 277-page report.

One is found in the Historical Background Section on page 51. It reads:

An additional challenge for deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes is equitable access to non-para and nondeaf sports. In 2020, the parents of a seven-year-old deaf athlete who was denied accommodation by his local NGB-affiliated local soccer club in Colorado sued in federal court on the grounds of a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The suit contended that the club had stopped providing auxiliary-hearing aids and interpretive services, requiring the parents to pay for them out of pocket, creating a financial burden that led to their son leaving the soccer program. Under a settlement reached through the U.S. Attorney’s office, the local soccer club agreed to pay compensatory damages and accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes [Footnote 164]. Currently, NGBs are not required to comply with the ADA, in large part because of the nature of non-para sports and because PSOs are supposed to fill the gap by creating corresponding opportunities for athletes with disabilities to participate equally in sports. However, with Congress having left deaf sports outside the statutory framework of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic system, ambiguities concerning accessibility requirem
Footnote 164: U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, “U.S. Attorney’s Office Gets Relief Under ADA for 10-Year-Old Deaf Soccer Player,” April 10,2020.

The second paragraph is located in the Recommendation Section on page 141:

Congress should also direct the newly created HHS Office of Sports and Fitness (See Recommendation #1) to establish a dedicated competitive-grant program to help primary and secondary schools upgrade gymnasium and fitness facilities to make them Rehabilitation Act and ADA compliant [Footnote 308.] and fully accessible to students with physical disabilities, including those who are deaf and hard-ofhearing. Already, public-school districts receiving federal support are required to provide accessible facilities to students under the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, the 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the 1990 ADA. However, many are still not in compliance because of lack of sufficient funding. Grants through the OSF could be used to help close the gap and make public-school facilities fully accessible. The Commission also strongly recommends that states create new funding opportunities for school districts to purchase adaptive equipment and to train or hire staff who can provide instruction and coaching in para sports as well as to provide specialized sports programs and coaching for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Congress should direct the OSF as well to develop and publish information about opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in sports, and it should encourage the dissemination of these materials in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and other places where they will reach those who may benefit. In doing so, OSF should coordinate with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to amplify the impact of programs serving veterans with disabilities
Footnote 308: While ADA compliance should be a required minimum, the Commission encourages states to aim higher and take steps to promote the broader adoption of universal design principles, in which environments are built to be usable by all without the need for specialized adaption

The third one is also in the Recommendation Section on page 146:

The Commission also strongly urges USOPC to require that U.S. bids make a greater effort to ensure that all games are fully accessible to athletes, coaches, judges, referees, foreign officials, and fans with disabilities. We have heard from Paralympians who have had to endure stressful delays in getting to and from their competition events because host cities built infrastructure for the Olympic Games that did not take into account their use shortly thereafter by thousands of people with disabilities. Spectators with disabilities at the Olympic and Paralympic Games also deserve better. Host cities should build infrastructure for both Olympic and Paralympic Games that can meet the demand of the Paralympics, including more busses and trains that are compliant with the ADA and athlete-village housing where most or all of the units are ADA compliant from the very start. Compliance with the ADA should be a minimum standard; the Commission recommends the implementation of universal-design principles for construction of venues and housing that can be used by all without the need for specialized adaptation. This will also help ensure that converted housing is accessible for all after the games end.

The fourth paragraph is mentioned in the verbal testimony by Candace Cable, a nine-time U.S. Paralympian who is the Director of Community Outreach, Resources, & Education at the Disability Rights Legal Center, on Page 196:

Disabled people have historically been institutionalized or eliminated up until the mid-twentieth century. That’s why you didn’t see disabled people anywhere or any infrastructures ever built to include us, including the houses of the people. They exempted themselves from the ADA before it was passed so that they didn’t have to make these buildings accessible

The last and fifth one is shown in the verbal testimony of Jeff Mansfield, President of the USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF), on page 198:

The first relates to access and compliance. While it is true that deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes can and do take part in the Olympics and Paralympics, the USOPC only tracks categories of disability that are covered under the Paralympics, and deafness is excluded. Because of this technicality, Becca Meyers, a deaf-blind Paralympian, was denied reasonable accommodations and was pressed into making the decision to withdraw from the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games. In addition, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act is not an explicit criteria for NGB certification. While some NGBs have implemented policies and initiatives to better serve deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes—U.S. Soccer, for example, fully funds the U.S. deaf national teams under the Extended National Teams program—others have not. Consequently, we have a sports landscape where ADA compliance is piecemeal, inconsistent, and neglected. In reality, discrimination, abuse, and mistreatment take place at every level from grassroots youth sports to high-performance sports.

In her excellent work, “The Increasing Role of Disability Issues in U.S. Sports Law,” CSUSOP Co-Chair Dionne Koller wrote:

“an individual is disabled within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. (Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12102(1))”

The biggest surprise is that the CSUSOP had no action to USADSF Jeff Mansfield’s crying plea:

“I urge for the insertion of the Deaflympics into the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act and to USOPC’s mandate and for the investment in Deaflympians.” (page 199)

THEREFORE, frustrated past and present Deaflympians and I still don’t know when our future Deaflympians will be able to climb up the stairs to see President George H.W. Bush’s signature pen.

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Previous Newsletter Issues Related to ADA in Sports: