Overwhelming Majorities of Public Find It Unacceptable for States to Claim They Are Exempt from Provisions of Americans with Disabilities Act

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If the Supreme Court voted with public opinion they would find against several states that claim that they should not be required to make courthouses and other state buildings accessible to people with disabilities. The court is currently reviewing the case of Tennessee vs. Lane, where several plaintiffs with disabilities have encountered inaccessible courthouses. These plaintiffs had to be carried up the steps, or had to crawl up, in order to be present at their own trials or to perform their court-related jobs or errands.

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, federal government buildings, theaters, restaurants, offices and public transportation have been required by Title II of that law to be accessible to people in wheelchairs and with other disabilities. This poll shows that the public overwhelmingly believes that they should be. But, Tennessee, with the support of seven other states, has argued before the Supreme Court that states are not required to comply with the ADA.

A nationwide Harris Poll of 3,378 adults surveyed online between January 19 and 28, 2004, finds that a 93% to 7% majority of all adults thinks that "states should be required to make courthouses and other public buildings accessible to people with disabilities." This includes well over 90% of those with and without disabilities.

When this sample of all adults was presented with two arguments for each side in the case, they almost all agreed with the arguments against the states. The arguments for the states were rejected by large majorities but were accepted by larger minorities:

• A 94% to 6% majority of all adults agrees that "any system which forces someone to leave his or her wheelchair and crawl up stairs to get to a courthouse is totally unacceptable."
  
• An almost equally massive 93% to 7% majority agrees that "as private businesses are required by law to make offices, workplaces, restaurants, theaters, and transportation systems accessible to wheelchairs, state governments should also be required to do so."
  
• One-quarter (25%) of all adults agree with the argument that "making courthouses and other state buildings accessible to wheelchairs may be desirable, but the federal government should not have the right to force states to do this." However, 75% reject this argument in favor of states rights.
  
• One person in six (17%) agrees with another argument for the states that "making courthouses and other public buildings accessible to people in wheelchairs would involve spending too much of the taxpayers’ money;" but here again, a very large majority (83%) disagree.

Of course, the Supreme Court is not the court of public opinion, so what the public thinks about this issue will not decide this case. If the Supreme Court decides to support the states it will surely not be the first or last time it has voted against public opinion, but it is surely rare to decide against the opinions of such a huge majority of the public.

Reacting to these findings, Alan Reich, the President of the National Organization on Disability (N.O.D.), said, "I am heartened that Americans so overwhelmingly support our right to access courthouses and other public buildings. Americans with disabilities worked long and hard to secure the civil rights that the ADA promises us, and we are counting on the Supreme Court to support the law of the land, as well as to do what the majority of citizens support, by deciding in favor of the plaintiffs in Tennessee Vs. Lane. This is part of the long-term effort to secure and protect the rights of the one-fifth of our population who have disabilities."

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll^®, Harris Interactive.

"The Supreme Court is hearing several cases where people with disabilities are suing state government to make courthouses and other state buildings accessible to plaintiffs, defendants, and lawyers with disabilities, for example, those in wheelchair. Do you think that states should not be required to make courthouses and other public buildings accessible to people with disabilities?"

Base: All Adults

"Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements."

Base: All Adults

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between January 19 and 28, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 3,378 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus three percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample is not a probability sample.

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W20447
Q635, Q641