When I first saw this sign, I briefly thought it was a cruel joke. The entrance is actually behind the stairs.
Disability rights have improved throughout the 20th Century and especially in the last two decades, at least in theory. In the United States, both the states and the federal government enact laws such as the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment. If you have disabled friends or close friends that specialize in Human Resources Recruitment, they will draw a different picture of
discrimination of all sorts. Despite these laws, and despite the fact that a number of
studies show
discrimination to be
bad for business, there continues to be widespread discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, political views, sexual orientation, language, religion and disability.
Since the
Financial Crisis of 2008, a new form of discrimination has been invented:
Employment discrimination for the unemployed. Simply stated,
if you don't have a job, you can not get a job. Even if this new form of discrimination is amended to anti-discrimination laws, many corporations and organizations will continue to pay top dollar to those who help them circumvent such laws.
There are many smart people in the United States. But a system has been established where the smartest people are paid to forward the agendas of special interests rather than that of the general good. They lack the
moral courage of the founders of this nation, and use their cleverness to overcome short-term problems for their high paying clients. Those that do have both the smarts and the
moral courage are silenced and are often ridiculed. This is a recipe for disaster, as history proves over and over again.