Celebrating the ADA: Ensuring Accessibility Through Public Service

Today marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark civil rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination and helps ensure everyone can fully participate in their communities with equal rights, opportunities, and access. Every day, Oregon AFSCME members help turn the ADA into reality by building safer sidewalks, inspecting curb ramps, improving crosswalks, and ensuring public spaces are accessible to everyone.

For Alex Pierro, a Local 189 member and Senior Public Works Construction Inspector with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation, getting to help the community he lives in means the world.

While many people pass over curb ramps without giving them a second thought, Alex knows every detail matters. His job is to inspect newly constructed ADA curb ramps, making sure they meet federal accessibility standards and are built correctly before they're opened to the public.

That means ensuring every slope, surface, and tactile warning strip is installed correctly so people using wheelchairs, walkers, mobility devices, or who have low vision can travel safely and independently.

But the impact reaches far beyond the disability community.

"We're making the city more accessible every day that we're out there," Alex says. "We're doing the work specifically for people with mobility issues or low vision, but it's impacting everyone in a positive way."

Parents pushing strollers, older adults, delivery workers, children riding bikes, travelers with rolling luggage, everyone benefits from accessible infrastructure.

"If something is accessible for the user who has the greatest need, then it's accessible for everybody," said Alex.

From inspecting construction projects to maintaining parks, operating transit systems, repairing streets, staffing public buildings, and delivering countless public services, AFSCME members help ensure every Oregonian can fully participate in their community.

One program Alex is especially proud of is Portland's "Ramps by Request" program, which allows residents with accessibility needs to request improvements that help them safely travel from their homes to places like bus stops, schools, grocery stores, and other essential destinations.

"It's a direct community response," he says. "I can't think of a better model of public works."

When asked why cities must continue investing in accessibility, Alex's answer is simple.

"It's truly the notion of public works being for the public good," he says. "Everyone's quality of life is improved by accessibility."

As we celebrate the 36th anniversary of the ADA, Oregon AFSCME recognizes the disability rights movement that fought for the ADA and the public employees who help turn that landmark law into accessible streets, sidewalks, and public spaces every day.