Reforming Society: The Americans with Disabilities Act

Ashrita Raman, Kriti Devasenapathy, Niharika Boinpally Junior Website

We started researching for our topic last year, looking for a project involving a medical revolution. Our first idea for our topic was River Blindness, but the impact was unheard of and minimal. Our instructor recommended Braille as a focus for our project. From that, we tried to find broader topics about the acceptance of the disabled into society. Through our research, we discovered the Americans with Disabilities Act. As we did our research, we realized that the Americans with Disabilities Act was an intriguing topic since it was an act that functioned only as the society reformed to accept it. After we had decided our topic, we spent two full days in the library researching about our topic. In addition, we were required to write a research paper on our topic based upon the information we had collected. This helped us answer questions we had formed prior to our investigation. Our director assisted us in organizing our information with graphic organizers on the impact of our topic, the global context of our topic, and the events occurring during the same time period as our topic. After observing the other winning projects from our school, we decided to present our information with a website. Using a website we were able to display information in precise and effective format. We were

also able to avoid a great deal of competition that exhibits included. To create our project, we used WEEBLY. We were able to create an attention-grabbing, yet still professional website that included a plethora of information on the subject. As we were forming our thesis statement, we realized that the Americans with Disabilities Act corresponded to the theme flawlessly. The Americans with Disabilities Act has many significant connections to this years theme, Revolution, Reaction, and Reform. The revolution was the Disability Rights Movement. The reaction of the Government to the Disability Rights Movement was the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Many individuals were pleased with this act, especially the disabled. The reform that occurred after this act spread all across the United States. Most buildings were made accessible to the disabled. Also, the social practice greatly improved even if it has not fully altered. On March 23rd, we were given the opportunity of an out of school research day at Rutgers. At Rutgers, we received help from Tom Glynn. With his assistance, we were able to find many primary and secondary sources. The information we gathered also helped us redraft our thesis so that it was more clear and concise.

We also added a page on our topic's relation to the theme to our website. Another item we added was information about education, construction, and building to our website. We took the judges criticism and made certain that the information did not contradict itself as it did previously. To further improve our website, we added a song that related to the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as an interview.