The sweeping Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law 25 years ago, on July 26, 1990.
NEW YORK — Five days before he was to start college, Fred Maahs’ world turned upside down. Off the Delaware coast in 1980, on the last day of summer vacation, the 18-year-old took a dive from his family’s boat into an unseen sandbar barely a foot below the surface, sustaining injuries that paralyzed him from the chest down.
After months of medical care, he had to find a new college to attend — the one at which he enrolled said its campus was not accessible for wheelchairs.