The American Disability Act Legacy Tour stopped in Columbia on Monday. The bus stopped at Activity and Recreation Center at University of Missouri at 9 a.m. before it moved to the Speaker’s Circle at 12:30 p.m.
The ADA Legacy Tour is traveling around the country for its 25th anniversary and to raise awareness of the local disability communities. The bus visited 23 states since last June and will continue touring through July, making its final stop in Washington, D.C.
The ADA Legacy Tour Organizer and Photographer Tom Olin said the bus is an iconic image of their fight to have everything.
“This bus is not mine. This is a community and something that is done because of the ADA. It is done because of thousands of people and the rest fought for their rights,” said Olin.
Some local associations in Columbia attended the event. Director of Disability Center at University of Missouri Barbara Hammer mentioned the connection between the ADA and the campus.
“ADA is a national piece of legislation,” said Hammer. “But it has had an impact on campus because it actually promoted ensuring a lot of physical facilities, buildings, the terrain of the campus was accessible for people with disability.”
Disability Inclusion and ADA Compliance Manager Amber Cheek said the legacy tour is a reminder of the history and mentioned the significance of ADA Legacy Tour as bonding communities.
“The people who are doing ADA Legacy Tour just really like spreading the history and making sure people don’t forget the history, and going from communities to communities and really trying to bond us together,” said Cheek, “because sometimes disability communities can feel isolated from each other, and something like that really ties us together and gets us excited and communicating with each other, so it’s good.”
The ADA Legacy Tour Bus will go to Jefferson City on Tuesday and be right next to the Capital for disability legislation day.
