Senator Tammy Duckworth And Paralympian Matt Scott Open Up About Making Fitness For All, Amending The ADA In Interview

This week marks the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) being signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in the South Lawn outside the White House. The event occurred on July 26, 1990, a seminal moment for the disability community and our collective civil rights. More than three decades later, two things about the landmark law’s enactment are indelibly etched into my psyche. It seems unfathomable that (1) it really took until I was almost 9 years old that disabled people had a codified set of rights in America; and (2) a Republican was willing to sign the bill. The latter strikes me as more incredulous than the first, if only because it has been made abundantly clear modern-day Republicans wouldn’t bother with such peasantry.

That said, it’s heartening to see news surface on Thursday from Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) that she was once again assuming the front lines in championing a bill that makes the country more accessible to disabled people everywhere. The piece of legislation, called the Exercise and Fitness for All Act of 2024, is at a high level designed to “modernize and enhance national accessibility guidelines for exercise and fitness facilities.” The overarching goal of the bill is to ensure disabled Americans have equal access to “work out with accessible equipment and participate in accessible fitness classes and training services.”

In a brief interview with me conducted via videoconference, Duckworth explained the essence of the Exercise and Fitness for All Act is it would mandate gyms and other fitness centers stock accessible workout equipment such that people with disabilities could exercise. The impetus for the bill, which Duckworth has introduced a few times in past years, stems from a personal place for her. As a wheelchair user—an Iraq War vet and Purple Heart recipient, she lost both her legs and partial use of her right arm as a result of a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was riding in—she has faced inaccessibility to commercial gyms. More specifically, she lamented having a helluva time “finding fitness equipment I could use,” adding her frustration was made greater by the fact she has often encountered gyms with stairs but no elevator. Worse still, if there was a gym she could get to, the problem then became equipment was packed together so tightly that she was unable to maneuver her wheelchair between them—no equipment, no workout.

“I thought, ‘We really need to make sure people can access fitness facilities,’” she said of her drive to reintroduce her Fitness For All plan.

Beyond sheer access, Duckworth told me the CDC has reported disabled adults experience conditions such as obesity and chronic disease at “far higher rates” than able-bodied people do. Developing regular exercise habits—like going to one’s neighborhood gym—go a long way towards improving one’s health and longevity. Of particular import to Duckworth is her bill is about more than physical access into buildings, which she said the ADA has long regulated. The more salient point in her mind is expanding access to fitness facilities such that disabled people like herself “can actually find equipment I can use and can actually get to.”

Matt Scott, a fellow wheelchair user, feels Duckworth’s pain.

The Michigan native, currently in Paris readying for this year’s Paralympics, is a five-time Paralympian athlete and three-time medalist (2 gold, 1 bronze) in wheelchair basketball. In an interview, Scott told me adaptive fitness is important to him not merely for competition’s sake, but because the lack of accessible gyms are a microcosm of how society generally devalues the disability community. To wit, he said gyms (and other public places) only stick their neck out to the extent that it barely reaches the bare minimum. Most businesses, he said, know they’re “only required to meet basic accessibility standards” and only offer the basics. The problem with that mindset is the ADA is “the floor, not the ceiling.” Philosophically, serving the disability community is too often treated like a box to be checked off rather than because it’s the right thing to do.

Duckworth’s bill is her attempt at raising the proverbial bar.

“The bare minimum is not okay,” Scott said.

Naturally, Scott too recognizes that fitness for all entails more than providing an elevator or ramp to a literal building itself. More crucial is that the actual tools are accessible, which he said is the primary reason why Duckworth’s bill is so consequential. Like Duckworth told me, Scott said there needs to be ample space provided for wheelchair users to navigate equipment. The same is true for providing amenities like accessible bathrooms and showers. Scott believes the lack of accessibility from gym owners comes down to cost; if providing accommodations means rising costs for them, “they’re not willing to invest in it,” he said.

It’s shameful because, as the adage goes, accessibility is for everyone.

“I truly believe investing in accessibility is good for not only people with disabilities, but it’s good for everyone,” Scott said. “When everyone can utilize gym equipment, it’s better. Society thrives. Inaccessibility hinders our entire society—it doesn’t just hinder people with disabilities.”

Duckworth noted the majority of her senatorial colleagues plead ignorance when it comes to the need for adaptive gym equipment, telling me the prevailing presumption is the ADA makes it that everyone has access. But equality doesn’t always equal access, with Duckworth saying when she points it out to them that it isn’t the case, they respond with surprise. As ever, most people don’t understand disability; Duckworth shared an anecdote of her colleagues voting on something that would effectively “dilute” the ADA due largely to their their being misinformed about accessibility and disability. They believed false information about the law, which Duckworth told me includes myths about “excessive lawsuits for violations of the ADA” when the reality is, she clarified, there exists no such “statutory right for anyone to sue.” Likewise, her cohorts don’t realize how inaccessible the Capitol building is. If anything, Duckworth staunchly believes the ADA needs to be “strengthened,” echoing a sentiment shared with me in 2020 by retired congressman Tony Coelho (D-CA), who feels the law he fathered needs retrofitting of its own in terms of making the digital world more accessible. When the ADA came to be, lawmakers didn’t foresee technology having the tectonic effects it would have on daily life.

For his part, Scott seconded Duckworth’s sentiments regarding the unawareness most people exhibit towards accessibility, saying most don’t consider the plight of the disability community because they’re privileged to not have to. The “experiential perspective” just isn’t there for them, Scott said. What can be done about it? According to Scott, disabled people are forced to hang their hopes on elected officials like Duckworth who fight the good fight for the proverbial little people.

People like her are quite literally making change.

“We need support to make sure these requirements are raised. We have to raise the standards here,” Scott said of the call to action. “As individuals, we can make complaints and we can post [online] about it and we can give Yelp reviews. We can do all those things, but until we get support from senators like Tammy Duckworth, we can’t do a lot.”

As Alice Wong, a San Francisco-based author, disability advocate, and disabled person, wrote for Teen Vogue vis-a-vis mask bans amidst a rise in Covid cases across the country, the disability community habitually faces “existential threats from a society that actively silences, diminishes, excludes, and eliminates us.” Inaccessible fitness centers aren’t a cause for life and death, but the general idea is crystal clear: the able-bodied amongst us cares little for our cries. It’s why so many in the community—including people like myself and Duckworth—to more or less Oliver Twist our respective existences towards lasting systematic reform.

However bleak things appear on the surface, Scott isn’t deterred. He will go “miles and miles” out of his way to find a place to work out. He acknowledged not everyone shares his mentality, but he does it because he’s hellbent on “living a healthier life.” What is deterring, he said in alluding to Duckworth’s earlier point, is the lack of accessible fitness centers are a barrier for many disabled people in getting in better shape.

“I truly hope [the Exercise and Fitness for All Act] is backed by other senators, but also backed by the broader disability community,” Scott said. “This bill will make help make gyms and other fitness facilities across the nation accessible to me and millions of people that have disabilities in America. We want better access to live the life we want.”

It should be mentioned there exists internet-based options for achieving fitness goals from the comfort of one’s own home. Apple Fitness+ is one example in my orbit, which can be accessible unto itself for disabled people who, unlike Duckworth and Scott, are unable to venture to their local gym. What’s more, Apple’s accessibility features for its panoply of platforms integrate with the service and, representationally speaking, there have been past trainers who identify as disabled leading activities.

Duckworth promised similar determination in getting her bill passed.

“We will continue to reintroduce it until we get it passed,” she said of her resolve to see her work bear fruit. “I think we’ll get it done. Sometimes it takes a few tries. That’s why I keep reintroducing it to every Congress.”