Section 504 was enacted by Congress more than fifty years ago as the landmark civil rights protection for disabled people. People with physical disabilities literally risked their lives and occupied federal buildings to demand that implementing regulations be issued, as directed by Congress. Those 504 regulations, originally issued in 1977 and recently updated in May 2024, protect veterans with service-related disabilities, children needing educational accommodations in school, and older adults who want to age at home, among others. The updated rule ensures, among other protections, that people with disabilities are not denied life-saving treatment, as many were during the COVID-19 pandemic, that new kiosks are accessible, and federally funded programs are equally available to people with disabilities. For any state to try to cancel this historic civil rights statute, or to deny the disability community its basic rights under the updated regulation, in unacceptable. We want to be clear: our essential civil rights are not negotiable.
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