History of the ADA Song

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About 40 people were assembled on January 25, 1992 at the statewide leadership retreat. We were at Fellowship Farm in Pottstown, PA. It was snowing outside. Domenic Rossi, first Board President, reminded us that it was the weekend that the Americans with Disabilities Act took effect at midnight. Mark Friedman said we should write a song. Karl Williams said, "That's not a good idea, how can you write it with 50 people? You can't write a song in one day!" We'd sung a couple of songs. About 11 p.m. Mark convinced Nancy Thaler we should do it. Time was running out. Karl kept ignoring Mark but finally said "We can try it". Nancy suggested a 'blues beat'. A lot of people started throwing words out and Nancy wrote them down. The suggestions were: - the curbs are cut - ramps are down - lifts are in - so gather round - and hear the sound of the ADA - we got our rights in '92 - the clouds are gone - the sky is blue - we're singing Hey, Hey, Hey - here we come for ADA - so now we want jobs - we wanna ride rails - take our place - we've given our heart - more education without hesitation - give us a chance, we'll do our part

It was 11:45 p.m. and Karl needed some time to himself to work it out. He wanted to use the chords A-D-A. Karl went upstairs in the lodge with the list of ideas and came down at midnight with the song done. Steve Dorsey had a tape recorder and we recorded it. Nancy and Mark did the "ADA strut".

The song was recorded in a studio in August, 1993 by a small group of Speaking For Ourselves members and Karl. The lyrics were published in "Mouth" magazine in the summer of 1993.

October 1993