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http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/anniversary-of-americans-with-disabilities-act-is-cause-for-celebration-in-buffalo-20160724 Keymari Swain, 9, left, and her aunt Elisha Pratcher play with Kinetic Sand as Jessica Silk from We Rock the Spectrum kids gym helps them out at the Disability Pride Celebration on Sunday in Delaware Park to mark the 26th anniversary of Americans wit Just being outside was Essence Jackson’s favorite part of the Disability Pride Celebration and Parade held Sunday in Delaware Park. “I ate a hot dog and a sausage, and I visited with people I hadn’t seen in a while,” said 33-year-old Jackson, who has cerebral palsy. Sunday capped a two-day celebration honoring the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, the civil rights law protecting against discrimination based on disability. It was signed into law July 26, 1990. The local event was the second annual celebration intended to spread awareness, said event captain Haylee Nugent. The 16-year-old is legally blind and entering her senior year at Lackawanna High School. She explained the square logo on the front of the blue-and-white T-shirts just about everyone was wearing: In the design, four small boxes comprised the large square. Each of the four boxes contained an image that symbolized the disabilities represented at Sunday’s event. “This is for people who have wheelchairs, who have spinal disabilities,” Haylee said pointing to her shirt. “This is for mental health – the one with the cranium. This is for deaf, so they have the sign language, and this is for blind people.” It does not matter if a person is in a wheelchair, blind, hearing-impaired or mentally challenged, they deserve to celebrate their uniqueness, said Kate Trombley, director of community engagement for Western New York Independent Living, a major sponsor of the weekend event that featured volleyball and other games, live music and food trucks in addition to the grilled hot dogs and sausages. “We’re celebrating our independence,” she said. Festivalgoer Gwen Squire works as a counselor at Self-Advocacy Association of Western New York as an advocate for people with disabilities. The ADA is important because people with disabilities want to be able to do all the things that people without disabilities want to do, Squire said. “We want to go to college, which I’ve done,” said Squire, who earned a master’s degree from the University at Buffalo in rehabilitation counseling. The 49-year-old Buffalo resident also started her own business – Outside the Box Advocacy – in which she lectures people on disability awareness. “I think that’s what the ADA is all about, too, bringing awareness about people with disabilities, how we can contribute to everything just like anybody else can,” she said. Michael Rogers, 40, of Buffalo, feels that the ADA could use more accountability and enforcement at every level. “I think a lot of times things are skirted around, and I think we need to have more national, state and local accountability. … And if they’re not happening, people need to feel the heat for that sometimes,” he said. Like Squire, Rogers also works for the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State. “Before ADA, we really didn’t have anything federally that really put people to task when it came to housing or accessibility and/or employment,” Rogers said. “We really didn’t have anything that held people to task from a civil rights point of view to make sure we were treated equally.” The law enabled a number of advances, said B.J. Stasio, 45, of Buffalo. “It laid out the framework to help us get employment, to help us get accessible housing, to help us get accessible transportation,” said Stasio, who is employed by the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. “I would like to see it be uniform so that every state has to follow it the same,” he said.