While Cheryl's uphill battle, just to experience life like everyone does, was becoming more and more evident to more and more people, it wasn't until 1990 that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed,” explains Walter Stockton, CEO of Independent Group Home Living. Seen through Cheryl's eyes, the ADA was like a rebirth into a world that worked for her like it did for everybody else. It told employers that they couldn't use a different set of abilities as an excuse not to hire someone.