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Last night the television magazine "20/20," ran a story about people who use the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in ways that it was never meant to be used, resulting in the opposite of the effect which it was intended to produce.

Instead of helping to employ handicapped Americans, it has made employers fearful of hiring anyone with a possible afliction covered by the act. In effect, my white cane has been transformed into a warning sign to prospective employers.

While I am all at once enraged, disgusted, and bewildered at the audacity of these pitifully misguided individuals, I am not surprised ... it was to be expected.

It must be some kind of law of human nature or something. Anytime we create a program to help the unemployed, the homeless, the handicapped, the persecuted, or otherwise downtrodden, it will be ill-used by the lazy and unscrupulous element of our society.

Today, when I read my morning email, there was mail from a couple of the members of the mailing list for people with Retinitis Pigmentosa.

One relayed a story of people painting canes white or using a pet dog, faking blindness to avoid paying bus-fare! Another wrote of people using the same tactic to gain admittance to Disneyland. In both cases the abusers are to be blamed for the need for requirements that even people who are obviously blind or otherwise handicapped get a form to be filled out by their doctor, to get an identification card, to be shown whenever stepping on a bus or through the front gate.

But the resourceful purloiner will find a doctor who will sign the form for them. Once the card is obtained, it is easier for the petty criminal who no longer needs a cane which is of use to them solely as a prop -- and unlike a dog the card doesn't poop --but for the person who needs one hand for a cane or dog and the other for a briefcase, fumbling for a card to prove you are disabled really sucks.

I've also seen television magazine and news stories where handicapped parking places are staked out. Drivers who park there are then asked about their disabilities and it is alarming how many of them have no answer at all or come up with some feeble reason why they can't walk very far. But all you need to park legally in handicapped stalls is a blue placard with the picture of a stick-figure in a wheelchair., and all you need to do to get one of them is convince your doctor to sign the form.

Last week the New York Times ran an article about the Social Security Administration's review of benefits to handicapped children. In that article it was reported that parents were actually coaching their children to misbehave and display the symptoms of various mental disorders so they would qualify for benefits to which they are not entitled.

In an attempt to curb these kinds of unconscionable acts, more and more policies to define who is eligible are put in place; regulations to screen out cheaters are imposed; studies to determine the effectiveness of the program are conducted; and in the end we create a labyrinth to be feared by even the most ferocious of attorneys.

Yet, somehow those people who are so lazy they'd rather risk being exposed as stealing from the blind than work, can get through it. no matter how many t's must be crossed, and i's dotted; no matter how many layers of red-tape must be peeled away; no matter how many hoops through which must be jumped; they will do it while those most in need of assistance are deterred and go without.

Television shows like "20/20" do a very good job of pointing out problems. Once out in the open it is up to those responsible to do whatever is necessary to correct them. In this case though I am not hopeful for the near future. Too many lawyers are involved.

There will always be the one or the few who will ruin a good thing for the many. I don't have the solution. I wish I did. But I do think that the ADA needs some adjustment to better define it's proper application.

One thing is for sure though. If you are cheating to get benefits to which you are not entitled, don't tell me about it or you'll get a lecture -- at the very least.