Section 504 requires statutory construction as broad as its underlying policy to effectuate the discrimination prohibitions Congress envisioned in the act. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, buoyed by an administration hostile to broad construction of civil rights legislation, has frustrated section 504's statutory purpose by construing the statute as program-specific. Inconsistent judicial construction of the elements of section 504's language has created an ambiguous body of civil rights law that has ultimately rendered section 504 ineffective as a discrimination prohibition. Because ambiguous language invites misconstruction, the act's phrase, 'program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,' requires legislative clarification to bridge the interpretative gaps and the prevent further judicial circumvention of the term's intended broad application. Only when Congress removes the cloud of confusion currently obscuring section 504 will the Rehabilitation Act ensure handicapped persons full participation in society as independent persons. 234 footnotes.