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[Headline] Congressional Proposal for Basic Access in All New Federally Assisted Homes Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has re-introduced the Inclusive Home Design Act (HR 2353), the national Visitability bill. Visitability is the most basic level of access. In this and most local and state bills there are three main requirements: *at least one no-step entrance; *doors and hallways wider than usual; *and at least a half-bathroom on the first floor big enough to accommodate a person in a wheelchair and allow that person to close the door. You can think of it like a stair step, with Visitability being the most basic, adaptability (as in the Fair Housing Standards for new multifamily housing) being the lower middle level, accessibility (as required by Section 504 and UFAS) being the upper middle level and individually customized access being the top level of access. According to Schakowsky 95% of federally supported homes are not required to meet any standard of accessibility. Yet, architecture and design experts estimate the total average cost per dwell-ing is $98 (on a concrete slab) and $573 (for a dwelling with a basement or crawl space). Several of the communities that already have Visitability laws have found it even less expensive than these estimates. The concept of Visitability has been catching on in pockets around the country for the past decade or so. The first place to require Visitability features in single-family housing paid for with public money was Atlanta in 1992, and was largely as a result of the efforts of the grassroots group Concrete Change. Other cities were quick to follow, including Austin, Chicago, Champaign, Urbana and Bolingbrook, IL and some states have even enacted Visit-ability laws Arizona, Vermont, Texas, Kansas, and Oregon. Visitability improves livability for homeowners as well as their guests. It lasts the lifetime of the house, so even if the first occupants don't need it, it is there for future residents and guests. It supports lifetime living, so as people age and their needs change the house can change with them. It promotes integration through visiting. It makes housing safer as every-one can get in and out. It allows people who develop a disability to continue to enjoy basic access to their homes. In short, it really improves housing. Schakowsky's bill has been referred to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs' Subcommittee on Benefits. Supports of the bill want more co-sponsors. For more information on this and other Visitability initiatives check out Concrete Change's website www.concretechange.org Incitement - ADAPT (1563)
[Headline] Governors Meeting [Subheading] Various issues divide state leaders, galvanize local demonstrators By J. Patrick Coolican, Matt Rodriguez and Lornet Turnbull Seattle Times staff reporters Though billed as a friendly meeting to discuss issues such as health care and the environment, the National Governors' Association conference kicked off yesterday in Seattle with partisan sniping as Democratic governors attacked President Bush and Republican governors responded in kind against his challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. By the end of the day, however, the 30 or so governors in attendance were boarding boats to go to dinner together at the home of billionaire software mogul Bill Gates. Meanwhile, several hundred labor activists, students and advocates for the disabled held spirited protests throughout downtown Seattle. At Westlake Park, liberal activists voiced concerns about a cornucopia of issues: the Iraq war, health care, wages, influence peddling, corporate greed. Later in the afternoon, about 400 people representing a disabled-rights group called ADAPT, many of them in wheelchairs, marched and wheeled from Westlake to the Pike Place Market calling for better home-based health care. The groups were also protesting the use of $2 million in corporate money to fund the conference. Many of the corporate sponsors, including Microsoft, Boeing and Amgen, have a large financial stake in the issues being discussed at the conference. The conference started on a divisive note, with the governors playing surrogates for the Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns. The meeting's host Washington Gov. Gary Locke, led the Democratic attack on President Bush. "The Bush administration has done nothing to help us emerge from these hard times. Americans are working fewer hours, for less money," he said, surrounded by a group of Democratic governors in a conference room of the law firm Preston, Gates & Ellis. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, chair-man of the Democratic Governors' Association, noted that un-employment in his state went up last month. "Tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans will not put those 72,000 Iowans back to work," he said, referring to several tax cuts Bush has signed. Locke and fellow governors from Tennessee, Arizona and several other states also said the large National Guard call-ups for the Iraq war — many of the Guard taken from local police departments — had burdened their states and local communities. [Subheading] The Republican response Republicans responded with their own press conference to blast Kerry. Marc Racicot, Bush-Cheney campaign chairman and a former Montana governor, led the GOP blitz, calling Kerry a liberal who had raised taxes voted [image] [image caption] ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Dick Hosty, center, of Kansas City, Mo., chants yesterday as about 400 members of ADAPT, a disabled-rights group, march and wheel to Pike Place Market. They called for better home-based health care. [text resumes] against giving $87 billion to the Iraq war effort last fall and switched positions on a number of issues. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Kerry was more liberal than his fellow Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and accused Kerry, a for-mer prosecutor, of being soft on crime. Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, referring to Kerry's vote to give Bush authorization to attack Iraq but not the $87 billion to fund the war and reconstruction last fall, said, "The Kerry position just appalls me. How he could vote to send soldiers into harm s way and then not vote to fund them is unforgivable." [Subheading] Three protest marches The first of three protest marches started at midday when about 100 demonstrators, known as the Infernal Noise Brigade, gathered near Seattle Central Community College for a loud and colorful march to Westlake Park. "With all that's going on around us — war, job losses, economic strain — so many people are find-ing themselves in survival mode," said a protester, Ivy Rose Night-scales, a Seattle resident and author. "The common person is under attack." At Westlake, the demonstrators met with several hundred others from labor and community groups for a rally that featured a speech from Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, still pursuing his quixotic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Seattle police officers were out in force on bikes, motorcycles and horses, in cars, paddy wagons and on two buses. At times, they appeared to outnumber the protesters. Police and their bicycles created a barricade around the West-in Hotel, site of the conference, as the demonstrators shouted to the governors to come down. Late in the afternoon, a group of about 400 wheelchair activists and their supporters rolled from the Red Lion Hotel to Pike Place Market in support of more government funding for programs that allow them to live independently. Ben Barrett, whose body was mangled after he was hit by a train in 1993, said "separating people in nursing homes and other institutions is just wrong. "When they put us all in one building on one side of town they get us out of sight and we're out of mind. If they don't have to see us, they don't worry about us." Seattle Police reported no problems and no arrests in connection with the protests "Everything went absolutely according to plan," said spokeswoman Deanna Nolette. The official business of the governors meeting starts today. The schedule includes policy forums on aging and the environment, as well as a governors-only lunch with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and a health-care session with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, both tomorrow. The governors also will talk about U.S. foreign policy. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, chairman of the governors association, said the governors will dis-cuss the National Guard in a meeting with Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and Gen. Ralph Eberhart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command. J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com - ADAPT (1562)
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Rocky Mountain News Tues. Oct. 2, 1984 Denver, Colo. PHOTO (AP LASER PHOTO): A protester in a manual wheelchair and a puffy coat (Renata Conrad), screams as police force her arms behind her back. One uniformed officer stands behind her forcing her forward. One stands in front, his arms stretched in front. The third stands watching with his notebook in his hand and his pen or maybe a cigarette in his mouth. Caption reads: Washington police restrain wheelchair-bound women during protest at transit conference. [Headline] Disabled Denverites held at D.C. protest By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Fourteen wailing handicapped protesters, including some from Denver, were arrested here Monday when they used their wheelchairs, crutches and limp bodies to briefly blockade a national meeting of transit executives. Among those arrested were Mike Auberger, Bob Conrad, Mark Ball and Glen Damen, all of Denver. Richard Male of Denver, an able-bodied demonstrator, also was arrested, as were nine other protesters from New York, Texas, Illinois and Connecticut. The 14 were among more than 35 people who converged on the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association at the Washington Convention Center. They were fined $50 apiece for blocking a public building. ADAPT, a Denver-based militant handicapped rights group, raised an estimated $30,000 this year to send the protesters to Washington and to train disabled groups nationwide in political demonstration and lobbying techniques. Two of the protesters who were arrested and fined were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released. "The police got pretty physical,“ said ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank of Denver. "We had been causing civil disobedience all week. We expected it (the arrests) to happen. It was just a matter of when." Monday's arrests capped a year of growing tension between handicapped activists and transit officials over the issue of accessibility to the handicapped. “This is not something that we are especially proud of,"said ADAPT member Mark Johnson, as he pounded on the plexiglass door of the convention center with a wooden crutch. "We are here because there has been a resistance to us," said Johnson, who ran unsuccessfully for the RTD Board of Directors in 1980. Johnson said ADAPT is demanding that the transit convention vote to make all public transit systems accessible to the handicapped, that those systems only purchase buses equipped with wheelchair lifts, and that the Federal Government reinstate a regulation mandating accessibility. Convention officials said the demonstrators delayed their program for a few minutes, but caused no damage. Last year, RTD hosted the annual transit convention. Although handicapped activists picketed the meeting, their protests were less forceful. In addition, the protesters last year were allowed to address the convention, a privilege refused them this year. "They requested a slot, but we already had everything filled," convention spokesman Albert Engelken said. "There have been some problems. They (protesters) have been pretty aggressive." The demonstrators suddenly appeared at 10 a.m, just as hundreds of transit executives arrived at the convention center on a convoy of shuttle buses from their hotels. Washington police tried to block the advancing wheelchairs. However, they quickly became entangled with the front line of handicapped men and women and were outflanked by the rest of the demonstrators. Chanting "we will ride. it's our right," the protesters wedged their wheelchairs between the doors of the convention center. Many of them threw themselves out of their chairs and sprawled on the sidewalk to block the doors. Monday's demonstration was the third in a series of protests organized by ADAPT. On Thursday, a dozen protesters blocked seven Washington Metro buses in front of the White House during the evening rush hour. On Sunday, another contingent blocked a chartered bus carrying the spouses of 50 transit executives who were touring the nation's capital. After being trapped for an hour, the spouses finally crawled over the crippled protesters to get to their hotel. The protest overshadowed the speeches to the packed convention by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole and New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Dole abandoned much of her highly partisan prepared speech, choosing instead to repeat the Reagan administration's compromise offer for accessible public transit. "Transit authorities receiving federal funds would be required to make at least half of their peak hour bus fleet accessible, provide para-transit for special services or offer some combination of these options," Dole said. Both sides are cool to the proposal. Transit executives complain it will cost too much considering that only 5 percent of the country's transit passengers are disabled. Many disabled groups, meanwhile, reject Dole's offer because they say it endorses separate but equal service. - ADAPT (1559)
The Seattle Times THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2004 [Headline] As governors meet, groups plan to voice concerns BY BETH KAIMAN Seattle Times staff reporter Seattle police are preparing for downtown protests this weekend from groups representing labor, students and people with disabilities — each determined to make its case to the National Governors Association conference. Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said three groups have permits to march with the labor group Put People First estimating at least 1,000 participants; the student group Building Revolution by Increasing Community Knowledge (BRICK) hoping for as a many as 1,000 people; and the disabled-rights organization ADAPT bringing in about 400 people from across the county, many of them in wheelchairs. Representatives of the groups said they intend to take part in orderly demonstrations, but the disabled-right organization, in particular, has been known to try to disrupt governors association meetings in other cities. Bob Kafka, national organizer with ADAPT, said the protest is meant to appeal to the states to support a bill in Congress to bolster Medicaid spending for community- and home-based care for people with disabilities. "People young and old don't want to be housed in institutions," Kafka said. The group will make its way about 3:30 p.m. Saturday from the Red Lion Hotel, down Union Street toward Pike Place Market and a 4 p.m. rally at Victor Steinbrueck Park. Kafka declined to detail plans for Sunday, when the governors are scheduled to discuss long-term health-care issues. - ADAPT (1558)
It's in the P-I Seattle Post-Intelligencer THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2004 Too many disabled people, he said, are "warehoused" in nursing homes and institutions, despite a court ruling five years ago that the disabled had a right to community-based care. 'We think our long-term care system is broken," Kafka said. "In almost every state, there's very little being done by the governors to implement (the ruling). They're, in fact, cutting Medicaid and community services. In most states, there are very long waiting lists." If it comes to arrests this weekend, ADAPT members will cooperate with the authorities, Kafka said. 'We are not violent. We are non-destructive," Kafka said. 'We have nothing against the police." Still, the city had better be ready. Many of the protesters need skilled care to use toilets or maintain their catheters; some can eat only through tubes; and some breathe through ventilators. The labor unions and student groups are limiting their demonstrations to Saturday. The Federation of State Employees is calling on the NGA to work with it, spokesman Tim Welch said. In addition, "we're protesting what we view in bad fiscal times what we think are wrongheaded budget priorities . . . like still granting billions in corporate tax breaks and then still cutting vital public services." The group has arranged for 200 "peacekeepers" in orange vests to ensure things stay calm as they march from Westlake Center past the Westin and back, starting at 1:30 p.m. 'We will not have any what we will term 'civil disobedience,' " Welch said. About 200 members of various Western Washington student groups plan to join the unions, after gathering at Seattle Central Community College Saturday at noon. Organized in part by a student activist group from South Puget Sound Community College, the group plans to march to Westlake to join the union marchers. "What our purpose is is just for our voices to be heard," said Arielle Woolis-Pink, a 20-year-old prelaw student at South Puget Sound Community College. 'We don't oppose the NGA, but we would like them to include other interests — not just corporate interests." Like the union leaders, the students plan to keep their demonstrators out of trouble with the police. They're planning a parade, with a marching band and a couple of small floats — one of a "giant corporate swine." "We're trying to stay positive and say yes, this is what we want, as opposed to no, this is what we don't want," Woolis-Pink said. "It's a perfect venue for our frustration, I think, because it seems as though in this regime, that's happening in our country. The people's voices are being included less and less, and we're not going to stand for that." - ADAPT (1557)
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[Headline] Wheelchair users to protest [Subheading] Hundreds expected on the streets as governors gather for Seattle meeting BY ANGELA GALLOWAY P-1 reporter Odds are on the hundreds of people in wheelchairs causing the most disruption this weekend. Most of the nation's governors, along with more than 1,000 state officials and lobbyists, will gather in Seattle for the annual summer meeting of the National Governors' Association, which runs tomorrow through Monday at the Westin Hotel downtown. And police are preparing for several protest groups to greet the officials, particularly a national disability rights activist group called ADAPT. ADAPT - here to call for increased access to home-based, rather than institutional, care for the disabled - expects about 600 protesters, most in wheelchairs. In the past, the group's protesters have sometimes used tactics such as blocking streets and disrupting public events to gain attention. While hoping to avoid mass arrests, ADAPT is prepared for that possibility, said Bob Kafka, a national organizer with the organization. Members sometimes say they'd "rather be in jail than in a nursing home," said Kafka, of Austin, Texas. "In jail, at least you know when you're go-ing to get out." At the NGA meeting, governors will develop policy positions for their 2005 congressional agenda. They also will hear from invited speakers on a range of issues, from economic development to the environment, said Christine LaPaille, spokes-woman for the NGA. This year's meeting is focused on ad-dressing the aging population, as the nation prepares for a projected 77 million baby boomers to retire this decade, LaPaille said. Keynote speakers include Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Leon Panetta, for-mer White House chief of staff, who are scheduled to speak Monday. The NGA was formed in 190 as a bi-partisan lobbying and research organization. This year, the governors plan to approve policy papers on Medicaid reform and changes to federal telecommunications laws, as well as a policy supporting ability of citizens in states such as Washington to deduct local sales-tax levies SEE PROTEST, B5 - ADAPT (1555)
[Headline] PROTEST: Police say they are prepared for demonstrations FROM B1 from their federal income taxes, LaPaille said. But those meetings are closed to the public. Instead, the public's view will largely be limited to the protesting. In addition to ADAPT, two groups representing labor unions and Washington college student groups have permits to stage demonstrations, Seattle police Assistant Chief Nicholas Metz said. The labor demonstration, organized by the Washington Federation of State Employees, plans to play host to king-shot presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Officials with the Washington State Patrol and the Seattle Police Department say they've been preparing for more than a year for the meeting — and the protests it will bring. "We let them know that we're not going to tolerate criminal behavior," Metz said. At the same tune, the police support people's right to free speech, he said. "We want to handle each situation with kid gloves; we certainly don't want to spark any confrontation," he added. The police do not expect any non-permitted protesters to show up, Metz said. The patrol will cover security of the governors and their guests within meeting sites. They've also consulted with local and federal authorities, including the Coast Guard and FBI, patrol spokesman Capt. Fred Fakkema said. In anticipation ,of possible arrests of ADAPT Members, Metz said, Seattle police have arranged for a "good amount" of wheel-chair-accessible transportation. "It requires a great deal of training and planning on how we deal with folks who are disabled," he said. "That's not somebody we would typically deal with in a protest situation." In March, 129 ADAPT protestors were arrested in a Senate Finance Committee meeting room in Washington, D.C. The group sees the right to community care as a "simple civil rights issue," Kafka said.