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หน้าหลัก / อัลบั้ม / Wade Blank - Founder of Atlantis Co-Founder of ADAPT 89
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Monday, February 22, 1993 The Denver Post Denver & The West [Headline] 'Warrior' for the disabled mourned By Sarah Ellis Denver Post Staff Writer More than 1,100 people gathered yesterday to share memories and grieve the deaths of disabled-rights champion Wade Blank and his son, Lincoln. Both drowned Feb. 15 during a family vacation in Mexico. Friends, co-workers and neighbors remembered Blank as an activist, devoted family man and one who dedicated his life to helping others. "Wade was a prophet, a warrior for justice and peace," said former colleague Art Waldmann. "But through it all, there was always his warm and caring self." In a memorial billed as a celebration of life, many shed tears and praised the man who had worked to give independence and dignity to disabled people everywhere. But the service at the downtown Radisson Hotel also was peppered with folk songs and laughter. "He touched a lot of people," said Mike Auberger, co-director of the Atlantis Community, which Blank helped launch in 1975. Wade's love warmed and empowered us all," said Justin Dart, chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. "It breached the defenses and won the respect of policemen, jailers, judges, mayors and congresspersons." Blank's casket was draped with a [text cuts off] [image] [image caption] Pays last respects: Heather Blank, adopted daughter of disabled-rights champion Wade Blank, places a hand on her father's casket at memorial service yesterday. The Denver Post/ Brian Brainerd [text resumes] flag, the stars forming a handicapped. sign. His '60s-style civil disobedience to bring attention to the needs of disabled. people was credited with changing many lives. "He was a visionary and a teacher who worked for justice and equality for us all," Stephanie Thomas said from her wheelchair. Neighbors remembered Lincoln Blank as a boy "with dancing eyes" who played rally, instead of house or doctor, and who was a "big brother" to many neighborhood children. Auberger said Lincoln's first words were "We will ride!" a rallying cry for disabled access on public transit. A national memorial service for Blank will be May 9 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Contributions for the family may be made to the Wade Blank Memorial Fund at The First National Bank of Denver, 300 S. Federal Blvd., Denver 80206. A trust fund also has been established in the name of Wade Blank. Contributions can be sent to Atlantis/ADAPT, c/o Evan Kemp, 2500 Q St., N.W., #121, Washington, D.C. 20007. Blank is survived by his wife, Molly, and two daughters, Heather, 22, and Caitlin, 6.
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[Headline] Champion of disabled, son drown By Judith Brimberg Denver Post Staff Writer Wade Blank, a Denver resident who use civil-rights tactics to win accessible transportation for the handicapped, has died in a swimming accident in Mexico that also claimed the life of his 8-year-old son, Lincoln. The 52-year-old onetime Presbyterian minister had been vacationing with his family in Todos Santos at the tip of the Baja California peninsula when tragedy struck Monday morning, an associate said. Lincoln was caught in a Pacific Ocean undertow and when Blank went to the child's rescue, he too was sucked under. Blank's body had been recovered, but Lincoln's still was missing as of last night. A Denver resident since 1971, the able-bodied Blank was the spark plug for handicapped activism locally and elsewhere. Recognized by his blond hair worn long the style of the 1960s, the tall, lanky advocate was the driving force behind numerous demonstrations. He led protests in federal buildings and downtown Denver streets to advance independent living for the disabled; in Washington, D.C., to obtain passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act; and throughout the nation to liberate the disabled from nursing homes. "He is the one who cut the path through [text cuts off] [image] [image caption] Blank family: Left to right, Caitlin Blank, Wade Blank, Lincoln Blank, and Mollie Blank in a picture taken July 26, 1992. Wade and Lincoln died Monday in a swimming accident in Mexico. Special to The Denver Post. Tom Olin. [text resumes] the jungle to provide opportunity for the disabled and to educate the broader community about their rights," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, who first met Blank in 1982 when Pena ran for Denver mayor. Blank asked Pena whether he would drop charges if the handicapped were arrested for civil disobedience. When Pena hedged, Blank told him: "That's the wrong answer. We want to be treated like everybody else. Don't give us any break." A native of Pittsburgh, Blank received a divinity degree from McCormick Seminary in Chicago. In the late 1960s, he was pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Akron, Ohio, and was involved in the anti-war movement at Kent State University. Admittedly burned out when he came to Denver, Blank worked in the youth wing of a nursing home before helping launch the Atlantis Community for the disabled in 1975. "I decided to move people out of the nursing home and do the care myself," Blank recalled in a recent interview. "You try moving eight people who are severely disabled into their own apartments and be responsible for dressing them, feeding them, bowel programs, bathing them. I think if I were sane, I probably wouldn't have done it, but within the first six months, I'd moved 18 people out. So now I was wedded to the concept." Atlantis today has about 100 disabled people who receive attendant services. From there, it was an easy step to civil rights activism. On July 5, 1978, under Blank's tutelage, 19 handicapped people in wheelchairs blocked two RTD buses for 24 hours to force public accommodations to be made accessible to people in wheelchairs. It was the start of a campaign that tasted victory in 1983 when RTD's first elected board rescinded an earlier action and voted to make 89 new RTD buses handicapped accessible. "That was major turning point in the way RTD responded to Blank's efforts," recalled former RTD Chairman Jack McCroskey. That same year, Blank and his cohorts formed a new umbrella organization--American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation--ADAPT--and began picketing meetings of the American Public Transportation Association. In 1990, to spur passage of ADA legislation, ADAPT organized a massive demonstration capped by 200 handicapped people crawling up the steps of the Capitol building to block the rotunda. "I do not think that was an extreme action," said Justin Dart Jr., chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. "Homeless people with disabilities were dying in the streets or were incarcerated in nursing homes or institutions without due process of law." Saddened by Blank's death, Dart said: "I don't think the ADA would have passed as a civil rights law without him." Recently, ADAPT has taken a new name, American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, and has a new goal, that of making home health care a right so the disabled can live in their own homes. Despite his successes, Blank never collected more than $18,000 a year in salary. "Wade was one of those people you saw going on forever," said Mike Auberger, a paraplegic who is co-director of the Atlantis Community. "He was 52, but he was 18 years old as far as energy and drive were concerned. He kicked us into a whole other gear. He was a real center for the disabled community and a real focus of where disability rights needed to go." Blank is survived by his wife, Mollie; two daughters, Heather a 22-year0old handicapped woman whom he adopted 12 years ago, and Caitlin, 6; his mother Ruth, of Canton, Ohio, and two sisters. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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[Headline] Blank opened many doors for people in wheelchairs The nation has lost a tireless advocate for human rights with the untimely death of Wade Blank, the Denver activist whose work helped to spark the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Blank, 52, who drowned this week while trying to rescue his 8-year-old son from heavy surf off Baja California, had spent the past 20 years working to make public facilities more accessible to people in wheelchairs and to help the developmentally disabled lead more independent lives. A former Presbyterian minister, he co-founded the Atlantis Community in Denver in the mid-1970s and later organized wheelchair protests that forced the Regional Transportation District to install lifts on all its buses. His latest work had been aimed at getting Congress to recognize home health care as a basic right and to provide attendants who would enable the handicapped to live by themselves instead of in nursing homes. Blank, who was able-bodied, always insisted that society should adapt to the needs of the disabled, rather than vice versa. For that, he will always have a place of honor in the hearts of those who understand the true meaning of the words freedom and equality.
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[Headline] When "Rights" Clash [Subheading] How does an industry association cope with the constitutionally protected rights of an activist organization that opposes it? APTA has wrested with ADAPT about accessibility for six years. By Bill Paul [boxed text] An APTA task force has developed a draft policy recommending that APTA adopt a policy of full wheelchair accessibility for all buses and railcars. The recommendation also urges the federal government to implement a national policy toward that end. A working paper outlining the draft recommendation is now being debated. It has become a familiar scene. The American Public Transit Association sponsors a trade show, or an educational or business conference. Transit professionals travel in from distant points to register for the members-only conference. Meanwhile, outside the conference hotel, usually on opening day and then for a day or two afterwards, a small group of wheelchair-bound protesters, typically numbering between 50 and 150 people, mount a demonstration. Nearly all of them too have come from distant points. They gather their wheelchairs around the hotel entrance, or roll into the path of a passing public transit bus forcing it to a halt. Soon the now-familiar chant begins" "We shall ride!" We shall ride! We shall ride!" Protested by the First Amendment [image] [image caption] Wade Blank walks behind a group of his ADAPT supporters in front of the Omni International Hotel in St. Louis during APTA Eastern Conference in May. The demonstrations have become commonplace at APTA meetings. [text resumes] right to free speech, the protesters, members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), are demonstrating in favor of full accessibility of every federally funded transit bus and transit station. Often, the demonstrations turn violent with arrests following. Since these protests began six years ago, 381 arrests of ADAPT demonstrators have been made. ADAPT began demonstrating against APTA in 1982 after the association filed a lawsuit three years earlier in federal district court to rescind a DOT regulation to comply with the Section 504 regulations. The DOT regulation was issued by then-Secretary Brock Adams, and would have mandated all federally funded transit buses and rail transit stations to be wheelchair accessible. APTA's lawsuit eventually prevailed, incurring the association the enmity of ADAPT. In the aftermath of the lawsuit, APTA's position on accessibility has focused on the right of each transit system to develop its own solution rather than the federal government mandating a solution. Its policy statement declares: "APTA agrees with Congress, the Administration, the courts, local officials and many disabled persons that each community should continue to be permitted to determine the best means of meeting this obligation by tailoring service to the diverse needs, circumstances, and desires of the local community." In 1983 ADAPT presented APTA with a resolution asking association members to vote on the issue of full accessibility. APTA declined. Indeed, that vote has yet to be taken in a general session, a matter that rankles ADAPT. However, as we'll see, an association task force has re-evaluated APTA's position on September/October 1988 METRO Magazine 79
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"...I never put myself in a position to be arrested, Wade said that was alright, because I could play a positive role within the system. I was never sure in my heart. if I was on the right side of the bars. I knew he was..." -Justin Dart, Jr.