- Ordre de tri✔ Par défaut
Titre de la photo, A → Z
Titre de la photo, Z → A
Date de création, récent → ancien
Date de création, ancien → récent
Date d'ajout, récent → ancien
Date d'ajout, ancien → récent
Note, haute → basse
Note, basse → haute
Nombre de visites, élevé → faible
Nombre de visites, faible → élevé - LangueAfrikaans Argentina AzÉrbaycanca
á¥áá áá£áá Äesky Ãslenska
áá¶áá¶ááááá à¤à¥à¤à¤à¤£à¥ বাà¦à¦²à¦¾
தமிழ௠à²à²¨à³à²¨à²¡ ภาษาà¹à¸à¸¢
ä¸æ (ç¹é«) ä¸æ (é¦æ¸¯) Bahasa Indonesia
Brasil Brezhoneg CatalÃ
ç®ä½ä¸æ Dansk Deutsch
Dhivehi English English
English Español Esperanto
Estonian Finnish Français
Français Gaeilge Galego
Hrvatski Italiano Îλληνικά
íêµì´ LatvieÅ¡u Lëtzebuergesch
Lietuviu Magyar Malay
Nederlands Norwegian nynorsk Norwegian
Polski Português RomânÄ
Slovenšcina Slovensky Srpski
Svenska Türkçe Tiếng Viá»t
Ù¾Ø§Ø±Ø³Û æ¥æ¬èª ÐÑлгаÑÑки
ÐакедонÑки Ðонгол Ð ÑÑÑкий
СÑпÑки УкÑаÑнÑÑка ×¢×ר×ת
اÙعربÙØ© اÙعربÙØ©
Accueil / Albums / Wade Blank - Founder of Atlantis Co-Founder of ADAPT 89
- ADAPT (1844)
[Headline] Wheelchairbound Denverite credits Wade Blank for corner ramps [Subheading] Activist helped breach the prison of curbs [section (?) heading] People By Greg Lopez George Roberts was going up Broadway in his motorized wheelchair Wednesday afternoon, explaining why he could go up Broadway in a motorized wheelchair. It was in 1971 outside the nursing home where Wade Blank was an orderly, and Roberts was a resident with cerebral palsy. Blank walked. Robert was in a wheelchair with no power. He turned to Blank and said, "Wade, I can't go any farther." Blank said, "Come on, you can't just quit." "I'm not quitting, Roberts said. "There's no ramp, and I'm sure as hell not going to ride this wheelchair over a curb. You've got to understand that." "I'll try, " Blank said. Blank, 52, the founder of the Atlantis Community and a national handicap rights leader, drowned Monday in Todos Santos, Mexico, trying to save his 8-year-old son, Lincoln. Blank's body was returned Tuesday to Denver, but searchers had not found Lincoln's body. Roberts is 44 and spent the first 26 years of his life in nursing homes and the Ridge Home for the developmentally disabled. Blank had been a Presbyterian minister in Kent, Ohio, earned a master's degree in the theology of rock music, and came to Denver to work as an orderly. It makes sense they became friends. Blank began by organizing fund-raisers at churches to buy Roberts a motorized wheelchair. He took Roberts to a restaurant for the first time. When other residents complained somebody was stealing from their rooms, Blank gave Roberts a flashlight and told him to patrol the hallways. [image] [image caption] George Roberts, who suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair, credits Wade Blank with helping to improve access for disabled Denver residents. Roberts now has a job and lives independently. Glenn Asakawa/Rocky Mountain News [boxed text] Still Fighting. Disabled activists protest move to reduce nursing home fines/12 [text continues] Two nights later, Roberts shined the flashlight on a man taking a portable radio from a room. The man backed away. Roberts pinned the man against a wall with his wheelchair. "People didn't think I could do it," Roberts said. "I didn't even think I could do it. I think Wade was the only person who did." In 1975, Blank started Atlantis. Roberts moved out of the nursing home to work for him. A year later, Roberts, Blank, and 18 others were charged with disobeying an officer for blocking an RTD bus that didn't have a wheelchair lift. Since then, Roberts has been arrested 36 times in demonstrations for handicap accessibility, and Denver has installed wheelchair lifts on all of its buses and there are ramps at every curb. Roberts is an inspector for Atlantis, going into businesses and riding buses to make sure everybody else can. He lives in a house with a friend. He takes care of himself. Blank helped them to get the ramps, and now it is up to Roberts to see how far he can go. "Wade used to tell me I could do anything I want to do," he said. "He said I didn't need him or anybody to live a good life. Now I've got to prove he was right." - ADAPT (1840)
- ADAPT (1841)
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. - ADAPT (1842)
- ADAPT (1845)
- ADAPT (1843)
Rocky Mountain News Wed., Feb. 17, 1993 Greater Denver Deborah Goekeh, City Editor 892-5381 [Headline] Wade Blank, advocate for disabled, drowns [Subheading] Minister who led Denver bus demonstrations and spurred U.S. laws dies as effort to save son fails By Katie Kerwin Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Wade Blank, who carried the fight for disabled Americans from Denver buses to the halls of Congress, died Monday in Mexico as he tried to save his drowning child. Violent waves and a powerful undertow claimed them both as Blank's wife, Molly, and daughter, Caitlin, watched from the shore. Their other daughter, Heather, 22, was in Denver. Blank was 52. His son, Lincoln, was 8. Co-director of the Denver-based Atlantis Community and a Presbyterian minister, Blank is credited with spurring groundbreaking state and national legislation guaranteeing rights to disabled Americans. Although he was not disabled, Blank was inspired to improve living conditions for the disabled after working in a Denver nursing home in the mid-1970s. "The Americans With Disabilities Act would not have passed without his leadership," said Justin Dart, chairman of the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. "Wade Blank was a great moral person-a great loving human being," Dart said. "He marched in the footsteps of the great moral leaders who have used civil disobedience combined with loving leadership to change the world. Presi-[text cuts off] [image] [image caption] Wade Blank, center, and Atlantis Community co-workers Robin Stephens and Ken Herd head South Broadway near the headquarters of the organization, which aids the disabled, in 1991. Rocky Mountain News file photo. [text resumes] -dent Clinton and the 43 million Americans with disabilities would join me in celebrating the life of this great soldier of justice and extending our most profound sympathy to his family and colleagues." Blank, his wife and children were vacationing in Todos Santos, Baja California, Mexico. He had been there since Feb. 9. The village, about 50 miles north of Cabo San Lucas, was a favorite getaway for the family. "Lincoln was out swimming and was pulled in by the undertow, and Wade went out to get him. They were both pulled in by the undertow," said Mike Auberger, co-president of the Atlantis Community. Molly Blank tried to summon help. "It was just too quick. The area has real rough water. It happens, and it happens quick," Auberger said. Blank's wife and daughter returned to Denver late Tuesday. They brought Blank's body home, but Lincoln's body has not yet been recovered. Funeral plans have not been determined. A demonstration planned for May in Washington, D.C., will become a tribute to Blank, Auberger said. Just last week Blank and the Atlantis Community filed formal complaints with the Department of Justice protesting the lack of wheelchair access to taxis in Denver. It was just the latest chapter in a long civil-rights battle. Blank called the disabled "the most powerless people in our society." "I fight the notion they should just be Jerry's kids. I want them to have control," he said. Blank grew up in Canton, Ohio, went to an all-white high school and college, and supported Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon for president. A black friend dared him to go to Selma, Ala., to march with Martin Luther King, Jr. Blank became pastor of a church in Kent, Ohio, which became an underground meeting place for the Students for a Democratic Society. After the killings of Kent State students by national guardsmen during a war protest, he went back to McCormick Theological Seminary for a master's degree. He moved to Denver and worked as an orderly in a nursing home. In 1975, Blank co-founded the Atlantis Community to tech the disabled how to live outside institutions and, soon after, he began attacking the barriers to independent living with confrontational, non-violent protests. In 1978, Atlantis members made national headlines when they surrounded two RTD buses with wheelchairs at Colfax Avenue and Broadway because RTD would not install wheelchair lifts, making Denver the first city in the nation with 100% accessible public transportation. Staff writer Kerri Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this report. - ADAPT (1784)
[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 - ADAPT (1779)
[This page continues the article from Image 1784. Full text is available on 1784 for easier reading.] - ADAPT (1775)
- ADAPT (1771)
- ADAPT (1765)
- ADAPT (1762)
- ADAPT (1809)
- ADAPT (1770)