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Avaleht / Albumid / Märksõnad accessible transit
+ 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals 4
ADAPT (613)
El Paso Times Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1989 p.6A [Headline] Court: New buses must have Wheelchair lifts Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court Monday ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation to require transit authorities across the country to equip new buses with wheelchair lifts. Attorneys who brought the lawsuit that led to the ruling called it the most important decision ever handed down for handicapped people needing public transportation. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a Transportation Department regulation requiring all new buses to accommodate wheelchairs conflicts with another allowing communities to offer only an alternative service, such as special vans, to the handicapped. The court said a rule requiring reservations 24 hours in advance for use of the alternative transportation hinders the spontaneous use of mass transit by the handicapped. As a result, the court ordered transit authorities to make “reasonable accommodations to their" programs, i.e. purchase wheelchair-accessible buses," The court also upheld a controversial decision requiring the Transportation Department to eliminate a cap on the amount of money transit authorities need to spend on making transportation accessible. A coalition of disabled people and 12 organizations called Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation filed the lawsuit last year. The coalition contended that a provision of the federal regulations allowed authorities receiving federal transportation money to exclude the handicapped from “effective and meaningful" access. U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz overturned the provision in cases where the transit authority buys any buses. TEXT BOX INSERT: El Paso already buying buses with access El Paso already has a policy that requires wheelchair lifts on all buses, said Mark Dorfman, director of the city's Sun Metro bus service. The policy has been in effect since 1987, when voters approved a half-percent sales tax to finance the city's bus system. City officials promised voters that the additional money from the sales tax would allow all new buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts, Dorfman said. “We’re getting ready to take bids for 84 new buses, and one of the specifications is that they have lifts,” he said. Dorfman said wheelchair lifts add an average of $15,000 to the cost of a bus.
ADAPT (604)
Courier Journal, Louisville, KY PHOTO (staff photo by Paul Schumann): A dark paneled office with official looking pictures and places on the walls, is full of people in wheelchairs, and a couple of people standing at the back of the group. Those in wheelchairs (ranging from manual chairs to motorized ones) are facing in various directions but generally form a circle. Everyone appears to be listening. To the right of the picture a man in a white shirt and tie is standing with his arms crossed looking down at some of the people in wheelchairs. In the center of the front of the picture a man with a short pony tail (Arthur Campbell) talks to the man standing. To his left a woman in a chair (Ann ____) looks on. Caption reads: Assistant U. S. Attorney Terry Cushing talked to members of disability-rights groups yesterday as they held a sit-in in the lobby of the U. S. attorney’s office. [Headline] Advocates of disability rights hold sit-in in support of transit ruling By CLARENCE MATTHEWS Staff Writer About a dozen members of disability-rights groups held an impromptu sit-in in the lobby of U.S. Attorney Joe Whittle’s office in Louisville in support of a federal court ruling that public transit must be accessible to disabled passengers. The sit-in was orderly, and the group left about three hours after entering the office. A 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 last month that lift-equipped buses are part of Congress‘ mandate to make public transportation more accessible to the disabled. The court also ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation to rewrite regulations that let cities offer the disabled alternative services, such as van rides. It said the 24-hour reservations required for such services hinder use of mass transit. Representatives of local disability-rights groups began demonstrating at ll:30 a.m. outside the Federal Building at Sixth and Chestnut streets. They formed a noon-hour caravan of wheelchairs for the trip to the U.S. attorney's office on the 10th floor of the Bank of Louisville building at Fifth Street and Broadway. Demonstrators asked that the U.S. attorney call John Sununu, the White House chief of staff, to tell President Bush to instruct federal officials not to appeal the decision. When told Whittle was ill, the demonstrators asked to meet with an assistant. Arthur Campbell Jr., a spokesman for the group, told Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Cushing, “This ruling; gives us the freedom that the rest of society takes for granted." Cushing promised to pass their request on to Whittle. "Can’t you do that now?" a demonstrator asked. Cushing said he couldn't because someone was waiting in his office, but promised to do it later. “We’ll wait until Monday if necessary," another group member said. They left about three hours later, after Cashing called Whittle and several members of the group spoke to him. "He (Whittle) asked me to take some additional information from them about the case, and they left," Cushing said. The demonstration was part of a nationwide observance sponsored by American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, a plaintiff in the federal Court case, and other disability rights groups.
ADAPT (597)
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS 3-25-89 PHOTO (by SAM PSORAS/ DAILY NEWS): A group of people with picket signs are gathered in front of a dark wall with a door. A woman (Cassie James) in a motorized wheelchair is sitting sideways in the center. She has a huge sign that reads in great big letters "ACCESS NOW." She has shoulder length hair and is wearing glasses, a dark coat, white pants and stylish boots. In front and to her left another woman in a wheelchair is sitting in front of the doorway leaning to one side talking to a woman in a midcalf length coat holding a cane. The woman in the wheelchair is holding a sign that reads "Disabled In Action." Above the door on the side of the wall you can read "841 Chestnut ..." Behind the woman in the center is another person standing with a sign that reads "Access is a civil right!" That person is looking at 2 other women standing, one of whom is holding an 81/2 by 11 sized bundle and is wearing a coat and boots and seems to be holding a bull horn. Beside her the last person is holding a sign that reads "No Appeal." Caption reads: ALL THEY ASK is ALL ABOARD A contingent of eight protesters, some in wheelchairs, picketed the United Mass Transit Administration office, 841 Chestnut St., yesterday in support of a recent 3rd U.S. Circuit Court or Appeals ruling that all buses bought with federal funds must be accessible to disabled riders and that all who can't use buses must be afforded other mass transit. The protesters said they represented a variety of advocacy groups staging protests nationwide on behalf of 5 million disabled and elderly Americans.
ADAPT (588)
Fort Worth Star Telegram handwritten: 3-26-89 [sic] [Headline] An Easter sit-in by activists in the Federal Building [This story appears in 588 and continues on 587, but is entirely included here for ease of reading.] PHOTO (by Fort Worth Star-Telegram/ RICKY MOON): In a fairly fancy office with leather chairs and wooden bookshelves and table, a group of disabled people sit in a semi circle. On the left side of the picture is a small man (Paul Alexander) in a grey suit and small, personally adapted wheelchair; his head is back and he is kind of looking over his shoulder at some of the others in the room. Next to him in a comfy padded chair sits a man with black hair, mustache and beard (Frank Lozano) in an ADAPT no steps logo shirt. Over his head he holds a poster that says "Access not excuses DON'T APPEAL." Next to him is a man in a manaul wheelchair (Bob Kafka) who is also wearing an ADAPT no steps logo shirt, suspenders and blue jeans. Beside him is a doorway and someone is standing in the doorway, on the other side with his back to the group. On the other side of the door is a woman in a wheelchair (Kathy Gaines) with curly hair and a pink blouse; she appears to be in a wheelchair as well. She is holding a sign but you can't read it from the angle it's at. Beside her, and at the front of the picture is a man (Joe Carle) sitting in an armchair with his legs up in his wheelchair; one leg is amputed below the knee. He is wearing a vest and ADAPT T-shirt on the arm of which you can see the list of cities where ADAPT has held actions. He is holding up and looking at a poster that reads "Bush says Mainstream Disabled." Caption reads: Paul Alexander, left, and Kathy Gaines, second from right, tried to negotiate for Frank Lozano and Bob Kafka, center, and Joe Carle, right. [Headline] Disabled demand better access BY Bob GWIZDZ Fort Worth StarTelegram Four people lobbying for better access to public transportation for disabled people refused to leave the Federal Building in downtown Fort Worth last night, promising to stay until Monday. Members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation earlier in the day had demanded that a local Department of Transportation official call the White House in support of their cause. Similar actions were planned in other cities today. “We plan to stay through Easter and welcome Wilbur Hare Monday morning.“ said Bob Kafka, a community organizer with the group. “On Monday we'll decide where we go from there.“ Hare, regional manager of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, refused the group's request that he call White House chief of staff John Sununu in support of a recent federal appeals court decision requiring wheelchair lifts on all new public buses purchased with federal money. Group members say they think the Department of Transportation will appeal the decision. ln Philadelphia, eight people were escorted from a federal building that contains the regional transportation administration office when the building closed at 5 p.m. Sieglinde Shapiro, who headed the delegation of disabled people, said she read a statement to the official in charge. The statement noted that similar meeting had been scheduled with regional directors in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Ariz., and Salt Lake City, she said. The Associated Press office in Dallas said it had no reports of meetings with federal officials there. The Fort Worth office of the transportation department serves the Metroplex. Shapiro said “our sources in Washington tell us that the U.S. Department of Transportation is poised to appeal” the Feb. 13 decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling requires that every bus newly purchased with federal assistance be wheelchair accessible, and that those unable use buses be provided with adequate transportation. The Fort Worth protest began when between 20 and 30 demonstrators, many in wheelchairs, arrived at the Federal Building around 1 p.m. after assembling at nearby Burnett Park. Hare, who said he received word Wednesday that a protest was planned, asked the protesters to meet with him downstairs at the Federal Building. The demonstrators refused. “That’s how you treat the disabled separate,” Kafka said to Hare. “We want to see you on the ninth floor, in your office, like everybody else. It’s the same thing as transportation — we want access like everybody else.” After a few protesters entered the building, Federal Protective Service officers locked the doors, forcing more than half of the demonstrators to remain outside. Hare said his office would not accommodate all the protesters. He declined to say who ordered the officers to lock the doors. About 10 protesters met with Hare in his office. “I’m not calling Mr. Sununu, but if you have a message for him, I’ll do my best to get it delivered,” Hare said. “lf you’d like to make a call, then go where you conduct your business and make the call. I’m sure you’ve made your views known to (President) Bush and if you haven’t, there are better ways to do it than tying up this office all afternoon.” Hare did call the Washington headquarters of the transportation administration and said he relayed the protesters’ message to officials there. When Hare left at 4:45 p.m., his normal quitting time, four protesters decided to remain. “We weren’t anticipating Mr. Hare being so obstinate,” Kafka said. “We expected a quick reaction and a phone call. It just shows their real arrogance toward disabled people.” At 6 p.m., Casey Bowen, director of building operations with the General Services Administration, told the protesters that he would prefer they leave, but that he had no intention of forcibly removing them. But Bowen said he would not allow them to have food sent in, and he had the telephones removed from the office. “Quite frankly, our intent is not to encourage this sort of protest,” Bowen said. Reporters could not contact the protesters later in the evening and building guards declined to comment. The protesters, who had no provisions other than a couple of granola bars and soft drinks, have access to the building's snack and soft drink machines. Besides Kafka, 43, of Austin, the protesters who remained in the building last night were Joe Carle, 50, and Frank Lozano, 39, both of Dallas, and Tim Baker, 26, of Austin. Kafka has used a wheelchair since he suffered a broken neck in an auto accident 10 years ago. Carle suffers from a circulation disorder, has had part of one leg amputated and has used a wheelchair for nine years. Lozano is blind, the result of an auto accident five years ago. Baker suffers from severe cerebral palsy. Paul Alexander, a Fort Worth lawyer who uses a wheelchair, arrived late in the afternoon to try to negotiate a settlement. When it became apparent that the protesters were determined to stay, Alexander tried to arrange for permission for food delivery. Alexander said arrangements could not be made. “Us being locked up all weekend symbolizes the thousands of disabled people who are locked up in their homes," Carle said. “Will it do any good? Or will it make you look like a jackass? l don’t know the answer. I honestly don’t." Staff writer Betsy C.M. Tong contributed to this report.