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Naslovnica / Skupine / Tag accessible transit 63
- ADAPT (557)
Rocky Mountain News, Fri., March 23, 1990 U.S. plans to require handicapped-accessible buses Associated Press WASHINGTON — The government announced plans yesterday to require that all federally aided bus systems buy only vehicles that are accessible to the disabled and provide special door-to-door transit for those who can't make it to bus stops. Requiring both access and special services for all systems is expected to “increase significantly the amount and quality of service available to persons with disabilities," said a Transportation Department announcement. Groups representing the handicapped praised the announcement and a transit industry spokesman said bus companies are prepared for it. The proposed rule, expected to become final in September after a period for public comment, would match some of the requirements of legislation pending in Congress and meet the key transportation demands of disabled rights activists. More than 150 people were arrested in two incidents last week during demonstrations in Washington for the Americans With Disabilities Act. “The Bush administration is committed to policies that will ensure that people with disabilities have the opportunities available to other persons to use our mass transit system," said Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner. Announcement of the proposed rule met the requirements of a Philadelphia federal court order that required the department to examine and change existing regulations but did not mandate what the changes should be. The order came in a suit by more than a dozen groups representating the handicapped. The department asked for comment on several options for exempting transit companies that would find it too costly to provide special door-to-door services for the handicapped. but no exemptions would be allowed for accessibility on all new buses. The rule does not require that wheelchair lifts or other devices be retrofitted onto existing buses but would apply to all new and refurbished buses and require companies to make an effort to buy only used buses with such equipment if available. IN COLORADO The Bush administration order making transit buses handicapped-accessible is seen as the climax of 12 years of activism by the group American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, which was founded in Denver. “It's a substantial victory,” said Wade Blank, a co-founder of ADAPT. “Denver led the charge (for wheelchair-accessible buses) all across the country. Blank participated in recent demonstrations in Washington, D.C.in which hundreds of disabled people pushed for quick passage of the Americans with Act, which would extend civil rights to disabled people. Dozens were arrested during the demonstration, which Blank believes spurred the administration to act. Blank said cities as Pittsburgh and Cincinnati with public transit systems that are inaccessible to the disabled, would be forced to equip buses. --Leroy Wiiliams - ADAPT (387)
The Gazette, Montreal, Sunday, October 2, 1988 PHOTO by Allen McInnis, Gazette: A woman in a manual wheelchair (Stephanie Thomas) sits in front of a blank wall. She is loosely holding the push rims of her chair. Her left leg, closest to the camera, is broken and has a large cast on it. She is wearing a dark shirt with a button, and cotton wide legged pants with a floral pattern. Her eyes are slightly squinting and she looks determined. Caption: Wheelchair-bound Stephanie Thomas: "We try to hit conventions as forcefully as we can." Title: Transit activist expects ride to jail By LYNN MOORE, of The Gazette Stephanie Thomas of Austin, Texas, expects to see some sights most tourists don't during her stay in Montreal — like the inside of the Tanguay detention center for women. Thomas and her husband are among about 120 wheelchair-bound members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) who are prepared to go to jail in their fight for better access to North American transit systems. "We feel that degree of commitment is necessary to get our cause known and to get attention," said Thomas, who has spent 14 years in a wheelchair after a tractor accident when she was 17. The group is in town to continue its battle with the 900-member American Public Transit Association, which begins its four-day convention in Montreal today. The Montreal Urban Community Transit Corporation, a member of the association, is convention host. About 3,000 people are expected to attend. Transit executives "don't have to think of this problem at all," Thomas said, alluding to inaccessible mass-transit vehicles. "They can just ignore it. That's why we try to hit as forcefully as we can during their conventions." Civil disobedience is the name of the game for ADAPT members, and one they have played in every city where the transit association has held a meeting for the past five years. They have chained themselves to buses and buildings, blocked traffic and created major headaches for police. The group's Montreal targets are not yet known because it is keeping that information under wraps. But Montreal's Metro system, which is not wheelchair-accessible, has not gone unnoticed by the activists. Thomas, her fellow activists and several representatives of a Montreal disabled-rights group met yesterday with a lawyer who briefed them on what to expect from local police, jails and courts. The meeting was closed to the media. "Most of these people have done the letter-writing, the testifying and public hearings and things like that but it doesn't work," she said. Public confrontation gets much better results, she said. She pointed to the increase in the number of transit authorities that have bought buses equipped with mechanical lifts to replace their aging vehicles. According to APTA figures, the percentage of buses with lifts has grown to 30 per cent from 11 per cent in 1981. Once arrested and charged, ADAPT members usually plead guilty and opt for jail terms rather than fines, Thomas said. The end of article - ADAPT (488)
This and ADAPT 509 are continuations of the story on ADAPT 496. The full text of the whole story is on ADAPT 496. - 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 (492)
Atlanta Journal Constitution, Thurs., September 28, 1989 [Headline] Demand by Disabled: 'We Will Ride' (This story is in two parts both of which are included here) Photo: African American police officer with hat perched on his head uses large bolt cutters to cut through a very heavy motorcycle chain that is locked to the neck of an ADAPT protester and the steering wheel of a bus. Behind him is the door of the bus and another officer stands below on the steps. In the foreground is part of a protest sign saying Greyhound. Photo by John Spink, Staff caption reads: Officer C.A. Wardlaw cites a chain holding protester Clayton Jones to a Greyhound bus steering wheel. [Headline] Protesters Arrested After Halting Greyhound Buses. By Pat Burson, Staff Writer More than two dozen disabled activists were arrested Wednesday after they halted bus service at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Atlanta for nearly five hours by blocking driveways with their wheelchairs and, in some cases, chaining themselves to the buses. The demonstrators, who were in town this week to protest the lack of accessible transportation, were driven to jail in a lift-equipped transit bus. Those arrested were charged with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and failing to clear streets and sidewalks, said Atlanta police Maj. J.L. Mullins. They were released later on their own recognizance. More than 100 disabled protesters wearing headbands and carrying placards began encircling the bus terminal at 3:30 pm. with the majority lined up against the front of the building along International Boulevard. chanting, “We will ride" and “Access is our civil right." Others moved to the back of the terminal and blocked five buses by parking their wheelchairs in front and behind to prevent the drivers from leaving the station. During the protest, police also closed International Boulevard between Spring and Williams streets and rerouted rush-hour traffic. Greyhound officials declined to comment on the protest, which effectively closed the station until 8 p.m. One demonstrator, Clayton Jones, 41, of Houston, pulled himself into the driver‘s seat of an unoccupied bus and chained himself to the steering column. Earlier in the afternoon, he chained himself to the rear wheel of a bus. “I am trying to hold up Greyhound because they are holding up my life," said Mr. Jones, who lost the use of his legs in a 1985 accident. Mr. Jones said he has tried to ride Greyhound alone, but could not because of its “Helping Hands" policy, which requires a passenger in a wheelchair to be carried on and off the buses but allows a companion to travel with the disabled passenger free of charge. The policy also prohibits battery-powered wheelchairs inside the buses. “Is this a free America?" Lillibeth Navarro of Los Angeles shouted at police, draping a full-sized American flag around her body as other protesters were being loaded into the lift-equipped bus. “You are abetting Greyhound’s discriminatory policies!" The bus station was a new target for members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, or ADAPT, who spent Monday and Tuesday occupying the main floor of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building several blocks to the south. They protested outside the Atlanta Hilton Hotel on Courtland Street on Sunday, where the American Public Transit Association (APTA) is holding its annual convention. Atlanta was chosen as the target for the protests, even though MARTA only buys handicapped-accessible buses, because of the APTA convention here. The Denver-based ADAPT is demanding that all public buses purchased with federal dollars be made handicapped-accessible through installation of wheelchair lifts. The demonstrators targeted Greyhound, one of their major foes in the transportation industry because it does not have lift-equipped buses, will not transport people using electric-powered wheelchairs and requires disabled passengers to travel with their own attendants when they ride on its buses. Tom Street, regional general manager for the bus line, said only four buses carrying a total of 80 passengers left Atlanta during the protest. On a normal evening, 20 buses carrying up to 600 passengers would pass through the terminal. The protest came as a surprise to some who thought victories won by the protesters with federal officials Tuesday would have sent them packing. The protesters met with Steven A Diaz, chief counsel for the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, who told them he would ask Transportation Department officials to meet with them to establish a process to identify public transit authorities that are deliberately speeding up purchase of new buses to circumvent a bill pending in Congress mandating that such buses have wheelchair lifts. Protesters swarmed on the first Greyhound bus that pulled up to the International Boulevard entrance about 4:30 p.m. Three people in wheelchairs and one man who is blind sat in front of the bus, arms linked, while several other protesters went to the side of the bus. One man maneuvered himself out of his wheelchair and onto the steps of the bus while bewildered passengers looked on. One angry passenger screamed obscenities at the protesters as she stepped over the man lying in the doorway. “I just got out of Hardwick prison camp," said the 32 year-old woman, referring to the Georgia Women's Correctional Institution. “We left Hardwick at 8:30 and changed buses three times before we got to Atlanta. I want to go home. “I haven't been home in eight months. I have people waiting at the bus station for me. I said this morning, ‘I‘m free at last,‘ and I come to Atlanta and see this!" Greyhound officials called in police while protest leaders talked by phone to representatives of the bus company at its Dallas headquarters. Most protesters allowed officers to maneuver their wheelchairs over to a lift-equipped bus the police called to the site for the arrests, while others chose to evade police. Staff writer Ben Smith III contributed to this article. Photo (by John Spink/Staff): A group of 4 helmeted police men and a supervisor surround and hold a young African American woman wearing an ADAPT headband. Behind them is the side of an Americruiser over the road coach (bus). In one corner a sign reading "Greyhound is a Dirty Dog" is taped to the bus. Caption: Atlanta police remove protester Anita Cameron of Colorado Springs from Greyhound terminal Wednesday. More than two dozen demonstrators were arrested. - ADAPT (511)
Gwinnett Daily News [Headline] Bush allows overnight protest [Subheading] Wheelchair-bound demonstrators demand equal access by Pat Murdock, Daily News Atlanta bureau Atlanta — A group of wheelchair-bound protesters were allowed to spend the night in the federal courthouse after President Bush came out in support of their demonstration over the government's failure to help the handicapped gain better access to buses and airports. Building security had been attempting to evict the estimated 150 demonstrators when a personal call from the president altered those plans around 8 p.m., said Gary Cason, a spokesman for the General Services Administration. “These people have an inherent right to demonstrate and a right to demonstrate in this building," he said. "They're free to stay here all night or as long as they wish." The demonstrators had staged a daylong protest at the downtown high-rise building and were being evicted by security when the president called. Members of the General Services Administration security force began evicting the protesters one-by-one when they refused to leave the Richard B. Russell federal building at the close of business. There were no reports of any arrests of the demonstrators, who staged a similar protest Sunday on the opening day of the American Public Transit Association Atlanta conference. During their eight-hour protest, the demonstrators blocked the street level entrances and exits to the building. Some wedged themselves in revolving doors while others shackled themselves to door handles. Members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) said they staged the protest to coincide with the appearance of Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner at the convention. They demanded that Skinner sign an executive order requiring that buses, purchased with federal funds, be equipped with wheelchair lifts to aid the handicapped. Such equipment is not mandatory now. Skinner did not speak to the protesters. The protesters also called for the implementation of a 1986 federal law requiring equal access for the handicapped in airports. "We feel that disabled people are still on the plantation," Wade Blank, a co-founder of ADAPT, said. “They've never been freed." While visitors to the Russell building had to use fire stairs and alternate entrances, the protest only caused minor inconveniences, GSA spokesman Fleming James said. “We‘re concerned with the safety of the people in the building and the building itself." he said. “We had no problem with their right to protest." After the president's call, General Service Administration officials left the lights on in the lobby of the building for the protesters. Prior to the president's telephone call, officials felt less comfortable with moving dozens of wheelchair-bound protesters, some of whom locked hands and clenched the wheels of one another’s chairs. Some protesters dropped to the floor when security officers approached. One protester, who already had been evicted from the building, threw himself in front of a double door in an attempt to thwart the removal of others. “The police are caught in the middle and they try to be as humane as possible." ADAPT co-founder Mike Auberger said. Photo (special photo): Mike Auberger and Bob Kafka sit in a revolving door with kryptonite locks around their necks attached to kryptonite locks attached to the revolving door handles. Mike faces the camera wearing his war braids, a coat, and an ADAPT bandanna headband; his arms are crossed in his lap. Bob, to his left, wears a fishing-type hat with an ADAPT bandanna and a thick sweater. Bob looks off to the left. Caption: Wheelchair-bound demonstrators chained themselves to the door of the Richard B. Russell federal building in downtown Atlanta Monday. - ADAPT (497)
This is a continuation of the story on ADAPT 498. The full text appears on 498. - ADAPT (621)
PHOTO (by DIANNE LAAKSO/Staff): A tall African American man dressed in a casual clothes and carrying a baby in his left arm is extending his right leg forward to step over two people in wheelchairs who are attempting to block a glass doorway which is open. The man and the child have calm expressions and are looking down. The man holds the arm of one of the people in wheelchairs who is facing away from the camera. This person has a bumper-sticker on their battery box that reads "End USA Apartheid" and this person has both arms bent at the elbows and raised and is dressed in a warm jacket over a hoodie. To this person's left is a woman (Christine Coughlin) sitting with her wheelchair facing the first wheelchair so her feet touch the other chair's wheel. Both protesters look somewhat tense and rigid. On the back wall of the lobby is a abstract mural. Caption reads: Members of ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation block the doors of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building this morning as they protest lack of accessibility on public transportation. The protesters want Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner to sign an executive order requiring any bus purchased with federal money to have wheelchair lifts. [Headline] Handicapped Protesters Block Russell Building In Demonstration Over Transportation Access From Page Al [we do not have the first part of this article. Also, the bottom of this page is torn so parts of the 6th paragraph and last 2 paragraphs are missing.] agrees to their demands. Sen. Sam Nunn‘s office, which is located in the federal building, was asked to relay a message to Mr. Skinner, who was at the Atlanta Hilton Hotel, that his presence was wanted. In the meantime, protesters, using bullhorns and their strongest voices, shouted “What do we want? We want Skinner!" This morning a protest followed a demonstration Sunday in front of the Hilton Hotel as the convention started, Stephanie Thomas, a spokeswoman for the group ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation), said the protesters were angry over the transit group's continued opposition to federal legislation that would prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. The protest was timed to coincide with the opening of the convention of APTA, a trade group representing a majority of public transit systems in North America. The bill, known as the Amer[icans] with Disabilities Act, would [make it] illegal to discriminate against disabled people in employment and places of public accommodations, would assure those with speech or hearing impairments of special equipment allowing them to communicate with anyone and would remove barriers in transportation. It is the latter part that upsets the members of APTA. “We assume it will become law, and if it does we'll implement it," said Albert Engelken, APTA‘s deputy executive director. “But that doesn't mean we have to be happy about it." Mr. Engelken said he does not want to sound cold-hearted, but with shrinking federal transportation funds it sometimes does not make sense to use those funds to install seldom-used wheelchair lifts on buses. “We're not harsh people, but our job is to offer the most people the most mobility for the best possible price," Mr. Engelken said. Ms. Thomas said her group does not expect the transit systems to refit all their buses immediately. nor make all the train stations immediately available to the disabled, ' “We realize it's a longtime goal, and we're willing to wait. We know the costs involved," Ms. Thomas said as other members crowded around. "All we're asking for is a commitment that they‘re willing to do these things, and they won't give us that." The Sunday protest, which closed part of Courtland Street, lasted about four hours and was watched by nearly as many police officers as there were pro[testers.] Police Maj. W.W. Holley [... ar]rests were made. ADAPT member [...] to hold Sunday [...] Holley said n[...] issued. The gr[...] protests in oth[er...] years. TEXT BOX INSERTED IN MIDDLE OF ARTICLE reads: The Americans With Disabilities Act would make it illegal to discriminate against disabled people in employment and places of public accommodations and remove barriers in transportation. - ADAPT (569)
Disabled occupy House offices; 59 are arrested By Frank Wolfe and Sonsyrea Tate The Washington Times 3/15/90 About 300 disabled demonstrators from 40 states occupied two congressional offices and the House Judiciary Committee room in the Rayburn House Office Building for about five hours yesterday before Capitol Police began making arrests. The participants at times discarded wheelchairs and dropped to the floor in one representative's office as part of their demonstration for passage — without weakening amendments — of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Last night, 59 persons were arrested for unlawful entry when they refused to leave the building after the House ended its session about 8 p.m., Capitol Police said. The rest of the demonstrators left peacefully. Police, some wearing optional rubber gloves, carried the demonstrators out. The protest began about 3:15 p.m. when the activists, including 101 arrested Monday in the Capitol Rotunda, occupied the offices of Reps. Hamilton Fish Jr., New York Republican, and Bud Shuster, Pennsylvania Republican. Members of the group also occupied the meeting room of the Judiciary Committee, which is slated to consider the bill. It has passed the Energy and Commerce Committee by a 40-3 vote. But one of the amendments would make flexible the requirement that mass-transit authorities provide lift-equipped transportation for disabled people. Authorities could choose instead to provide “paratransit" services such as minivans. Protest leaders are concerned that such flexibility would lead to “segregated busing" in many states, said Mike Auberger, co-founder of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation and one of the protest organizers. Mr. Shuster was in a meeting of the House Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday afternoon and belatedly learned of the protest. Mr. Fish, ranking minority member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, offered his support for the bill with no weakening amendments and said he would use all measures available to him to defeat any such amendments, according to Ed Tessier, a quadriplegic who helped to organize the protest. Those assembled in Mr. Fish’s office then left. Later in the afternoon, demonstrators occupied Mr. Shuster‘s office, demanding to see the congressman and hoping to make it difficult for staff employees to leave. Mr. Shuster, a member of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, acknowledged the demonstrators’ grievances and said the proposed transportation budget is severely lacking in money allotted for mass transit. “My heart goes out to them," the congressman told The Washington Times in a telephone interview. “I'm in a unique position. My mother was a double amputee in a wheelchair. I have more intimate experiences with the plight and problems of the disabled than perhaps any other member of Congress." The bill is slated for two other House committees, the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation — committees the two congressmen sit on - before reaching the floor of the House. Mr. Shuster said that 100 percent federal mandate" wheelchairs would add 10 percent to the cost of buses and would provide “zero accessibility" for the thousands of disabled who need more comprehensive para-transit services, such as the minivan to transport them to bus stops. "This is a feel-good bill," he said. “There is no money accompanying the bill to pay for the costs it is proposing." He cited New York City, where he said there is, on average, one wheelchair rider per 19 buses, as an example of the need for a mix of lift—equipped buses and paratransit services. If there is a federal mandate on lift-equipped buses, he said, there would be a reduction in services for handicapped riders and for the general public. - ADAPT (513)
FRI. SEPTEMBER 29, 1989 The Atlanta Journal and Constitution [Headline] ADAPT: ‘Militant Group' Takes on the Mainstream Disabled Protesters Tired of ‘Lousy Way to Live’ By Pat Burson, staff writer Sallie Bach said she used to look at people with disabilities “like they were nothing.“ “When you're able to walk, you see people like this and you stand up and laugh at them. l know. l did it," said the 50-year-old Chicago woman, a waitress for 21 years until she became physically disabled after jumping from a third-floor window to escape an apartment fire. “l know what it feels like now," she said. “Now I understand.“ Ms. Bach joined more than 100 other disabled and non-disabled people who are members of American Disabled for Accessible Transportation, or ADAPT, as they blockaded a federal office tower and the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta this week to call attention to their demands that wheelchair lifts be installed on all new buses purchased with federal dollars. ADAPT, based in Denver, promotes non discriminatory, mainline public transit system that are accessible to people who use wheelchairs. This week's protests were planned to coincide with the American Public Transit Association‘s (APTA) annual convention ADAPT has held similar protests in Denver, San Francisco, Cincinnati and Montreal, trying to persuade APTA members to support total accessibility of public transit systems. The transit group and ADAPT differ on the federal government's role in mandating access to public transportation. APTA agrees that transit systems should make their buses and trains accessible, but the group believes local government not Washington, should decide. Whether or not members of the disabled community agree with ADAPT's more radical tactics, they applaud its members unceasing demand for access. “They are a militant group, and l think their militancy had been imposed upon them," said Jay W. Brill, a longtime activist for disability rights and manager of the Initiative on Technology, Disability and Post-Secondary Education at the American Council on Education in Washington. "There's a point where the community [of disabled people] becomes so frustrated with transit authorities, and a door opens wide for ADAPT," said Mr.Brill. ADAPT founder Wade E. Blank, a 48-year-old minister with shoulder-length blond hair, said he got the idea to start the group when he worked as a nursing home orderly. "l said to myself, 'What a lousy way to live your life," he said Wednesday, standing behind a police barricade as 25 fellow protesters at the Greyhound station were loaded onto a lift-equipped bus by police. Co-founder Michael Auberger describes ADAPT as “a fringe group‘ that has become mainstream." “It attracts the person who has been within the system and tired of it and the person who is locked out of the system,... somebody who's really disabled, on a fixed income and needs to use public transportation." The organization, formed in 1983, has about 1,800 members and 33 local chapters. As protesters tried to close down the Richard B. Russell Federal Building this week, linking arms and wheelchairs at the tower's main doors and elevators, some compared the demonstration to those during the civil rights movement of a quarter-century ago. "The civil rights movement started because of busing" said Jerry Eubanks, a 31-year-old-dispatcher for the Chicago Sanitation Department, whose legs were amputated below the knee after a train accident. “We just want the right to ride the bus." - ADAPT (599)
PHOTO: An African American woman in a motorized wheelchair sits in front of a group of other people in wheelchairs and standing. Several are wearing ADAPT no stairs logo T-shirts. The woman in front has a sign across the front of the wheelchair that says "Access Now. We will Ride." They are on a city street in an urban downtown area. Caption says: SINCE 1983, ADAPT has picketed APTA is national and regional conventions, always an unwelcome guest. Scores of demonstrators have been arrested hundreds of times as they blocked the entrances to APTA's various hotel headquarters in such cities, as Denver, Detroit, Montreal, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, San Antonio, and Reno. Only once, in Denver in 1983, was ADAPT allowed to make its plea for accessible public transit before an APTA meeting, and then only after the city's mayor, Federico Pena, intervened. APTA insisted throughout the demonstrations that they weren't opposed to lifts per se, only to making the lifts mandatory on all public transit systems. APTA argued that it was a matter best decided by local transit providers. - ADAPT (503)
Handicapped Coloradan [Headline] The night they drove old APTA down Photo: About a half dozen folks in wheelchairs and one standing person sit together in the parking lot by a van and the entrance to the Holiday Inn Days Inn. Some are in manual wheelchairs, others in electric wheelchairs. They are faced toward the hotel and away from the camera. Caption reads: In our motel parking lot. By RENATE CONRAD Special to the Handicapped Coloradan Friday, Sept. 22-Arrived at the Days Inn in Atlanta at 9:15 p.m. Got room assignments and collected luggage. Saturday, Sept. 23-Bob and I went to the Hotel Hilton at 10:45 pm. to request press passes. We were told to come back between l p.m. and 6 p.m. to talk to Albert Engelken, PR person for APTA. 5:15 p.m.—Returned to the Hilton. Mr. Engelken had left for the day, We were asked to return in the morning at 9a.m. l-5:15 p.m.-First meeting. Topics discussed included the ADA bill and the Air Carriers Act. Some comments: "Everyone thought it was a joke when 35 people started ADAPT, but now no one is laughing. . . You’ve created a Utopia."-Wade Blank “Paratransit is a gun to disabled persons’ heads . . . We've taken the bullets out of the gun."-Arthur Campbell, Jr. "We've sent a message to Bush that we are serious." There was a good deal of applause and then the conversation shifted from the ADA bill to transportation. Julie Farrar from Los Angeles said that she had been to a large human resources conference given by APTA. In the course of the conference it was stated that “everything would be accessible if it wasn‘t for ADAPT." This was greeted with obvious boos and hisses. Later Julie Farrar told the group that Fred Curry of the Greyhound Company said, "If the ADA passes as it is the private bus industry will go broke." After that introductions were made and strategies discussed as to the next day. It was decided that there would be a march beginning at l:30 from Hurt Park to the Hilton Hotel where APTA is staying. Sunday, 9:15 a.m., Hilton Hotel - Albert Engelkin, PR for APTA, met with us. We asked him if he thought the ADA bill will pass "Yes " he said. “I feel that it will. Now we must ask that ADAPT join with us to go to congress and get monies to pay for our effort, the cost being $6 billion. This is a 20-year plan. Now we must come up with a marketing plan." Received press packet and pass with very little difficulty. The only problem was finding the correct elevator. We got a few strange looks entering and leaving the elevators, and many people were noticeably relieved to see our yellow press passes. The only comment we got from the PR director was that “APTA was a little nervous about people in wheelchairs." 11:30 Amid cries of “Access now!" "We will ride!" and "Access is a civil right!" a large flag is unfurled, with red and white stripes and stars on a background of blue that form the shape of a wheelchair. The march to the Hilton begins. lt is a long pull. Atlanta is a very hilly city, which comes as quite as a surprise because I had always envisioned it to be a rather flat place. Cries of “We will ride!" ring out along the way as approximately 200 people make the long haul to the Hilton. When we reach the front of the line and look down the street, we see a four-block-long procession of bumper to bumper wheelchairs. l spoke with four different police officers and was given an estimate of between l8 and 150 police pulling extra duty for this "parade." We reached the hotel and within minutes the barriers were in place. At that point the press was informed that NO press was being allowed inside. The question was then asked, "When will the press be allowed in?" The answer, from Major Holly of the Atlanta police, was: “That depends on the hotel." Later press members were allowed to talk to Jack Gilstrap of APTA, who stated that “there is a great deal of opposition to the ADA bill." NO ARRESTS were made. Monday, Sept. 25, 11 a.m.—At the Hilton Hotel, Secretary Samuel Skinner gave a rousing speech. He said they had completed the outreach portion of their policy, that the needs and problems of the population concerning transportation were discussed, and that they had spoken with citizens and businessmen alike and that early January was the projected time for the policy to be released. "We must look at the forest rather than the trees." The first priority is that 40 percent of the unemployed are in the cities, the second priority is finding a way to get people to jobs. “There is a greater need for state and local moneys,” he said. “[The ADA] is not a new issue, but an issue that has been around too long. We need mainstream access as soon as possible. There has been a lot of give and take. It's not perfect, but we support the legislation. "l ask how can we achieve our goal of total access? We must find a way to make it happen. We need to be concerned about dollars, but this legislation is not a sham or a shell. Access for personal and business reasons is our goal. "Why should a skilled worker be left at home because we are not smart enough to get them to work?" Bob and I chase Skinner through the kitchen area after his speech and catch him as he is getting into the elevator. As we were attending the meeting at the Hilton, people had gotten into the Federal Building and blocked it off with 125 people inside. Tuesday, Sept. 26, 7 a.m.-By executive order President Bush asked that blankets, food and cots be brought into the Federal Building to accommodate the protesters. No arrests were made. Amid chants of "Access now!" and horns blasting, protesters who have been up all night block doors into the Federal Building. 12:50 p.m.—ADAPT members capture the elevators. 1:50 p.m. - l have been told that they are trying to get the President's office on the phone. 2:01 p.m. - Police ask for cooperation to get a meeting set up. 2:07 p.m. - People are meeting with UMPTA now. 2:15 p.m.- Agreement has been reached . . . no arrests have been made. (See text reprinted elsewhere in paper.) 12:45-4:30 p.m.—Went down to the cafeteria. At that time elevators were again shut off and we could not get b[ack] to the first floor lobby. 4:30 p.m.—Maintenance personnel turn elevators back on. 4:45 p.m.—Back to the hotel. Wednesday, Sept. 27—Chanting "We will ride!" 27 people were arrested at the Greyhound Terminal after blocking and chaining themselves to buses. They were taken to jail in a lift-equipped bus and released on their own personal recognizance. Criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct were the charges filed. The bus station and buses were in turmoil for five hours, starting from 3:30 when the protest began. Thursday, Sept. 28 - Home!! Photo 2: In a low-ceilinged room with folding partitions pushed back the big group of ADAPT folks is gathered, facing approximately in a circle. Wade Blank is standing on a chair or something so he is above the crowd, with his right hand held up, he is speaking. Behind him Lincoln is standing. In front Bernard Baker is looking over his shoulder at the camera. Kate Jackson has her back to the camera as do many others in the room. Through these people you can see Mike Auberger's head and someone else's head. A line of people sit across from Wade. There are a couple dozen people visible in the meeting. Caption: Everyone thought it was a joke when 35 people started ADAPT. - ADAPT (568)
METRO Magazine March/April 1991 This article is on 568, 555,551 and 547 and is included here in its entirety for ease of reading. Disabilities Act Forces Sweeping Transit Changes Public, private operators must comply with new ADA law. Uncle Sam hustles to fine tune countless provisions. By Lenny Levine The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will force sweeping changes on the transit industry, both public and private, and the battle to implement it is just being joined. When President Bush signed ADA into law last July shortly after overwhelming approval by Congress, it was the culmination of a decade-long struggle by advocates for the 43 million handicapped Americans and others to provide equal access for the disabled. The law affects transit buses, passenger trains, motorcoaches, stations and how the people who run them do business. Much is known about the law. Indeed, many in transit have long anticipated its provisions and made pieces of their operations “accessible,” the operative word. More, however, is not known. A slew of federal agencies is tuning the law. The name of the tune will unfold with time. What is known is this: Public agencies must make accessible all new vehicles purchased after last Aug. 25. Transit systems buying used vehicles must demonstrate “a good faith effort" to get accessible vehicles. Agencies that remanufacture vehicles to extend their life at least five years must make them accessible. All criteria, much of which has yet to be spelled out, must be implemented regardless of cost. All that also applies to private operators contracting with public agencies. There is some wiggle room, however. Waivers may be obtained in certain cases. That, too, will be spelled out as ADA is further refined. Motorcoach operators have more wiggle room, years of it. ADA says small private operators have six years after enactment of the law to become accessible, large operators, seven. But there begins the bureaucratic snafu. “What ‘small’ and ‘large’ mean haven't even been defined for us yet," said Steve Sprague, vice president for governmental affairs of the United Bus Owners of America (UBOA). He said “large” will probably be defined as Interstate Commerce Commission Class I operators. But the definition is a long way off. That definition — and countless other details that will govern the motorcoach industry —— will come from an old friend of bus folk. It is, ta da: THE STUDY. ”The study was mandated by ADA to govern the motorcoach industry. It is to be conducted by a broad-based committee of government, industry and technical people and advocates for the disabled over three years. Then the secretary of transportation reviews it for a year, and public comment is collected after that. Problem is, the study’s birth is overdue, wrapped up in Washington's womb of bureaucracy. Sprague, a member of the study’s committee, explained the delay like this: The committee is to be set up by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), an arm of Congress. OTA has never conducted such a study. And Congress has not yet given OTA money to do the study, although “the powers that be at OTA are trying to get the money." Sprague predicted the end result of the study will be that “overall, access must be provided for the disabled" by private operators. That could take many forms, Sprague said: There could be a subsidized pool of over-the-road vehicles regionally; the public fleet could be subcontracted to private operators; and, of course, private operators could make their vehicles accessible, one way or another. QUOTE highlighted from text: "It's a good thing we were given time to get things done" —Steve Sprague Charter law prevents public agencies from doing charter business if private charter buses are available, Sprague said, and it will remain so, for now. And there’s still the definition of what “access” means. UMTA is drafting rules and regulations. And the federal Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board has been holding hearings around the nation and must publish a final rule by April 26 on access to buildings and terminals, but not buses. In the meantime, while waiting for the federal government to define "access," Sprague said the secretary of transportation cannot demand wheelchair lifts on motorcoaches, but can only say buses must be accessible; that could be lifts, ramps or free assistance in boarding. “So it doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a bunch of new lifts," Sprague said, “because the secretary could not demand physical changes in equipment while the studies are under way. He can just say, ‘Don't discriminate.”’ With all the expected changes due, Sprague said, “It’s a good thing that we were given time to get things together.” If private operators have a few years to get things together, public transit agencies face Armageddon July 26. That’s when UMTA publishes a final rule on access. The notice on the rule will be published in March, said Richard Centner, UMTA director of public affairs, and there will be 60 days for public comment. Included in this complicated rulemaking process is input from federal agencies previously mentioned, plus the Federal Railroad Administration, Justice Department and other agencies within the Department of Transportation. An interagency task force has been formed, Centner said, to make sure all segments of the bureaucracy are on the same track. APTA recently was cosponsor of a seminar on accessibility, and is collecting data. For more information, phone Deborah Dubin at 202/ 898-4098. Transit agencies around the nation have long been providing service to the disabled, be it with paratransit, demand-responsive service or accessible buses. Some were doing it before ADA became a buzzword, others in anticipation of it. The Rapid Transit District in Los Angeles, for example, recently celebrated a decade of accessible service to the disabled. In 1974 the RTD became the first transit agency in the nation to begin buying all new buses with wheelchair lifts. “Today, 97 percent of RTD’s bus fleet of more than 2,600 buses are equipped with a wheelchair lift, and in the next couple of years the entire fleet will be lift equipped," said RTD General Manager Alan F. Pegg. Three percent, or 40,000, of RT D’s 1.3 million daily riders are disabled. Wheelchair boardings average 400 a day. In 1986 half the proceeds from a San Francisco Muni senior citizen fare increase were earmarked for paratransit. In 1989 San Francisco voters followed the lead of other voters in the area and approved a local sales tax increase for transportation, with eight percent of it set aside for paratransit. The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority in Ohio recently began a program to help visually-impaired bus passengers. Cards are provided displaying the passenger’s bus route in a number large enough for a driver to see. The Central Ohio Transit Authority and a local group will share a $42,000 grant from Project ACTION to create and demonstrate cooperative methods for improving accessible public transportation. A local steering committee has proposed: mobility fairs where passengers can get training in using lifts; training for drivers; tapes to train passengers to become independent when using the transit system; and hosts and hostesses on the agency’s 41 new lift-equipped buses to help new riders. In addition to changing the face of transportation, ADA is also spawning a host of products. New wheelchair lifts and securement devices are only the beginning. One new product, Luminator’s large-format GTI Matrix Sign, is nearly double the size of the company’s MAX sign system. The new system has 16 rows by 112 columns and can display characters 9.5 inches high on a single-line message or two lines of characters 4.1 inches high. Luminator, of Plano, Texas, promotes the system as beneficial to riders who have limited vision. Remember ADAPT? “We've gotten everything we wanted in public transit,” said Wade Blank, founder of a group called ADAPT. Blank’s group was a driving force behind ADA and he and his colleagues have been a fixture for years demonstrating at APTA conventions. “I missed the intrigue of this year's convention," Blank admitted. ADAPT is still active in the rulemaking process for buses and trains, working with UMTA on an advisory task force.... Blank said, though, there is still some work to be done in the private sector. He said he is negotiating with Greyhound to allow a wheelchair on its buses instead of stowing the wheelchair and having an attendant put the wheelchair passenger in a regular bus seat. Blank also noted that it might not cost much more to build all buses from scratch with wheelchair lifts. He said, “We have agreed to accept the regulatory process and accept the five or six years" it will take to implement ADA for private operators, but “we really don't need five or six years. "The writing is on the wall." Although Blank may miss the intrigue of bus conventions, his group is taking on a new public giant. The group has changed its name from Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit to Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. ADAPT is tackling the nursing home industry, which Blank said gets $19 billion yearly from Medicaid. Blank would take S5 billion of that and put attendants in homes of the elderly to care for them, thus keeping them out of nursing homes. Many questions remain on implementing ADA They involve more than just making buses and trains accessible to wheelchairs. Are elderly people, for example, considered “disabled?” There will be detailed regulations devised to accommodate the blind and the deaf. That could include special markings on vehicles and terminals. Route signs, handrails and fare boxes must be “accessible.” What about securement devices? And ADA specifies new employment provisions. Beginning July 26, 1992, employers with 25 or more employees cannot discriminate against qualified people with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, promotion, firing, pay and job training. The employer must also make “reasonable accommodation" to disabled workers such as making existing facilities accessible, job restucturing, part-time or modified work hours and the provision of qualified readers or interpreters. On July 26, 1994, the provisions extend to employers with 15 or more workers. Transit people “are concerned about implementing ADA without cutting service," said an industry insider. “People candidly ask what will happen it they don’t (implement ADA)? lt will be a given there will he a lot of lawsuits if they don't, but we're all working together on this." "... in the next couple of years the entire fleet will be llft equlpped." -- Alan F. Pegg PHOTO: Close up of Wade Blank. He is wearing tinted, wire-rimmed, round glasses and his long hair falls from the part in the middle of his head. Caption reads: Blank. PHOTO: Close up on sign on the front of a bus reads "FLXIBLE" and an access symbol on one side. Caption reads: Luminaior's new matrix sign with letters 9.5 inches high is easier to read for passengers with vision problems. - ADAPT (504)
Court Says Yes Again Bush agrees to back lifts, allows ADAPT to occupy federal building [This is part 2 of the story that starts on ADAPT 508, the full text of the story appears on 508] - ADAPT (516)
The Atlanta Constitution MONDAY SEPTEMBER 25 1989 Photo (Dianne Laakso/Staff): A long line of ADAPT protesters marching single file. Above their heads is a very large banner reading "ADAPT WE WILL RIDE." The first young man in line is wearing a sign across his knees reading ADAPT or Perish. Caption: Disabled demonstrators roll down Peachtree Street Sunday en route to the Atlanta Hilton Hotel on Courtland Street, site of an American Public Transit Association convention. The disabled group wants removal of all barriers to public transportation. [Headline] Disabled Demand Accessible Public Transportation Protest Directed at Mass Transit Conference Here By Sandra Mclntosh, Staff Writer About 100 disabled people from across the United States and Canada, most of them in wheelchairs, protested in front of the Hilton Hotel in Atlanta Sunday at the start of a convention of mass transit authorities. Stephanie Thomas, a spokeswoman for the group calling themselves ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation), said the protesters are angry over the transit group's continued opposition to federal legislation that would prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. The protest was timed to coincide with the opening of the convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA), a trade group representing a majority of public transit systems in North America. The bill, known as the Americans With Disabilities Act, would make it illegal to discriminate against disabled people in employment and places of public accommodations, would assure those with speech or hearing impairments of special equipment allowing them to communicate with anyone, and would remove barriers in transportation. It is the latter part that upsets the members of the APTA. "We assume it will become law, and if it does we'll implement it," said Albert Engelken, APTA’s deputy executive director. "But that doesn't mean we have to be happy about it." Mr. Engelken said he does not want to sound cold-hearted but with shrinking federal transportation funds it sometimes does not make sense to use those funds to install seldom-used wheelchair lifts on buses. "We‘re not harsh people, but our job is to offer the most people the most mobility for the best possible price," Mr. Engelken said. Ms. Thomas said her group does not expect the transit systems to refit all their buses immediately, nor make all the train stations immediately available to the disabled. "We realize it's a longtime goal, and we're willing to wait. We know the costs involved." Ms. Thomas said as other members crowded around, “All we're asking for is a commitment that they‘re willing to do these things and they won't give us that." The protest, which closed part of Courtland Street. lasted about four hours, and was watched by nearly as many police officers as there were protesters. Police Maj. W W Holley said no arrests were made. ADAPT members had a permit to hold Sunday's protest, but Major Holley said no other permits have been issued. The group said it plans to stay until Thursday when the convention ends, and may protest again.