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Accueil / Albums / Mot-clé protesters 27
Date d'ajout
- ADAPT (701)
Title: Protesters hit Illinois center in wheelchairs By Neil Steinberg, Staff Writer Disabled protesters from around the country used their wheelchairs to block access to the State of Illinois Center on Wednesday, the fourth day in their call for state funds to be directed toward home care instead of nursing homes. “The people united will never be defeated," chanted about 200 protesters, blocking elevators, escalators and stairways at the building. “No more cuts.” There was no violence and no arrests, though protesters did scuffle briefly with police outside the governor's office, where they demanded a meeting with Gov. Edgar, who is in Springfield. Government business slowed to a near halt as state workers crowded the rings of balconies at the center, watching the chanting wheelchair activists on the main floor. Although employees could move among the upper floors by using the unblocked exterior staircases, it was often difficult to reach the ground floor. Two employees from the lieutenant governor's office found themselves trapped in a fire stairway when their attempt to take a garage elevator out of the building failed. “They captured the car elevator,” a maintenance man told the two young workers. Swearing, they tried another route. “This is starting to inconvenience me," one said. Tourists and school `groups` visiting the building got a surprise introduction to special-interest advocacy. An architecture club from Reading, Pa., here to appreciate the 16-story curving edifice designed by Helmut Jahn, stopped to reprimand protesters for keeping them off the elevators. State workers, some of whom literally climbed over the wheelchairs of protesters, also put in a word or two. “You are a lawless mob,“ a worker for the Department of Rehabilitative Services told a group of protesters blocking the elevator. “They have a right to protest," the worker said. “They don’t have a right to interfere with our lives." PHOTO by SUN-TIMES /Al Podgorski: A man walks up escalator steps with another man in his arms, as two other men stand on the side of the steps. Below on the floor level, a mass of people in wheelchairs, and a few standing, crowd the entire rest of the scene. Some are wearing ADAPT t-shirts. A security guard stands at the bottom of the escalator to one side. Caption: Joe Potter of Denver carries a men who usually uses a wheelchair up a stopped escalator at the State of Illinois Center on Wednesday. The protest by disabled activists was the fourth in four days. - ADAPT (642)
PHOTO by Tom Olin: Tim Cook stands amid a mass of ADAPT folks in wheelchairs, standing with signs and without. People are milling around an in the distant background are police cars and other vehicles and a grassy hill with trees and shrubs. No one is especially looking at Tim. He is wearing a white dress shirt, tan pants and a bright red necktie. His hands are on his hips and in his left hand he is holding his jacket and briefcase. In the crowd behind Tim you can see Gwen Jackson, Julie Nolan, Laura Hershey, Frank McColm and many others, and a TV reporter and camera are interviewing someone. Tim is the attorney who represented ADAPT in our case against DOT (ADAPT v. Burnley). This picture was apparently taken in Baltimore, but since Tim was so integral to the case it is included here. Everyone, all the hot shot disability lawyers, said Tim could not win this case -- but he did. [Tim is one of my heroes. -- Stephanie Thomas] - ADAPT (640)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1990 Disabled protesters seize college building (This article continues in ADAPT 632, the entire text is included here for ease of reading.) PHOTO by Johnny Crawford/Staff: A thin man, Claude Holcomb, sits in a dark motorized chair in front of a huge memorial to Martin Luther King. He sits at an angle in his chair, in a button down striped shirt, his knees wide apart and thin rigid hands resting on his arm rests. Behind him the white memorial reads In memory of Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 - 1968, Outstanding alumnus of Morehouse College ..., World famous leader of the non-violent movement ..., Distinguished winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. From Morehouse College he launched his humanitarian pilgrimage to create the beloved community and for that purpose he moved... the classroom and his pulpit ... into immortality. ...Baptist Convention ... President ... General Secretary... College. Claude's chair blocks the view of some of the memorial's verbiage. You can see the push handle and part of the wheel of another chair next to him. Caption reads: Claude Holcomb at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial at Morehouse College. Protesters compared their struggle to the civil rights leader's. Morehouse president’s office blocked By Ben Smith III, Staff writer Saying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would smile on their protest, nearly 200 disabled activists on Monday seized the administration building on the campus where he was educated. The demonstrators, members of Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), a national advocacy group for the disabled, took over Gloster Hall at Morehouse College in southwest Atlanta and barricaded the school president’s office. “This is a college that has always valued human rights,” said Michael Auberger, a co-founder of the group. “This is another minority that is trying to gain its human rights.” The protest was intended to force Morehouse President Leroy Keith to arrange a meeting with Louis Sullivan, secretary of Health and Human Services and an alumnus and former dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine. Group members were angry at Dr. Sullivan for not responding to their invitation to meet with them although he spoke at an AIDS symposium in Atlanta last week. “Morehouse Medical College invited him to speak. He came. This group invited him to speak on an issue as serious as AIDS. He chose to ignore the issue," said Mr. Auberger. More than a dozen wheelchair-bound activists rolled into Dr. Keith's office before noon Monday and barricaded the door. Scores of additional protesters followed, chanting, “We want Sullivan" and "We shall overcome,” and blocked the front door and hallways. Late in the afternoon, Dr. Keith exited through a rear door, and many other employees left the building. College officials said they were puzzled that the demonstrators took their protest to the Morehouse College administration building instead of the Morehouse School of Medicine, which is a separate institution. Richard Ammons, a school spokesman, said Dr. Keith had contacted Dr. Sullivan, who said he would not meet with the protesters. But the regional director of Department of Health and Human Services agreed to meet with demonstrators in his office today, Mr. Ammons added. “We as an institution are powerless to do anything other than [contact Dr. Sullivan],” Mr. Ammons told the protesters. “And we are asking you to leave at this time." Lee Jackson, a demonstrator, replied, “We’re going to wait right here for Sullivan.” At least 50 demonstrators said they planned to remain in the building until Dr. Sullivan meets with them or they are arrested. School officials said the college was reluctant to have the protesters arrested. The protesters said they chose to come to Georgia, in part, because the state is one of the worst at caring for the disabled. Mark Johnson of Alpharetta a spokesman for the Georgia branch of ADAPT, said the state offers no state-funded care for disabled people outside of nursing homes and no matching supplements for federal disability benefits. Most states offer such assistance, Mr. Johnson added. Protesters also complained that residential care facilities can be opened in Georgia with nothing more than a a business license. Some students who were locked out of Gloster Hall complained about the protesters, but others called their objections “hypocritical” because of the school's civil rights tradition. "Anytime you're dealing with basic human rights, protests may inconvenience some people," said Otis Moss, 20, a Morehouse philosophy and religion major. “But you have to understand that ultimately it's going to benefit all." Staff writer Lyle Harris contributed to this report. Photo by Johnny Crawford/Staff: The front of an ADAPT march. On the left side are the ADAPT marchers, most in wheelchairs, on the right, a line of parked cars at the side of the street the group is marching down. First in line is Lee Jackson in a white ADAPT sweatshirt and in a manual chair. He is African American and has his head shaved completely bald; he looks very intense. He is being pushed by Babs Johnson. Behind them is Mike Auberger in his motorized wheelchair with his left leg fully extended with foot in a protective boot; he's wearing a black ADAPT shirt still with the no steps logo. Behind him is Clayton Jones wearing the black ADAPT shirt and in a manual chair. Behind him you can see Frank McComb being pushed by Lori Eastwood. As the line snakes back from there you can see more people in the black T-shirts but their faces become less distinct until the whole group fades away. Caption reads: More than 150 advocates for the handicapped move down Westview Drive at Morehouse College. At the front of the line is Lee Jackson. There is a second photo in the text of the article, a close up of an African American man's face. He is wearing a suit and tie. Below it is the caption: Leroy Keith. - ADAPT (584)
Standard-Times New Bedford 3/06/86 [Headline] Want Better Access PHOTO (The Associated Press): Five protesters in wheelchairs sit a line, with some others behind them, in front of a large building. At the far end one holds up a large dark ADAPT banner with white lettering and the access logo. Three of the others have very large posters in their laps. The one closest reads "[something] kinder gentler nation." All are dressed in warm clothes and look away from the building. Caption reads: Members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation demonstrate outside the U.S. Department of Transportation office in Cambridge Friday in support of a ruling that would mean more buses that are accessible to the disabled. The two-hour demonstration in raw weather Friday was one of several in various parts of the country by disabled groups. - ADAPT (576)
LOS ANGELES TIMES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1990 Washington, DC Officers Arrest 104 Disabled Protesters Police in Washington said they arrested 104 disabled demonstrators who chanted slogans and chained their wheelchairs together in the Capitol in a demand for quick passage of a bill guaranteeing their civil rights. Those who could walk were handcuffed, and some were strapped into their wheelchairs by police. Those arrested were charged with two misdemeanors, unlawful entry and demonstrating within the Capitol police said. - ADAPT (452)
PHOTO by Tom Olin: A Sparks policeman a man in a white hat pile on the lap of a protester, also in a cap, who is sitting on the ground by the glass walls or doors of the Nugget Casino. Behind them, against the glass, Barb Guthrie turns her face and body away, in an attempt to protect herself from this tussle. Behind this group three other police are bending forward, presumably over another protester on the ground. Behind them another policeman is bending down toward someone else. Someone's arm is reaching from off camera toward the policemen's backs. At the very back of the photo and in the reflection in the glass you can see a small crowd watching. Legs and feet and one hand of another protester on the ground are visible in the front of the picture. - ADAPT (415)
St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/13/88 Activists Derail Transit Group’s Welcoming Plans By Mark Schlinkmann, Regional Political Correspondent Officials have moved the site of a convention's welcoming ceremony Sunday night away from the Gateway Arch visitors' center because of fears of a protest by disabled-rights activists. Organizers of a transit officials' convention have moved the reception site to the Omni Hotel, the site of the convention. Better security can be provided at the hotel, a spokesman for the Bi-State Development Agency, Thomas Sturgess, said Thursday. Because most other activities connected with the five-day convention will be at the hotel, Sturgess said, "The participants already will be there." More than 600 people from across the country are expected to attend the convention, a regional conference of the American Public Transit Association. As many as 150 others affiliated with Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation — known as ADAPT — are expected to be here to protest the organization's stand on wheelchair lifts for buses. Police say the protest group, including many in wheelchairs themselves, has a reputation for seeking arrest to dramatize their cause. Tactics in other cities have included blocking roadways and chaining themselves to buses, Bi-State officials have said. ADAPT wants the Transit Association to endorse 100 percent accessibility to buses and other public transportation for the disabled through the installation of wheelchair lifts by all its member systems. Disabled people should have the right to as much access to taxpayer-financed transportation as able-bodied people enjoy, ADAPT officials argue. "Our demand is that the association change its policy," said the Rev. Wade Blank of Denver, an ADAPT founder. The association "will not have their parties anywhere in the United States without people in wheelchairs making them inaccessible." Transit association officials respond by saying that although they support access for the disabled, wheelchair lifts are not the only way to provide it. Jack R. Gilstrap, executive vice-president of the Transit Association, said Thursday that about a third of the nation's transit systems use lifts on buses; a third have begun using vans to provide door-to-door service for disabled persons; and a third use a combination. The vans have a higher rate of use than wheelchair lifts on standard buses and so are less costly, he said. "We believe the local community ought to be deciding how this will be provided," Gilstrap said. "There really are some serious business and tax-payer considerations." ADAPT complains that "paratransit vans, which usually must be reserved in advance, segregate the disabled from the general public. "It's very similar to apartheid," Blank said. In St Louis, the Bi-State transit system is using a combination — developed in conjunction with a local committee of disabled persons. Almost 120 new standard buses equipped with wheelchair lifts are being purchased between now and early 1989. In addition, the system's "Call-A-Ride" van service for disabled people — now limited to parts of St. Louis County — will be expanded to cover all of St. Louis and St. Louis County in November. At that time, Bi-State also will begin issuing scrip that can be used by disabled persons to take taxis in certain circumstances. ADAPT officials have said the organization is satisfied with Bi-State's plans. But they have complained that Bi-State is allowing two of its buses to be used as paddy-wagons on call in the case of any arrests at the demonstrations. - ADAPT (394)
PHOTO (by Jean Goupil): Protesters lined up along police barricades outside a large building, in the forground two women and a man try to pass a wheelchair over the barricade, and a policeman tries to block them. To the left of this group a man in a wheelchair (Randy Horton?) looks on as Reverend Willie of Chicago talks with another officer over the barricades. Behind them are lines of other protesters and police officers on either side of the barricades. La Presse, Montreal, Lundi 3 Octobre 1988 (In French) A L'ASSAUT DU REINE ELIZABETH Photo: Jean Goupil, La Presse Une centaine de handicapes in fauteuil roulant ont tenet hier de forcer les barrages policiers a l'entree de l'hotel Reine Elizabeth, ou se tient le congres de l'Association americane des transports publics. Bilan de la journee: une trentaine d'arrestations. Les manifestants reclamalent que les autobus soient a mettre d'utiliser les transports en commun. Page A3 La Presse, Montreal, Monday, October 3, 1988 (In French) AT THE ASSAULT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH Photo: Jean Goupil, La Presse A hundred handicapped in wheelchairs yesterday tried to force the police checkpoints at the entrance of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where the congress of the American Public Transit Association is being held. Assessment of the day: some thirty arrests. Protesters claim that buses must be put to use transporting all the public. Page A3 - ADAPT (372)
A large crowd of protesters fill most of the street in front of a large city building. Most are in wheelchairs but there are walking people there too, as well as camera people and other media types. In a corner of the foreground a group of police officers in dark uniforms and caps, cluster in formation facing the protesters. The protesters are ignoring them. George Cooper (in a manual chair and white hat) talks with two other wheelchair users. Behind them you can see left shoulder of George Roberts (in green T-shirt) being pushed by someone. A woman in a wheelchair with a child is behind him, and behind her and a man in a yellow t-shirt is Jim Parker with a white headband, back to the camera. To his left is Don Clubb in a white T-shirt. Behind a man in a purple t-shirt, over his head you can see Kathy Thomas with short grey hair, and beside her is Loretta Dufriend in a green shirt. - ADAPT (333)
Photo Tom Olin: A large group of ADAPT protesters line three sides of a open square. A man in a cowboy hat, denim vest and manual wheelchair (Joe Carle) rolls across the middle of the open area. In the foreground a man in a motorized wheelchair (Mark Johnson) talks with someone just out of the picture. In the group around the edges are (left to right): Loretta Dufriend, Gil Casarez, Tom Pugh, Bernard Baker, Renata Conrad, Alfredo Aguirre?, and Greg Buchannan, among others. - ADAPT (299)
Detroit Free Press 10/6/86 PHOTOs by JONN COLLIER, Free Press PHOTO 1: A large group of posters in a line that almost looks like a pile, are behind a woman in a manual wheelchair being pushed up a curb or slope. Two people are helping her up. One holds a poster which reads "Stop the war against the disabled! [something] Congress". In the crowd behind are other large signs, some unreadable, and a very large one in the middle is partially readable and says "...for the disabled not for war!..." PHOTO 2: People in wheelchairs appear to be fanning out in an intersection with large city buildings in the far background. Between the three people in wheelchairs in the front you can see a line of other folks in wheelchairs across the intersection. Caption reads: Disabled demonstrators move through downtown Detroit, carrying signs and chanting “We will wide," in protest of the lack of wheelchair lifts on the nation's buses and trains. Title: Handicappers protest at transit convention By BOB CAMPBELL, Free Press Staff Writer About 150 militant disabled people, chanting "We will ride" and carrying signs in a procession from Tiger Stadium to the Renaissance Center, Sunday protested the lack of wheelchair lifts on the nation's buses and trains. At least 40 Detroit police officers in scout cars and on motorcycles kept the demonstrators — most of whom were in wheelchairs — on sidewalks along the two-mile route. After a request from Detroit Police Chief William Hart, who cited illegal actions of the protesters in other cities, Detroit's City Council last week withdrew a permit that would have allowed the demonstrators to parade through the streets. At one point, police insisted the protesters go through a puddle instead of using the street. At the Renaissance Center, the end of the procession, about 2,300 conferees were gathering for this week's American Public Transit Association national convention The demonstrators, who are at odds with the association on the accessibility issue, were kept away from the entrance to the Westin Hotel. See DiSABLED, Page 15A Title for part 2: Militant handicappers decry poor bus access Text box insert: Members of the group have been arrested at demonstrations at other transit meetings. DISABLED, from Page 1A HOTEL SECURITY was tight, and visitors had to identity themselves to guards before being admitted. The protesters — members of Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation — say public buses and trains should be equipped with mechanical wheelchair lifts. Members of the group have been arrested at demonstrations at other transit association meetings after chaining themselves to buses and stopping traffic. "In the ’50s, a lot of blacks were on the back of the bus." said Michael Parker of Peoria, ILL. “We still can't get on the bus." Several members of the group told reporters there would be other protests against transit association members. Wheelchair lifts were required on buses briefly in the late l970s. But a transit association lawsuit led to a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a federal requirement for lifts on all buses overstepped the intent of equal access legislation. said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice-president of the association. Most local transit agencies provide transportation to handicapped persons using mini-buses in services such as Dial-A-Ride. Gilstrap said. "The vast majority of people in wheelchairs prefer Dial-A-Ride or demand service," he said. “it runs 10-, 15-, 20-1 over lifts on every bus." Gilstrap said it is cheaper to offer special transportation service for wheelchair users than to adapt all public systems to wheelchairs. The subway authority in Washington D.C. spent between $50 million and $60 million to build elevators to allow wheelchair access tor "35 to 40 people a day," he said. MEMBERS OF the handicapper group complain of disparate quality of Dial-A-Ride systems among various cities. and they cite a requirement that rides must be arranged 24 hours in advance. Bill Bolte, 55, of Los Angeles, said: "l was a law-abiding citizen before l realized how oppressive society was getting toward handicapped people. The problem ls. we depress people because of the way we look. They don't want us around." Long-time civil rights activist Rosa Parks canceled her plans to join the ADAPT members, citing tactics that would "embarrass the city‘s guests and cripple the city's present transportation system." said to her assistant, Elaine Steele. Leo Caner, chairman of the 21 member Michigan Commission on Handicapper Concerns, said: "The general public has to be sensitized to handicappers. But getting the people sensitized by getting run over by a bus is not the way to do it." Free Pres: Special Writer Margaret Trimmer contributed In this report. - ADAPT (269)
The Cincinnati Post Tuesday, May 20, 1986 Lighthouse logo of Scripps Howard and the motto: "Give light and the people will find their own way." Editor Paul F. Knue, Editorial Page Editor Claudia Winkler, Managing Editor J. Stephen Fagan, Associate Editor James L. Adams 125 East Court Street, Cincinnati. OH 45202 (513)352-2000 Editorials Title: Buses and the disabled Shades of the civil rights movement returned to Cincinnati yesterday when members of ADAPT, which stands for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, interfered with the operation of Queen City Metro buses. One latched onto a wheel well, and two others boarded and refused to leave. The protesters say members of the American Public Transit Association, who are meeting here this week, are moving slowly or not at all toward making all buses and trains fully accessible for the handicapped. They point to Metro, which has many buses without wheelchair lifts and 87 with lifts that it refuses to operate, as a microcosm of the problem nationwide. Some may condemn the protesters’ tactics of interrupting normal transit service, albeit by relatively non-violent means. The larger question, however, is whether the transit systems are going out of their way to leave the handicapped at curbside. That's certainly not the case with Metro. Metro has contracted with a private company to provide door-to-door (more accurately, curb-to-curb) service for the handicapped within Cincinnati. The system isn't perfect, but it is growing. Complaints abounds that scheduling the Access vans is difficult, and Metro has failed to meet a five-year goal of providing van service to all of Hamilton County, says general manager Tony Kouneski. The problem, here and elsewhere, is one of money. ADAPT wants the lifts as well as the door-to-door service. It’s tough to have it both ways, especially since federal dollars for mass transit have been cut almost 25 percent by the Reagan administration. States have been hard-pressed to fill that gap, and a sales tax increase for Metro failed miserably in 1980. Kouneski says if Metro did, indeed, have an extra $350,000 for operating and maintaining the 87 wheelchair lifts, the money would be better spent on door-to-door service. That's a decision that groups such as the Greater Cincinnati Coalition of People With Disabilities and Metro's own advisory council for the handicapped should help make and implement. Members of national groups such as ADAPT, meanwhile, have made their point. They should now turn their efforts to such things as legal parades and peaceful picketing. Instead of continuing their Cincinnati protest, they should devote their energies to lobbying Washington and the legislatures to fund their full-access plan before someone is seriously injured. - ADAPT (266)
THE HANDICAPPED COLORADAN Vol.9, No. 5 Boulder Colorado December 1986 [This article continues in ADAPT 259, but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] PHOTO by Melanie Stengel, courtesy of UPI: A large heavy set man with no legs (Jerry Eubanks) sits in his manual wheelchair in front of a city bus. He has a determined and frustrated look on his face. Behind him and up against the front of the bus you can see another protester in a wheelchair (Greg Buchanan). On either side of Jerry is a uniformed officer, apparently unsure of how to proceed. One stands with his hand on this hip, the other officer is on Jerry's other side and is looking toward the first policeman, as if for guidance. caption reads: ARRESTING DISABLED PROTESTORS poses some unusual problems for police as these perplexed officers found out during the ADAPT Detroit demonstrations. Title: Doing hardtime in Cincy During the demonstrations at the regional convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) in Cincinnati this May 17 protestors were arrested. Three of them, George Cooper of Dallas, Mike Auberger of Denver, and Bob Kafka of Austin, were sentenced to 10 days in jail. Wade Blank, founder of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), said it was the first time in the history of the movement that any disabled persons had done “hard time. ” The following is Kafka's own account of that hard time. The article is reprinted from Incitement, Vol. 2, No. 3, a newspaper published by the Texas ADAPT chapters. By BOB KAFKA Wednesday, May 21, 1986 4:30 p.m.— One by one they haul us off, seventeen in all. We go through the usual procedures: giving name, address, next of kin, all our property, a list of our medications. We sign the papers, are fingerprinted and photographed. We go into the detention center for hours of waiting while the powers that be decide what to do with us. Handicapism raises its ugly head again as judge Albanese releases six ADAPT members on their own recognizance. His reason: medical problems. The real reason: he can't understand those with CP and Frank, the one blind man, freaks him out. We become the Cincinnati Eleven. 8 p.m.—Mike Montgomery, the “head keeper" at the Hamilton County, jail, has a dilemma: eleven people in wheelchairs and not one empty bed in the infirmary. Where to put us? The decision had obviously been made to keep us together and apart from the rest of the prison population. They convert a training classroom into what looks like a hospital ward without windows. Eleven WWII hospital beds are hauled in. Two guards are stationed with us at all times and, for some reason, three from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. The accessible bathroom is down the hall. At first we are guarded each time we go to empty our leg bags; soon they realize we are not going to try the “great escape." The starkness of our surroundings is stifling: ugly green concrete block walls, gray tiled floors, buzzing fluorescent lights, and two clocks on the walls always counting time and exactly how long we have been in jail. Thursday, May 22 6 a.m.- The room is quiet. Without windows the difference between night and day can only be separated by the morning eggs and the changing of the shifts. We are a curiosity to our keepers. Faces peer in the doorway all morning to look at "the handicaps." ll a.m.— The doctor and nurse arrive to evaluate our "conditions," We again list our medications and the daily supplies we need. Two bladder infections, two decubitus ulcers, one strained back, and many who need assistance dressing, showering and toileting. They leave saying everything will be taken care of. (This is not to be.) 3 p.m.- The social work staff arrive. They are here to make sure we are treated OK, we have access to the library, gym and telephone, and to take care of any crises. (Again, this is not to be.) 4:30 p.m.- Joni Wilkens, our attorney, comes to discuss how we will handle our cases. We decide to stay together and not plea bargain. 6 pm.- It is obvious by now that we are not going to get our proper medication. Substitutes for drugs they don't have don't work. Those needing Valium are told it can't be dispensed in a jail setting. George again asked, to no avail, for his raised toilet seat and "booties" to protect his feet from sores. Mike asked about his bowel program. The nurse and guards give us only blank looks. 10 p.m.—Lights out. The guards assist those who need it. By the time we leave many of them will make pretty good attendants. Friday, May 23 6 a.m.-Lonnie went to the hospital late last night. His decubitus started to bleed and they rushed him over around l a.m. He came back around 3 a.m. and remained in bed all day. 12 p.m.- Boredom is starting to set in. George is rolling back and forth in the halls. Bill is constantly talking, which helps to keep us awake during the day. We fill out commissary forms, but as Joe predicts, we never see the items ordered. Lunch arrives, Mike has the guard melt his spoon so he can feed himself. He makes them do it each meal. George R. again devours his food. E.T. is lying in bed shivering from his bladder infection. 2 p.m.- Joni arrives with her partner, after a long session with the Cincinnati judicial system. The judge and D.A. will accept a plea of disorderly conduct and a fine of $60 (2 days already served) for the eight who were charged with disorderly conduct. They would go free. Lonnie's charge of resisting arrest would be dropped, but there are no guarantees for Mike, George and me. 4 p.m.- The eight are released, Mike, George and I receive 1O days, with credit for two served. Eight days to go. 9 p.m.- The room seems empty without the other eight ADAPT members. The guards kid about us being the hardened criminals. George continues to ask for his raised toilet seat, I for my correct medication and Mike about assistance with his bowel program. Again-no response. Saturday, May 24 7 a.m.-The library, gym, and telephone are not available on weekends and holidays. Monday is Memorial Day. We realize we will not have access to these amenities until Tuesday. Very much like a hospital stay. We also realize our medical needs will not be met; however, we continue our demands that something be done so Mike and George can get the help they need with their bowel program. Security continues to relay this to the medical staff. Medical staff continues to say it is security’s responsibility. This double think has been going on four days now, with no assistance given so far. 2 p.m.— George is beginning to have adverse effects from Valium withdrawal. Mike is having more and worse spasms because the substitute medications are not working. I have no idea if the substitute antibiotic is doing any good at all. Sunday, May 25 4 p.m.-The day passes as usual. Up at 6 a.m. with breakfast of cold eggs and boiled water that had looked at a coffee bean. After lunch our daily request for medication, supplies, and bowel program assistance is duly noted in the guard’s record book, but as usual no action. Joni and Art Wademan, a minister who has been invaluable throughout the week in Cincinnati, came about 2:30 p.m. We share our concern that if we don't get some assistance one or all of us might get very ill. They go to the supervisor and suggest that if medical is not going to act, then we should be transported to a hospital. Going to a hospital for a bowel program might seem extreme, but after five days, impaction is a real possibility. To our amazement, Mike is taken down to medical and then to the hospital. A raised toilet seat is borrowed from Good Samaritan Hospital. We are finally allowed to take our medications which are brought in from the outside. Monday, May 26 Memorial Day — a quiet day, a day for reflection. If non-disabled prisoners were prevented from relieving themselves for five days, it would be considered torture. Equality is as much a farce in jail as it is out of jail, maybe more so. Cincinnati's judicial and penal systems obviously feel it is fine to use a person's disability as a means of punishing that person. Documented omissions which place disabled people in potentially life-threatening situations don't raise an eyebrow, even from the defenders of justice or the media. Reports that the jail is well-equipped to handle our needs but that we will simply be “less than comfortable" go unchallenged. The fact that we have two people who care, who spend some time and resolve our problem, only highlights the injustice to those who do not have a Joni or an Art and must suffer because of ignorance of the needs of disabled persons. Tuesday, May 27 11:30 a.m.—-The court is two blocks from the jail. They usually transport the prisoners to the court by van for security reasons. We present a problem, since the van is inaccessible. They look to a supervisor, and after a half hour the answer comes down. Let the prisoners roll to the courthouse with a deputy sheriff guarding each of us. Babs, Tisha, Reverend McCracken, Art and Vivian (friends and family) are waiting in the hall. The guards hurry us into the courtroom. The media is out in force. As we wait, we wonder what the D.A. will do. Joni enters the room and her face is blank. Rubenstein, the D.A., is his usual arrogant self. Joni states that the six days served are both punishment and deterrent. Rubenstein surprisingly agrees, but asks the court to get our statement. Had we learned our lessons? He wants us to grandstand for the cameras and to get the judge mad at us again. Instead, we suppress the urge to yell "WE WILL RlDE" and simply state we will be returning to our homes and work. Cincinnati will be only a memory. Judge Sundeman accepts the motion to mitigate. We are free. 2 p.m.—We are sitting in Skyline Chili, a local restaurant, and talking over the last six days. Needless to say much of the talk is also about Detroit, October 5-9, our next battle with APTA. Spending six days in jail makes one think about commitment. Detroit will take commitment from us all, but . . . WE WILL RIDE! PHOTO 1: A close up of a man (Mike Auberger) with shoulder length dark hair and a short beard and mustache. He is wearing a light color sweater and shirt with a collar, and the chest strap from his wheelchair is visible. He looks very serious. Caption reads: MIKE AUBERGER Back in the slammer again. PHOTO 2: At least 4 policemen standing around a manual wheelchair in which someone (Bob Kafka) is being bent forward and something weird is happening with a pole (the picture is dark and hard to make out.) Caption reads: THE AUTHOR being arrested in L.A. - ADAPT (265)
The Cincinnati Enquirer Monday, May 19, 1986 Comment/A-7 PHOTO by Jim Callaway/The Cincinnati Enquirer: Three protesters in wheelchairs form a diagonal line across the picture. On the right in the foreground a heavy set man (Jerry Eubanks) sits in his manual wheelchair, a cab of soda in his right hand. He is a double amputee below the hips, and is wearing a look of concentration, and appears to be chanting. His right hand is resting on the back of a motorized wheelchair to his right. In that chair is a slim man (Greg Buchanan) who is wearing a very large sign across his legs that reads "A Part of NOT Apartheid." (The message is a bit obscured by the curve of the sign around his legs.) He is also wearing a light colored ADAPT T-shirt. To Greg's right and a bit further away and behind is a third man in a chair, a slim man with dark hair and a beard (John Short). He also has a sign on his legs but the quality of the picture makes it unreadable. Caption reads: Members of ADAPT picket in front ol the Westin Hotel Sunday afternoon. Gary Eubanks of Chicago, right, Greg Buchanan of Colorado Springs and John Short of Denver were among them. Title: Protesters converge on city Disabled demand full access to public transportation BY KAREN ROEBUCK The Cincinnati Enquirer Former Cincinnatian Mike Auberger said he left the city because of its lack of accessibility to the handicapped and because "the mentality toward people with disabilities is really 19th century at best." Auberger, who now lives in Denver, is one of about 75 members of ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) in Cincinnati Sunday through Wednesday demanding full accessibility to public transportation systems for the handicapped. But the approximately 50 members of ADAPT demonstrating in front of the Westin Hotel, where the American Public Transit Association (APTA) is holding its regional convention, were denied access to the hotel Sunday. "The only people they're stopping are people in a wheelchair; that's blatantly discriminatory," said Bob Kafka, of Austin, Texas and ADAPT community organizer. Cincinnati Police Capt. Dale Menkhaus, Operational Support, said public easements can be barricaded to any group that might disrupt the hotel, which is private property. ADAPT members publicly stated they would try to disrupt the conference and have attempted to do so at other APTA conferences, police and Westin officials said. The hotel's first priority is to its guests, in this case the APTA, said Larry Alexander, general manager of the Westin. The ADAPT group blocked entrances and exits to the hotel for a short time Sunday, and rode their wheelchairs in downtown streets, somewhat disrupting traffic to the Reds-Pirates game, Menkhaus said, but did not cause any major problems. Armed with signs, T-shirts and badges, the group chanted slogans expressing their desire to ride public transportation systems. Some of the signs read, "Buses won't roll without us," and "We have a dream. . . We will ride." Kafka said ADAPT members will most likely try to stop some Queen City Metro buses. In other cities, members have sometimes chained themselves to the vehicles. Murray Bond, assistant general manager of Queen City Metro, said if ADAPT members try to stop the buses, the drivers will put the vehicles into park and let the police move the demonstrators. Menkhaus said ADAPT members will be arrested if they break the law. Despite the barricades, ADAPT members also will try to get into the convention, Kafka said, to get a resolution requiring full accessibility for the handicapped onto the convention floor. Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of APTA, said the executive committee and board of directors have discussed voting on such a resolution, but decided that decision should be made at the local level. Every system in the country has some way of transporting the handicapped, he said, which was decided upon with the advice of local agencies for the handicapped. About 30% of the systems nationwide are fully accessible, he said. Queen City Metro has an access program which will pick up handicapped people at their homes and take them where they need to go in Cincinnati, Elmwood Place, St. Bernard and Norwood, Bond said. "We understand their goals of total accessibility. It's certainly a laudable one, but also a very expensive one." The customer pays 60 cents for a ride, but it costs Queen City Metro about $10, he said. A ride must be scheduled 24 hours in advance under the Queen City's rules, but space is not always available, said Dixie Harmon, co-chairperson of the Specialized Transportation Advisory Committee to Queen City Metro and a member of Greater Cincinnati Coalition of Persons with Disabilities. "They dictate our lives to us, because we have to go and come as there's space available," she said. Kafka said ADAPT does not expect public systems to make all their buses wheelchair accessible, only all new buses. In about 20 years, the entire system could then be used by the handicapped, he estimated, pointing out that Queen City now owns 87 buses with wheelchair lifts, but the lifts have been locked down. Bond said those buses were bought with federal money at a time when wheelchair accessibility was required for any purchased with federal funds, and would be too costly to operate. The Greater Cincinnati coalition supports the goals of ADAPT, Harmon said, but chooses to negotiate for changes instead of demonstration. - ADAPT (255)
8B The Cincinnati Post, Monday,May19,1986 Title: Disabled activist group faces arrest By Edwina Blackwell, Post staff reporter Cincinnati police will arrest members of a national handicapped activist group today if they fulfill a vow to block and chain themselves to Queen City Metro buses to protest the inaccessibility of buses to the handicapped. Michael Auberger, community organizer for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT). said the group's civil disobedience will take a more disruptive turn as the week progresses. “Whatever it, takes to disable the bus, that's what we'll do to show that the bus is inaccessible," Auberger said during a Sunday protest by the group at the downtown Westin Hotel, where public transit officials are meeting. However, Police Capt. Dale Menkhaus said extra officers will patrol the downtown streets where protesters say they will block buses and chain themselves to bumpers while the buses are stopped for traffic lights. “We're prepared to do whatever necessary to protect them (the protesters) and the general public. If they elect to violate the law, they will pay the consequences," Menkhaus said. About 85 ADAPT members - who have been arrested during similar protests in other cities — made their way Sunday afternoon from the Newport Travelodge to the Westin Hotel, where the American Public Transit Association is meeting. With most of its members confined to wheelchairs, some of the protesters relied upon able-bodied members to push them through the streets. Several of the protesters were draped with chains and locks that they plan to use to chain themselves to buses. Extra Cincinnati police officers guided the march and some were waiting for the group at the Westin, where the protesters were greeted with barricades at each of the hotel's entrances. The demonstrators arrived at the Westin and picketed in front of the hotel's entrances on Vine, Fifth and Walnut streets. “We will ride!“ they chanted. There were no arrests Sunday, although police warned pickets they would be arrested if they blocked the hotel's entrances. Menkhaus met with the protesters Sunday and cautioned that they would be arrested if they disrupted bus traffic. Auberger, a former Cincinnatian who now lives in Denver, was pleased with Sunday's protest. Leaning back in his wheelchair with a lock and chain around his neck, he said, "I think we made a strong statement to APTA and Cincinnati that disabled people aren't powerless." Murray Bond, assistant general manager for Queen City Metro, said the city-owned transit company has been working with police for several weeks in anticipation of protests by ADAPT. Members of ADAPT, a Denver—based organization, arrived in Cincinnati to coincide with the eastern education and training conference of the APTA. Nearly 600 transit officials are attending the five-day meeting, which ends Thursday. The convention's general session was to begin this morning. U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo. D-Minn., will give the keynote address. On Wednesday, the conference will address the transportation needs of the disabled during a 2 p.m. workshop. Auberger said the risk the group's members take shows how important it is to them to be able to use public transportation at will. "The point is so vital to make," he said. Bond said Queen City Metro knows of the tactics used in other cities. “Our chief concern is for the safety of the people and our riders," he said. In Cincinnati, ADAPT wants Queen City Metro to operate the wheelchair lifts currently soldered into place on 87 buses. The group also wants all buses purchased in the future to be equipped with wheelchair lifts. At present, 19 vans are used to pick up handicapped individuals in Cincinnati through a contracted service called Access. Judith Van Ginkel, director of communications for Queen City Metro, said the service was recently expanded to include three more neighborhoods and [unreadable] for those who don't need wheelchair lifts. She added it would cost Queen City Metro $350,000 to make the lifts on the 87 buses operational. Albert Engelken, APTA deputy executive director, said money problems being faced by transit systems are at the root of transportation for the handicapped. "We don't see this as a civil rights issue," he said. "We see this as a funding issue." ADAPT disagrees. Jerry Eubanks lost his legs to gangrene as a child. On Sunday, he served as a group cheerleader pushing for what he sees as a civil right for the handicapped. "When you make transportation, it's public. It's for everyone," said Eubanks, a Chicago resident. “We're only fighting for what's already here. "