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ADAPT (567)
Rocky Mountain News Weds., May 23. 1990 (There are 2 articles here. The first article starts here on 567 and continues on 565, the whole story is included here for ease of reading. The second article comes after the first one.) WORLD & NATION News Editor 892-2634, John Davidson, National Editor 892-2731 Clifford D. May, International Editor 892-2739 House OKs rights bill for disabled Measure would ban discrimination Scripps Howard News Service WASHINGTON — The House yesterday passed legislation to outlaw discrimination against 43 million disabled Americans. The 403-20 vote in favor of the bill, regarded as the most sweeping civil rights legislation in a quarter-century, sends it to conference with the Senate, which passed its version 76-8 last fall. The measure is backed by President Bush, who campaigned on the Americans with Disabilities Act in the 1988 presidential race, when few voters had heard of the bill. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who shepherded the legislation through the House, hailed it as “the most significant civil rights legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” The 1964 law barred discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color or national origin in private employment, public accommodations and government service. The Americans with Disabilities Act would extend civil rights protections to the disabled as well. Passage came despite opposition from business groups, which have complained about the potential for lawsuits along with the cost of adapting offices, plants and stores for disabled workers and customers. Sponsors counter that keeping the disabled out of the economic mainstream costs $170 billion a year in government benefits; they say this bill has been changed to take account of business concerns: Companies with 25 or more workers would have two years to comply with the employment provisions, with four years allotted firms with as few as 15 workers. To ease the expense of making smaller stores, restaurants and other public accommodations accessible to the disabled, the House voted to give small businesses at least two years to conform and exempted firms with fewer than 10 workers for 30 months. In Colorado According to Randy Chapman, director of Legal Services for The Legal Center Serving People with Disabilities. the expected passage or the American Disabilities Act will affect the state in three key ways: protect people with mental disabilities, allow disabled people to collect attorneys fees when challenging discrimination and require private businesses to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. A state law protecting people with mental disabilities is expected to take effect in about a year, but a federal law would take effect immediately, he said. Chapman said businessmen's fears that the law will cost them in litigation and renovations are somewhat unfounded. "Most (businesses) need little or no accommodations . . . and there was substantial litigation when a similar law (for employers receiving federal funds) was passed." Michael Auberger, co-director of the Colorado-based Atlantis Community for disabled citizens, said, "The law will open up the job market, the retail market . . . it will make us a legitimate class that has protection under the law that we never had before." —- Diane Goldie
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