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Home / Albums / Tag Denver 57
- ADAPT (162)
PROCLAMATION Federico Pena, Mayor City and County of Denver City and County Building - Denver, Colorado 80202 Area Code 303-575-2721 Whereas, It is imperative that citizens who use wheelchairs for mobility to be able to use public transportation if they are to participate equally in society; and Whereas, The technology is available to make buses accessible to wheelchairs; and Whereas, A number of cities have made their buses accessible and found the program to be highly successful; and Whereas, Offering only special transportation to disabled people further segregates and alienates them, underscoring the truth that "separate is not equal"; and Whereas, The American Public Transportation Association represents almost all transit authorities and has the power to encourage its members to make their systems accessible as well as to encourage bus manufacturers to design and build accessible buses: Now, therefore, I, Federico Pena, Mayor of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, by virtue of the authority vested in me, do hereby proclaim that: 1) The American Public Transportation Association goes on record calling for 100% accessibility by all public transit systems, 2) The American Public Transportation Association serves notice on all manufacturers that its members will buy only wheelchair accessible buses, and 3) The American Public Transportation Association urges the federal government to reinstate the 504 regulation mandating that all public transit system buses be accessible; and LET'S MAKE PUBLIC TRANSIT PUBLIC! In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City and County of Denver this 18th day of 1983. signed by Federico Pena, Mayor [And there is a dark seal in the corner of the proclamation, but details are not visible.] - ADAPT (156)
Rocky Mountain News Tues. Oct. 2, 1984 Denver, Colo. PHOTO (AP LASER PHOTO): A protester in a manual wheelchair and a puffy coat (Renata Conrad), screams as police force her arms behind her back. One uniformed officer stands behind her forcing her forward. One stands in front, his arms stretched in front. The third stands watching with his notebook in his hand and his pen or maybe a cigarette in his mouth. Caption reads: Washington police restrain wheelchair-bound women during protest at transit conference. [Headline] Disabled Denverites held at D.C. protest By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Fourteen wailing handicapped protesters, including some from Denver, were arrested here Monday when they used their wheelchairs, crutches and limp bodies to briefly blockade a national meeting of transit executives. Among those arrested were Mike Auberger, Bob Conrad, Mark Ball and Glen Damen, all of Denver. Richard Male of Denver, an able-bodied demonstrator, also was arrested, as were nine other protesters from New York, Texas, Illinois and Connecticut. The 14 were among more than 35 people who converged on the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association at the Washington Convention Center. They were fined $50 apiece for blocking a public building. ADAPT, a Denver-based militant handicapped rights group, raised an estimated $30,000 this year to send the protesters to Washington and to train disabled groups nationwide in political demonstration and lobbying techniques. Two of the protesters who were arrested and fined were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released. "The police got pretty physical,“ said ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank of Denver. "We had been causing civil disobedience all week. We expected it (the arrests) to happen. It was just a matter of when." Monday's arrests capped a year of growing tension between handicapped activists and transit officials over the issue of accessibility to the handicapped. “This is not something that we are especially proud of,"said ADAPT member Mark Johnson, as he pounded on the plexiglass door of the convention center with a wooden crutch. "We are here because there has been a resistance to us," said Johnson, who ran unsuccessfully for the RTD Board of Directors in 1980. Johnson said ADAPT is demanding that the transit convention vote to make all public transit systems accessible to the handicapped, that those systems only purchase buses equipped with wheelchair lifts, and that the Federal Government reinstate a regulation mandating accessibility. Convention officials said the demonstrators delayed their program for a few minutes, but caused no damage. Last year, RTD hosted the annual transit convention. Although handicapped activists picketed the meeting, their protests were less forceful. In addition, the protesters last year were allowed to address the convention, a privilege refused them this year. "They requested a slot, but we already had everything filled," convention spokesman Albert Engelken said. "There have been some problems. They (protesters) have been pretty aggressive." The demonstrators suddenly appeared at 10 a.m, just as hundreds of transit executives arrived at the convention center on a convoy of shuttle buses from their hotels. Washington police tried to block the advancing wheelchairs. However, they quickly became entangled with the front line of handicapped men and women and were outflanked by the rest of the demonstrators. Chanting "we will ride. it's our right," the protesters wedged their wheelchairs between the doors of the convention center. Many of them threw themselves out of their chairs and sprawled on the sidewalk to block the doors. Monday's demonstration was the third in a series of protests organized by ADAPT. On Thursday, a dozen protesters blocked seven Washington Metro buses in front of the White House during the evening rush hour. On Sunday, another contingent blocked a chartered bus carrying the spouses of 50 transit executives who were touring the nation's capital. After being trapped for an hour, the spouses finally crawled over the crippled protesters to get to their hotel. The protest overshadowed the speeches to the packed convention by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole and New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Dole abandoned much of her highly partisan prepared speech, choosing instead to repeat the Reagan administration's compromise offer for accessible public transit. "Transit authorities receiving federal funds would be required to make at least half of their peak hour bus fleet accessible, provide para-transit for special services or offer some combination of these options," Dole said. Both sides are cool to the proposal. Transit executives complain it will cost too much considering that only 5 percent of the country's transit passengers are disabled. Many disabled groups, meanwhile, reject Dole's offer because they say it endorses separate but equal service. - ADAPT (148)
Name of newspaper illegible Los Angeles Times? November 19,1984 Handicapped Stage Protests to Publicize Transportation Needs by Miles Harvey, Times Staff Writer PHOTO: Mary Frampton / Los Angeles Times A tidy looking woman in pants and a vest, with a slight smile on her face, sits in a manual wheelchair on a bus. She is sitting in the accessible doorway, the access symbol visible on the side of the doorway. Below and beneath her is a metal panel, like the barrier on some lifts that keeps the person from rolling off the front of the lift. Caption reads: Barbara Trigg rides a hydraulic lift onto a Los Angeles bus. Article reads: Washington -- It was a scene reminiscent of the 1960s civil rights demonstrations as angry protesters chanted slogans, picketed the White House and stopped traffic before they were finally dragged away by police. And the series of confrontations that ended with 27 arrests last month seemed to come down to a similar central issue— the right to sit on a bus, to have full access to public transportation. There was one striking difference, however. Unlike Rosa Parks and the black civil rights activist who battered down the Jim Crow barriers in the South, these protesters were in wheelchairs, and their goal was equal access for the physically handicapped. “It's a civil right to be able to ride public transportation," said Julia Haraksin, a wheelchair-bound Los Angeles resident who participated in the demonstrations. “In the ‘60s, the blacks had to ride in the back—and we can't even get on the buses." New, Radical Tactics Organizations representing handicapped persons long have urged Washington to require that new buses and rail systems built with funds from the Department of Transportation's Urban Mass Transportation Administration be equipped to accommodate handicapped riders. But Haraksin and other handicapped individuals like her now are beginning to press the old arguments with new, more radical tactics. Frustrated by years of negotiating, lobbying in Washington, going through the courts and staging non-confrontational protests, some members of the handicapped community now are resorting more actively to confrontations and civil disobedience. Thus, early in October, 100 members of a newly formed coalition called American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit confronted a national meeting of city transportation heads here, using the kind of civil disobedience tactics used 30 years earlier by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Protesters were arrested when they blocked entrances and buses of those attending the American Public Transit Assn. convention. The strategy was to physically be a barrier because handicapped people have to face barriers all their lives," Wade Blank, a founder of Denver-based ADAPT said. Calling the protests here " Selma," leaders of ADAPT claimed victory and promised that their struggle has only begun. They already are focusing their efforts on what they hope will be a larger demonstration at the next meeting of the American Public Transportation Assn. a year from now in Los Angeles. But they and their cause may be in for a tough battle. Their opposition comes from the Reagan Administration, from many city governments and even from within the handicapped community. And as public attention focuses on the underlying budget choices involved, the opposition may swell with the addition of taxpayers concerned about the possible costs of a national full-access program. ADAPT argues that a legal right to full access for the handicapped already exists. Federal law states that Urban Mass Transportation Administration funds — which account for about 80% of the costs of new and replacement equipment in most municipal transportation systems—cannot be spent on programs that discriminate against, or exclude, the handicapped. The law does not make clear, however, whether handicapped persons must be provided with access to regular bus lines or whether they can instead be provided with alternative transportation systems. Nor does it indicate who should make that decision. Cities Make Decisions Current Transportation Department policy, which is strongly supported by the American Public Transportation Assn., allows each city to make its own decision on what type of transportation it will provide for the handicapped. This is in sharp contrast with Carter Administration policy, which in 1979 interpreted federal regulation to mean full access. Members of ADAPT, opposing the separate-but-equal philosophy of paratransit argue that it does not meet the needs of the handicapped and that it is inherently discriminatory. "It segregates the disabled people from the able-bodied community," Mike Auberger, an organizer for ADAPT, said. Because paratrasit requires advanced scheduling [unreadable] a ride is needed, he said, “you have to schedule your life according to the system. No one else has to do that. That shows the inequality right there." He and other members of ADAPT contend that because of long waiting lists for paratransit, some cities refuse to offer the service to new users - thus cutting off thousands of handicapped persons from any public transportation. Transit authorities, on the other hand, argue that full access can be too expensive, given the low percentage of handicapped riders in many cities. Lift-fitted buses cost an estimated $8,000 to $10,000 more than regular buses. Furthermore, lift systems are often unreliable and time-consuming to operate and maintain, transit administrators say. In Denver, for example, the transportation district has spent $63 million to purchase or retrofit buses with lifts. 80% of which was paid for by the federal government, according to spokesman Gene Towne. Since it started mainline access in 1982, the district has spent close to $1 million in maintenance of the lifts and expects to spend an additional $900,000 this year. Yet of the district's total annual ridership of 38 million, only 12,000 use the lifts, according to Towne. ADAPT counters that the issue is not cost but civil liberties. “In America we have a way of hiding, our prejudices with pragmatism," said Blank, a Presbyterian minister and veteran of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s who now supports handicapped activists. Variety of Approaches Across the country, cities are using a variety of approaches to the problems of providing mass transit for the handicapped. In Los Angeles, mainline access is required by state law. Although 1,850 of the Southern California Rapid Transit District‘s 2,400 buses are fitted with wheelchair lifts some local advocates charge that the RTD gives only "lip service" to access, complaining of broken lifts, drivers who do not know how to use the equipment or refuse to do so and an overall lack of commitment to providing access. The system provides only about 1,400 rides a month according to the RTD. Handicapped activists charge that the low ridership is attributable to the system's poor management. There were and are people in the operation department (of the RTD) back there who were and are opposed to the idea of access from day one," Dennis Cannon, a Washington-based expert who helped to plan the RTD's access program in the 1970s said. But in the last six months, the RTD has made "a major effort" to overcome the problem, according to RTD General Manager John A. Dyer. The system boosted its fiscal year 1985 budget for handicapped service by $3 million, to $4.9 million, to provide for a program to educate drivers and upgrade the quality of equipment and service. In Oakland, half the city's 800 buses are lift-equipped and all of the Alameda — Contra Costa Transit District's new buses will be lift-equipped. Seattle’s Services In Seattle, 570 of 1,100 buses are accessible to the handicapped, providing about 5,900 rides a month. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle also contracts with private groups to supply paratransit bus and half-fare cab service, providing a total of 8,400 rides a month in Denver. 432 of the city's 744 buses are lift- or ramp-equipped, providing more than 1,000 rides per month. The city also uses 13 vans and small buses in a paratransit system that provides 3,200 rides a month. In New York City, where an estimated 35% of all the transit passengers in the country use Metropolitan Transportation Authority vehicles each day. half of the city's 4,333 buses are fitted with lifts. The city has no figures on how many handicapped riders use the system, but one official calls the number minuscule. A new state law calls for $40 million over the next eight years to retrofit “in the neighborhood of 30" subway stops for handicapped use, according to a transit authority official. In addition the law will increase the percentage of lift-equipped buses to 65% of the fleet, as well as provide a paratransit system in the city by 1988. Minneapolis-St. Paul uses 45 paratransit buses and contracts with private cab companies to carry handicapped persons in all, the city provides 40.000 trips a month. None of Chicago's 2.400 regular buses are fitted with lifts. Instead the city provides 42 paratransit buses, which offer 12,000 rides a month. Additionally, 14 of the city's subway stops have been retrofitted for handicapped access and 300 of Chicago's 1,100 subway cars are accessible. If there is a diversity of approaches to the problem, there is also a diversity of views on the militant new tactics used by ADAPT and its supporters. The views of the handicapped people are all over the lot on what type of transport they'd like," Bob Batchelder, counsel for the APTA, said. But transit specialist Cannon, himself a wheelchair user, counters: “I'm talking to disabled people who wouldn't do what ADAPT does ... but who support what they are doing and think it needs being done." Whether ADAPT's controversial style will work remains an open question. While no negotiations are scheduled, ADAPT leaders vow to continue to harass association meetings. But in Los Angeles, the RTD's Dyer indicated that he hopes demonstrations will be replaced at next year's convention with “serious dialogue and discussion of the issues." "It’s a new thing for the disabled to see themselves with power," ADAPT's Auberger said, "but it's also a new experience for the powers that be." - ADAPT (146)
The Handicapped Coloradan, November 1983, Volume 6, No. 4, Boulder Colorado A Cartoon and Picture Top, Cartoon [signature might be Faniul?]: A bus is seen from the rear and labeled "ACCESSIBLE BUSLINES" and "Dept. of Transportation." Behind it, tied to the rear bumper is a little kids wagon labeled "Special Transit." In that wagon sits a person with under-the-arm crutches, holding on for his life, and his feet in the air as the wagon bounces along behind the bus. Inside the bus, someone who looks a heck of a lot like President Reagan is saying "Wow! Look at that. He's separate but EQUAL!" Bottom, photo by Gary Handschumacher: Shot from below looking up into a dark room, a line of people with disabilities facing forward with two microphones on stands in front of them. Mark Johnson, far left, looks on with the mike right in front of him. Beside him is Renate Conrad. Bob Conrad sits next to her and speaks into another mike. Two other people in wheelchairs are on his other side, the farthest one appears to be Mike Auberger. Caption reads: Mark JOHNSON and Trudy Knutson listen as Bob Conrad tells delegates at the national convention of the American Public Transit Association that the handicapped will be satisfied with nothing less than 100 percent accessibility to public transportation. - ADAPT (180)
THE HANDICAPPED COLORADAN Volume 7, No. 3 Boulder, Colorado October 1984 PHOTO: A man in a leather brimmed hat, long hair beard and moustache down vest and jeans, seated in a motorized wheelchair (Mike Auberger), leans to his right as he is surrounded by abled bodied people. Back to the camera, a man plain clothes is partially in front of him, papers sticking out from his back pocket. A uniformed officer is also back to the camera and is holding Mike's arm which in front of Mike. A second uniformed officer is doing something behind Mike's back while a woman stands up on the sidewalk to his side watching with her hands on her hips. (She was an organizer with National Training and Information Center and was assisting with the Access Institute.) cation reads: D.C. Police Arrest Denver Disabled Protestor MIKE AUBERGER, a community organizer for the Atlantis Community in Denver and a member of the American Disabled for Accessible Transit (ADAPT) is arrested by Washington, D.C., police outside the Washington Convention Center where the national convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) was just getting under way. A spokesperson for APTA said that the demonstrations only delayed the start of the convention by a few minutes. Inside the convention hall Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole abandoned her prepared text and said the administration was working to provide public transit for the disabled. Outside the hall, demonstrators branded the secretary's plan as another “separate but equal" scheme and demanded that the federal government require all public transit systems be made accessible to the handicapped. Demonstrators not only blocked the entrances to the convention but also surrounded chartered buses that took delegates from their hotel to the convention center. The disabled activists represented a number of cities, including Denver, Syracuse, N.Y., Boston, El Paso, Los Angeles and Chicago. Additional photo on page 4. 28 Busted in D.C. The 28 disabled activists who were arrested for civil disobedience during the national convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) in Washington, D.C., last month are trying to raise $1500 to make their bail money by a Dec. 3 deadline. At the same time, they're preparing to carry their demand that the APTA members buy only wheelchair-lift equipped buses to the transit organization's regional convention in San Antonio on April 20. The Texas contingent from the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) under the leadership of Jim Parker of El Paso has been especially militant in their demands. Taking their lead from an editorial in the September Handicapped Coloradan, a coalition of of Texas disabled groups met in San Antonio and voted to ask transit systems in Texas to withdraw from APTA unless it goes on record supporting accessibility. The Colorado chapter of ADAPT was planning to introduce a similar resolution to Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD). APTA's position is that accessibility should be left to the discretion of the local transit provider, Although the Carter administration mandated accessibility in public transit, APTA was successful in getting that ruling thrown out in a l98l court battle. ADAPT maintains that the disabled have a civil right to public transit. Jack Gilstrap, APTA's executive vice president, reiterated that position as wheelchair demonstrators seized buses in front of the White House and hurled their chairs at police lines outside the Washington Hilton and Washington Convention Center during APTA's late September meeting. Gilstrap said that the funds just weren't there to support a mandatory system, adding that the additional burden might jeopardize some transit systems. However, since the convention ADAPT has been approached by APTA's new president, Warren Franks, the director of the Syracuse, N.Y., transit system, who has requested a meeting in Denver with wheelchair activists. "The Syracuse ADAPT group has been pretty active," said ADAPT spokesperson Wade Blank. "Franks must be pretty worried about what might happen there if he wants to meet with us.“ ADAPT was organized in Denver one year ago by some of the same groups and individuals who had been involved in forcing RTD to adopt a pro-accessibility policy when purchasing new buses. That battle too was highlighted by militant demonstrations with wheelers chaining themselves to the doors of RTD headquarters. In contrast, demonstrators restricted themselves to orderly pickets when APTA held its national convention in Denver in 1983. But ADAPT only abandoned its plans for civil disobedience after APTA met its demands to address the entire convention on accessibility. APTA's national staff fought that request and allegedly threatened to pull the convention out of Denver at the last minute, but finally agreed to allow ADAPT to address the meeting after Denver Mayor Federico Pena intervened. There was no question that ADAPT would be offered the same treatment at the Washington convention. Although they didn't get a spot on the agenda Blank said his group made their point by capturing the attention of the capital's media. Even before the convention opened, ADAPT made its presence known by joining forces with local D.C. activists to seize seven Metrobuses and block the five blocks along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House during the afternoon rush hour. Demonstrators released the buses an hour later when D.C.’s Metro General Manager Carmen E. Turner agreed to meet with Washington disabled leaders to discuss their demands for a fully accessible system. No date has yet been set for that meeting, which ADAPT said marked an historic first in the Washington area. No arrests were made during that demonstration, although Washington police moved several demonstrators out of the street. But on the following Monday and Tuesday 28 demonstrators were arrested as they tried to block buses leaving the Washington Hilton for the convention center and again at the convention center itself. The police threw up lines as picketers arrived but were unable to halt the advance of the demonstrators, who wedged their chairs in the hall's doors or hurled their bodies onto the ground. Mike Auberger, one of those arrested, said the police "were abusive -- there's no doubt of that," but he added that this was probably pretty typical. “Let's face it," he said, "these guys probably have to deal with demonstrators all the time." They don't mess around when they get started. Auberger said he was grabbed by the hair and pulled back so that his chair was resting on its back wheels. Two other demonstrators were thrown from their chairs and taken to local hospitals where they were released after being treated for minor injuries. Police had to bring in special vans with wheelchair lifts in order to cart demonstrators off to jail, where they were fingerprinted and rushed into court. "Only the doorway between the holding cells and the courtroom was too narrow to get our chairs through," Auberger said, "so they had to take us in the back way." Some of the disabled picketers were surprised that the police reacted with such force, according to Auberger. "l think it opened a few eyes," he said. ADAPT filmed the demonstration, and a 20-minute edited version is being shown as part of a fundraiser to pay the bails of those arrested, about half of whom were from Denver. Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-Denver) has agreed tn help raise money, but because of previous campaign commitments said she would be unable to participate until after the first of the year. - ADAPT (171)
First Recruitment Poster/Flyer: A drawing of a toilet with a bus sticking out of the toilet bowl, front end first. On the side of the bus is a large access symbol. Text reads: ADAPT cordially invites you to an uproar WHO: WHEELCHAIR USERS FROM EVERY STATE WHOSE DREAM IS TOTALLY ACCESSIBLE BUS SYSTEM! WHERE: DENVER, COLORADO- AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSIT ASSOCIATION NATIONAL CONVENTION- EVERY BIG BUS BOSS & HOT SHOT FED INVOLVED IN PUBLIC TRANSIT. WHEN: OCTOBER 23-26, 1983 WHY: OUR CHANCE TO DEMAND OUR RIGHT TO BOARD EVERY PUBLIC BUS IN THE NATION; TO MEET AND GREET & LEAN ON: SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: Elizabeth Dole VICE PRESIDENT: George Bush PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: John Glenn, Gary Hart, Walter Mondale, Allen Cranston, AND OTHERS TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION FUN & GAMES INCLUDE (BUT NOT LIMITED TO…) (1) PICKET SIGN CONTEST (2) RALLIES & DEMONSTRATIONS (3) SCREAMING MATCHES & NATIONAL NEWS-MAKING (4) HANDS-ON TRAINING IN RADICAL CHANGE (8) WILD PARTIES WE’RE GONNA HAVE A BLAST CAPTION: AMERICAN DISABLED FOR ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC TRANSIT AMERICAN DISABLED FOR ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC TRANSIT CONTACT: WADE OR MOLLY BLANK (303) 321-7269 JOE CARLE OR MIKE AUBERGER (303) 393-0630 - ADAPT (170)
Rocky Mountain News Fri. Aug. 19, 1993, Denver, Colo. Text box reads: The handicapped group wants the transit association to support equal access for all public transportation riders and lifts on buses. Article -- Pena intervenes in handicapped-transit spat By Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Mayor Federico Pena’s office is intervening in a dispute between handicapped groups and a national transit association over threatened demonstrations during the association’s October convention in Denver. Kathy Archuleta, an aide to Pena, said she set up a meeting for Friday with Wade Blank, handicapped activist leader, after an official from the American Public Transit Association (APTA) called the mayor’s office expressing concern about Blank’s plans to picket the convention. “We’ll act as facilitators,” said Archuleta. “APTA has called us and now we’re going to talk to Wade.” Blank, one of the leaders of the newly formed American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, said the group is protesting APTA’s refusal to endorse wheelchair lifts on all buses and subways. The group represents disabled associations across the country. Blank also is co-director of Atlantis, a self-help group for the disabled. Blank said the plans call for about 30 handicapped people to picket the convention each day and possibly conduct civil disobedience, such as disabled chaining themselves to the convention’s headquarters at the Denver Hilton. About 3,000 representatives from transit districts throughout the United States are expected to attend the convention, Oct. 23 to 27. Blank said the group wants the convention to support equal access for all transit riders on public transportation and inform bus manufacturers that transit districts will buy only buses equipped with wheel-chair lifts. Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of APTA, said the organization called Pena’s office just to inform of the planned demonstrations and “expressing the hope that they would be orderly.” “We’re used to demonstrations,” said Gilstrap. He said the protests have not changed APTA’s plans to hold the convention in Denver. - ADAPT (168)
Gazette Telegraph PHOTO (by Bob Jackson/Gazette Telegraph): A plainclothes officer (a radio in his pocket) and beefy uniformed officer tip Frank McComb back in his manual wheelchair as they load him into a van. The plain clothes guy puts his hand on Frank's head (to prevent bumping it). In the shadows inside you can see another officer crouching next to another wheelchair at the back of the van. The wheelchairs in all these pictures are very old style; the would even look outdated in an airport or hospital now. Caption reads: Frank McColom [sic] of Denver is arrested outside the Wahsatch Avenue McDonald's and placed In an Amblicab by Colorado Springs police. McColom was protesting what he sold was McDonald's lack of access for the handicapped. [Headline] Handicapped arrested at McDonald’s By Chris Cobler, GT Staff Writer Colorado Springs police arrested 11 people protesting what they called a lack of accessibility for the handicapped at McDonald's restaurants Friday. The protest, at McDonald’s downtown restaurant, 207 N. Wahsatch Ave., was part of a nationwide action involving the fast food chain. [The page is torn here. Missing words are filled in in brackets, where possible.] The protest was the second in two days by about two dozen wheelchair-bound members of the Access Institute, a Denver based national organization for the [handicapped.] Denver police arrested [several people] Thursday in a similar protest [at another] McDonald’s restaurant there. [The demonstrators] wheeled their chairs [...] entrances to the parking lot at [the Wahsatch] Avenue McDonald's about [....] Police arrested the 11 an hour later on suspicion of obstruction of traffic when they refused to move from a city alley behind McDonald's. “The plan today is to make people aware that McDonald's doesn't have a national policy of accessibility,” said Bob Conrad, a community organizer QC the Atlantis Community in Denver, which is affiliated with the Access Institute. Conrad said the the protesters are seeking three changes at McDonald's: remodeling of existing restaurants for access for the disabled, such access to be constructed at all new restaurants and for the company to include disabled people in 10 percent of all its advertisements. Robert Keyser, director of media relations for McDonald‘s Corp., Oak Brook, Ill., said in Colorado Springs Friday that his company has talked with Access Institute for the past six months and planned to meet with the group Tuesday in Denver. The protests of the past two days are not a show of good faith by the group, Keyser said. McDonald’s is eager to learn from the group about ways to improve its restaurants, but is not prepared to immediately satisfy all requests, Keyser said. “I think it's irresponsible to make demonstrations without being as completely educated as possible about the way a major company like ours does business," said Keyser, who flew to Colorado Springs Friday from the McDonald's corporate headquarters near Chicago. “It’s going to be a two-way dialogue." Representatives of the McDonald's franchises in the Springs area declined to answer questions about the dispute and See 11 ARRESTED Page A2 - ADAPT (167)
Rocky Mountain News [Headline] Disabled group calls off talks with McDonalds's By Angela A Dire, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Representatives of a nationwide group for the disabled Tuesday refused to meet with McDonald's executives, saying it’s time rhetoric stop and work begin on making the chain's 6,300 restaurants uniformly accessible to the handicapped. Members of the Access Institute gave the executives a letter calling off the meeting; which had been scheduled since May. Access members, who have picketed McDonald’s restaurants around the state six times in the past month, said McDonald’s executives reneged on a promise to negotiate. The group wants McDonald’s to make entrances, bathrooms and tables in all of its restaurants fully accessible to the handicapped within an agreed upon period, and to show disabled people in 10 percent of its advertisements. Company officials who came to Denver from the McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., said they were disappointed Access would not meet to suggest ways to improve accessibility in the restaurants. The meeting was never intended for negotiations -- just discussion, they said. "We will do our educating in the streets,” said Access members, who plan to continue picketing restaurants around the country until McDonald’s meets their demands. About 17 people have been arrested in the group’s'protests. But the demonstrations and arrests won't influence McDonald’s, said Tom Glasgow, vice president for operations and product development. “We run a sound operation," he said. “We can't run our business by reacting to demands arid demonstrations." He said McDonald's has used a standard design for accessibility in its restaurants since 1979, including special parking, ramps, accessible bathrooms and drive-through windows. Each restaurant may not have all these features, but will have them eventually, McDonald’s officials said. - ADAPT (158)
Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo Saturday, May 12, 1984 PHOTO (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF PHOTOS BY BRYAN MOSS): In front of a McDonald's, two people in wheelchairs (Mike Auberger and a woman) talk with a man in a suit and tie. The arches appear over his head as someone holds up a sign behind him. A man stands beside Mike looking down at his hands, which are out of sight. Caption reads: Dennis Morris, McDonald's Denver operations manager; talks with people protesting lack of accessibility to the handicapped. A large quote beside the picture reads: "This McDonald's (at East Colfax Avenue and Pennsylvania Street) is one of the most inaccessible." Bob Conrad, protest leader Handicapped demand break from McDonald's By JERILYNN BLUM, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Waving protest signs and shouting “We want access," 35 handicapped people in wheelchairs Friday blocked the entrances to a McDonald’s restaurant on East Colfax Avenue. The demonstration was the second this week at a Denver McDonald's restaurant, both of them launched by ACCESS, a group concerned with building access for the handicapped. ACCESS claims the McDonald’s chain doesn’t provide wheelchair ramps or other fixtures needed for handicapped access. The demonstration Friday was joined by handicapped people from five states, who are training in the ACCESS Institute in Denver for activities to expand privileges of the disabled. The conflict between ACCESS and McDonald’s began Tuesday, when members of the group picketed the restaurant at 200 16th St. Spokesman Bob Conrad of Denver said the group had targeted McDonald’s because the chain is not responsive to the needs of wheelchair bound people. “This McDonald’s," he said, referring to the restaurant at East Colfax Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, “is one of the most inaccessible because you have to step up to get on the sidewalk and then it's impossible to get in the bathroom in a wheelchair." Members of the demonstration carried signs that read "Ronald McDonald, stop clowning around and make your stores accessible," and “We deserve a ramp today at McDonald’s." Conrad said members of the group decided to go ahead with the protest, even though they had been negotiating with McDonald‘s Denver operations manager Dennis Morris, because McDonald‘s management was “stonewalling." Conrad said ACCESS requested a meeting with McDonald's officials and a letter authorizing Morris to make decisions for the restaurant. The letter didn't arrive by Friday. Morris confirmed he offered to give ACCESS a letter but said he was “shocked” when the members insisted on having the letter before the Monday meeting. “They have been changing the rules of the game the last two days," said Morris. “I was under the understanding everything was set for Monday." Many lunch patrons at the East Colfax McDonald's Friday were sympathetic but disgruntled by having to step over the protesters. “I'm sure they have a legal gripe but I don’t think they have the right to block the doors," said Ray Cook, a Denver businessman. Morris said that ACCESS wanted a meeting Wednesday, which he explained was impossible. He said ACCESS members then chose Friday but eventually agreed to Monday. “We are looking forward to meeting to clarify the facts of what McDonald's has been doing all along to meet accessibility needs of the handicapped," said Morris. Morris and Bob Keiser, media relations spokesman at the McDonald's corporate offices in Oakbrook, Ill., said McDonald's has been complying with building codes that allow for accessibility for the handicapped. - ADAPT (154)
[Headline] 7 Arrested as Handicapped Protest at Fast-Food Outlet By Jim Kirksey Denver Post Staff Writer Denver police arrested seven persons – six of them handicapped – during a demonstration at a near-downtown Denver McDonald’s Restaurant Thursday. Wheelchair-bound demonstrators from Denver’s Atlantis Community Inc., which represents disabled people in the area, blocked entrances to the parking lot at the McDonald’s at East Colfax Avenue and Pennsylvania Street beginning about 11:0 a.m. to protest the lack of access to the restaurant for the handicapped. All of the arrests were based on traffic-obstruction charges. Police estimated there were about 20 demonstrators, but leaders of the demonstration estimated the number at 30 to 50. Richard Male, an organizer with the Community Resource Center, said the protesters want three things: access for the disabled to McDonald’s current restaurants, such access to be constructed at all new McDonald’s restaurants, and for the fast-food company to advertise its welcome and accessibility to the disabled. Joe Carle, 45, a community organizer at the Atlantis Community and one of the leaders of Thursday’s demonstration, said the point at issue is what he termed McDonald’s failure to live up to agreements made by the company in negotiations last month. He said McDonald’s officials met in Denver with members of the Access Institute, a national organization for the handicapped with which Atlantis is affiliated, following similar demonstrations at two McDonald’s restaurants in Denver in May. Organizers said McDonald’s agreed at that time to a June 19 meeting in Denver with a negotiating team from the institute. Carle said McDonald’s agreed to pay the costs of the Access Institute negotiators to return to Denver and to send a restaurant official with the authority to make an agreement. Now, according to the leaders of the local disabled group, McDonald’s says it won’t pay the transportation costs of the group’s members and won’t confirm that a representative with the authority to make an access agreement with the group will attend the meeting. The manager at the restaurant refused comment and a corporate spokesman for McDonald’s in Chicago didn’t return a telephone call to comment on the demonstration and the allegations. Sgt. Roy Clem of the Denver police said those demonstrators who were arrested had refused to get out of East Colfax Avenue, and they were arrested for obstruction of traffic. The one non-disabled person was arrested when she jumped in front of a car to block its path in support of the demonstration, Clem said. Detective George Masciotro identified those arrested as: Lori Eastwood, 26, of 1222 Pennsylvania St., who isn’t disabled; Donna Smith, 32, of 236 S. Elliot St.; Robert W. Conrad Jr., 35, of 750 Know Court; George Roberts, 36, of 1255 Galapago St.; Lawrence Ruiz, 30, also of 1255 Galapago St.; Terri Fowler, 28, of 3202 W. Gill Place; and Michael William Auberger, 29, of 1140 Colorado Blvd. Masciotro said they were booked into jail, then released on personal recognizance bonds. - ADAPT (153)
Rocky Mountain News Denver, Colo. Sat. May 12, 1984 PHOTO by Bryan Moss, Rocky Mountain Staff: Woman in white dress with puffy short sleeves stands with her arm extended to the door. Man in a manual wheelchair (David Sheckles), with his arm apparently in a cast, faces her. Both of their faces look determined. Through the darkened interior of the McDonald's and between them you can make out the face of Bob Conrad and the body of another protester behind him. [Headline] Patron ignores protest by handicapped Caption reads: Woman enters McDonald’s at East Colfax Avenue Pennsylvania Street despite demonstration by David Sheckles, right, and Bob Conrad. STORY. ANOTHER PHOTO PAGE 6. - ADAPT (152)
Rocky Mountain News 5-18-84 PHOTO (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID CORNWELL): A large meeting room in a business or hotel type setting. In the foreground a tough looking protester in a wheelchair holds a sign in front of him and looks sideways at the camera. Behind him more protesters in wheelchairs and men in suits stand around not looking at each other. Behind them is a table with 5 other people in wheelchairs sitting at it. Caption reads: Protesters meet with McDonald's representatives, standing from left, Joe Hill, Don Fowler and Dennis Morris. [Headline] McDonald’s officials, disabled to confer by Arnold Levinson, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer A group of people who have threatened to block selected McDonald's restaurants around the country will meet with the company’s national executives to demand that the chain improve access for handicapped customers. The agreement to hold higher-level discussions was reached Monday in a wheelchair-packed room of the Denver Holiday lnn, where two dozen disabled people bargained for several hours with regional officials of the fast-food company. Both sides said afterward that the McDonald's national marketing and construction directors, as well as the vice president for store licensing, would attend the next meeting, which isn't scheduled yet. The outcome of Monday's meeting suggested that McDonald's is taking seriously the demands - and the threats — of ACCESS, a small, loosely knit coalition of handicapped-advocacy groups nationwide. Last week ACCESS members, most in wheelchairs, picketed two McDonald's restaurants in Denver. Led by members of the Atlantis Community, ACCESS vowed to begin a campaign against McDonald’s in several cities unless certain demands were met. “They can stop this thing from spreading today, or they can stonewall us and it will spread,” the Rev. Wade Blank, Atlantis Community leader, said Monday before the meeting. Jim Parker, a 38-year-old quadriplegic from El Paso, Texas, said afterward that ACCESS wants McDonald’s to promise that: * Entranceways,‘bathrooms and seating in all future outlets be “fully accessible" to the disabled. * Handicapped people appear in 10 percent of the company's advertisements. * The company make restaurants handicapped-accessible within a period yet to be agreed upon. McDonald’s regional officials declined comment Monday beyond saying that negotiations will resume within 30 days to address "the issues brought to our attention today." The regional office oversees operations in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and part of Arizona. The company's national media office failed to respond to a request for information about McDonald's policies toward the handicapped. Behind the decision by ACCESS to target McDonald's are several factors, said Blank, not the least of which is the ripple effect that could occur if an accord is reached with a large, visible symbol of industry. If you can beat the big ones," said Blank, “the others will fall in place.” McDonald’s inaugurated the fast-food industry and leads competitors in the world market. Blank said the move on McDonald’s, which he called “symbolic of free enterprise," also represents a decision to take on the business sector after winning gains, such as bus lifts and curb ramps, from government. He acknowledged that last week's demonstrations were timed to coincide with the presence in Denver of about two dozen disabled people who arrived May 1 to study at the ACCESS Institute. The Atlantis Community uses the institute to teach its methods of advocacy. Alongside these political considerations is criticism of McDonald’s policies toward the handicapped, particularly what Blank called delays in remodeling older stores. “My daughter is in a wheelchair, and I can’t get her to a table," he said of one local McDonald's outlet “The only place she can eat is in the restroom, because it’s accessible." - ADAPT (145)
The Handicapped Coloradan, October 1984 [Headline] McDonald’s Statement Called “Unacceptable” The response by McDonald’s to demands by wheelchair protestors that the fast food chain improve the accessibility of its restaurants was described as unacceptable by a spokesperson for the Access Institute. Wade Blank said that Access was contacting McDonald’s again and if the company’s response did not improve his organization might well return to the picket lines. Starting in June, Access picketed McDonald’s restaurants in Denver, Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, Wyo., El Paso, Tex., Syracuse, N.Y., and Kansas City, Mo. Demonstrators were arrested in Colorado Springs and at one of the Denver demonstrations. At an Aug. 17 meeting, McDonald’s representatives warned Access that if the protests continued, the fast food chain was prepared to take demonstrators to court. At that meeting, McDonald’s suggested that it would be willing to remodel restaurants owned by the company, but that it did not have the power to order individually owned franchises to follow suit. Company representatives estimated that the retrofitting operation would affect some 2,200 of the more that 7,700 McDonald’s across the country and would cost between $3 and $5 million. At a second meeting a week later, McDonald’s seemed ready to make further concessions and promised to issue a policy statement in September. Blank said he had expected that statement to satisfy many of Access’s demands. Instead, McDonald’s response took the form of a memo from its vice president for national operations to regional managers and vice presidents, outlining the company’s record on accessibility and listing the standards the company suggested its licensees follow. Blank said the memo shows that McDonald’s is “not really serious about what they’re doing.” In fact, he said, Access did not receive a copy of the memo and had to ask McDonald’s for one. Throughout the discussions, McDonald’s has argued that it would not bow to pressure and that the company’s record on accessibility was a good one. The memo, dated Sept. 12, 1984 and written by Tom Glasgow, reaffirmed that position. Glasgow said that since 1979 McDonald’s has been following accessibility guidelines set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for its company-owned (McOpCo) restaurants as well as its licensed operations. “Currently with in excess of 2000 McDonald’s restaurants accessible to wheelchair users, we are the leaders in this area in the quick service restaurant industry and, indeed most probably, in any segment of the food service industry,” Glasgow wrote. Glasgow listed four minimum accessibility standards that were followed by McOpCo owned restaurants. “Parking Spaces-Special parking located as close to the building as possible (striping according to ANSI). In addition, vertical signage making these spaces even more obvious is being installed. “Ramps/Curb Buts—Convenient as possible to special parking (per ANSI specifications). “Table Access—Although table heights at McDonald’s restaurants meet or exceed ANSI standards we need tables which wheelchair users can easily use. Movable seating is preferred. “Rest Rooms- These will be made accessible as remodeling becomes necessary and affordable. Restaurants not currently planning to remodel should make modifications such as installing grab bars and widening stalls to make these facilities more functional for wheelchair users when possible.” However, Glasgow pointed out that since licenses own three out of every four stores system wide, area managers and vice presidents could only recommend that these standards be followed. Table access has been one of the Access Institute’s major goals in their dealings with McDonald’s. Currently, most if not all McDonald’s restaurants use seating that is physically attached to tables, making it impossible for a person in a wheelchair to use a table without blocking the aisle. The Access Institute had also asked that McDonald’s use people with disabilities in at least 10 percent of its ads. That issue was not addressed in the memo. The memo made no mention of the Access Institute or the pickets. Glasgow concluded by saying, “Accessibility has been something we as a corporation have been committed to for years. Our efforts are not new. Our commitment is not new. We expect this commitment will be continually reinforced through action.” However, so far that commitment seems not to have impressed wheelchair users. The executive board of the Colorado Coalition for Persons with Disabilities recently passed a resolution calling upon members of the 50 or so organizations it represents to boycott McDonald’s until the company makes a stronger commitment to accessibility. McDonald’s size and reputation were why the company was singled out by the Access Institute, according to Blank. He said if McDonald’s agreed to their requests then other national chains would follow suit. - ADAPT (635)
Different TIMES, September 24, 1990, p. 6 ADAPT fights for attendant services (Reprinted with permission from the Disability Rag; Box 145; Louisville, KY 40201.) [This story continues on 623 but the text is included here in full, for ease of reading.] “People with disabilities have the civil and human right to dependable attendant services that meet our daily needs in the location and manner of our choice." This simple declaration, made in Denver this summer, signaled the offensive being launched by ADAPT against “the nursing home lobby feeding off peoples' lives." It's ironic, says ADAPT member Mark Johnson. "Here we've finally got our rights now, in a law, and here you have more and more severely disabled people wanting to kill themselves—literally kill themselves—because they're being forced into nursing homes." “That Ken Bergstedt in Nevada [who petitioned the court in May to disconnect his respirator] is literally saying, “l'll end my life before I'll go in a nursing home," Johnson said. “What do you expect when people only have institutionalization to look forward to?" adds actress Nancy Becker Kennedy, one of the group that conducted a hunger strike in Los Angeles in July to protest the cut of California’s In Home Supportive Services. “Their attempts to stay in their homes are thwarted." lt’s the same with Georgia's highly publicized Larry McAfee, who was just put into a “group home," says ADAPT. Even after all the publicity, the State of Georgia will not put any money into funding attendant services in one's own home. And ADAPT is fed up. Recalling the phrase the transit industry used to argue that each city should decide whether or not to put lifts on buses, ADAPT calls the patchwork system of funding in-home services “the old ‘local option’ stuff all over again." “We're sick of it,"says Johnson. There needs to be a national commitment. In California, activists battled for several months to restore their In Home Support Services program which had been entirely cut from the state budget—and succeeded only in restoring it to its former level, which allows a disabled person to hire an attendant only at minimum wage and for no more than eight hours a day. People who need an attendant around the clock, like Ken Bergstedt, have little hope of avoiding a nursing home even in California, often cited as the state with the best attendant services program in the nation. Yet such battles sap the energy of disability activists for the larger fight for a national commitment. ADAPT has modified its former name, “American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation" to “American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today" to reflect its new focus. ADAPT says attendant services are a right. The group wants the program it's calling for to make attendant services available "based on functional need" rather than “whether a person can work or not." They don't want "employability" to be a "condition for getting services. And they don't want eligibility based on any specific disability, as it is in many states now. They want it to be available “to people of all ages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with back-up emergency services."They stress they're not asking for “someone to hold your hand" but are speaking of the realistic needs of people like McAfee, Rick Tauscher, and Bergstedt who need an attendant available around the clock. They also say a program that allows the disabled person maximum control over an attendant is mandatory. Maybe a disabled person won’t want that control; maybe they'll want someone else to handle the paperwork and hiring decisions. That should be the disabled person‘s option, they say. There’s a quality-control issue here, they insist; they want to make sure disabled people get quality care but are allowed maximum say over personal services they receive—which is all too often not the case today as home "health" agencies muscle their way into the home "care" field. They‘re sick of the word “care.” They want a program that doesn’t keep anyone from services because they make too much money; they're willing, they say, to deal with a sliding scale for fees for such a program; but they want it available to anyone who needs it—regardless of income. It's a right, and cost is simply not an issue, they say. Keeping disabled people in institutions is ludicrously more expensive than providing in-home services in this country today. They blame that lack for the problems Larry MeAfee's constantly found himself in; they blame the nursing home industry for siphoning off the money that could go to fund such services. And they charge that home health agencies are nothing more than “the new nursing homes." Home health agencies “take people on Medicare and give them services and then bill them for $60 a pop," says ADAPT organizer Wade Blank. “Then when their Medicare coverage runs out after six months, they drop ‘em." The group says it’s also targeting “the big insurance companies like Prudential" and health maintenance organizations, who they say have a vested interest in keeping the system like it is. “We're saying that ethically and morally, nursing homes are not the place to go," says Blank. “When I see my severely disabled friends, living in their own homes, when l visit them in their apartments, listen with them to records or order in a pizza—and then I see my friends living in nursing homes, wasting away, waiting to die, I get very, very angry,” said Southern California ADAPT member Lilibeth Navarro. A survey of ADAPT members through their newsletter, Incitement, led them to decide to shift the focus to attendant services, said Navarro. And they're emphatic about the term too. “It’s not ‘attendant care‘ anymore," said Blank. “Whenever anybody said ‘care’ everybody booed,“ he added. It is fitting that ADAPT, whose original members came from Denver‘s Atlantis Community, will focus on attendant services. It was that need which led to the start of Atlantis, a “community” of disabled people and attendants. Atlantis “has a neat system,"agrees Navarro, noting that the 24-hour rotary attendant services allows any Atlantis person to have an attendant available whenever it's needed. “We could call an attendant at 11:30 p.m. and have somebody here," she said. “People who are having trouble with attendants can call and get an emergency back-up." Navarro, like others, said she knew of people “who endured abuse because they were afraid to lose their attendant"—"because it's so hard to find somebody, and nobody to turn to in an emergency situation." She related the story of a man whose attendant simply walked out on him and left him, unable even to reach a phone, for four days. “If his father hadn't checked on him, he'd be dead." “Only a national attendant program," she stressed, “will free us from emotional slavery Nancy Becker Kennedy agreed with Navarro. “The linchpin for independent living is in-home attendant services. It’s humane; it gives us a future." The group has sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan demanding a meeting in Atlanta Oct. 1; they've given Sullivan until Aug. 15 to reply. ADAPT activists from around the nation will descend on Atlanta the first week of October to launch the fight. They’ll be calling for a quarter of the money now going to the nursing home industry to “go into a pot for attendant services." As usual, ADAPT doesn’t expect this to happen without a fight -- primarily from the “nursing home lobby.” “This October," says Blank, “we will serve notice on those groups who are the enemies of a national attendant services program." TEXT BOX: ADAPT will converge on Atlanta — home of Morehouse College, HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan’s alma mater — on Sept. 28 for week-long direct action protest and training. Nationally known organizer Shel Trapp will conduct the session Saturday, Sept. 29. For more information on travel and hotel arrangements, contact ADAPT in Denver at (303) 936-1110. — Reprinted with permission from the Disability Rag; Box 145; Louisville, KY 40201.