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ADAPT (427)
Title: WHEELCHAIR TRANSIT BUSTED English Cultural Tabloid, Oct 7, 1988, p. 8 by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR Montreal's handicapped community is hoping that getting arrested will succeed where letters and phone calls have failed to improve its transit service. About 50 activists were arrested after blocked traffic along Rene Levesque, disrupting the Queen Elizabeth Hotel conference, and demonstrating at the Sheraton hotel, where members of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) were staying for an annual convention from October 1-5. The local disabled population teamed up with the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) in protesting against APTA policy. ADAPT has organized civil disobedience at all APTA conferences for the last five years, with last year's convention in San Francisco resulting in over 70 arrests , while a regional conference in St. Louis led to the arrest of over 40 activists. Stephanie Thomas of ADAPT says that the enmity towards the transit group dates to the late '70s when the U.S. government passed a law which decreed that all new public transit vehicles must be accessible to the handicapped, but APTA lobbying had the law overturned. Thomas, who has been active in each of the protests against APTA, refuted the organization's claim that making transit accessible is expensive and impractical: "A lift on a bus only increases its cost by about 10 per cent, which would be made up as it eases the cost on the separate transportation system for the disabled." Montreal's transit authority (MUCTC) is a member of APTA and has failed to make new buses or subway stations accessible to the disabled: A separate service for the disabled has existed since 1980. This system, according to Francois Gagnon of the Quebec Movement of Handicapped Consumers, is deteriorating. "The Quebec government has ordered that the separate service maximize its use," he says, "and since then, one complaint I received was from a man who gets picked up for work at 7 AM and is delivered to his job at 9:45 AM." Gagnon, whose organization encouraged the disabled community to take part in the protests against APTA, argues that economics and demographics prove that now is the time to make the system accessible. "By the year 2000, 25 per cent of Quebecers will be senior citizens, many of whom will be handicapped, and the longer it is delayed, the more expensive the transition will become." For many disabled, the real issue is the right to enjoy transit facilities made for the rest of society. The protests are an attempt to end the separate transit systems. Stephanie Thomas stresses that ADAPT is not demanding that existing vehicles be modified, only that new equipment should be accessible to the disabled. Thomas is encouraged by the results of the protests. 'We have been active lobbying, and nothing was ever done. But since we started protesting, it has become a major issue. Slowly, cities such as Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas, Syracuse, and Chicago are changing to accessible transit." Montreal may yet be able to join that list. The End
ADAPT (124)
Rocky Mountain News Photo by Rocky Mountain News staff photographer David L. Cornwell: An officer pushes a man in a motorized wheelchair [George Roberts] across a wide brick sidewalk, as 2 buses and a car go by on the downtown street. Further up the sidewalk 2 other uniformed officers are standing and even further down, a motorcycle policeman. Caption reads: Officer Gerald Fitzgibbons pushes George Roberts from scene of Friday's demonstration. Roberts and Renate Rabe were arrested in protest. Pena staff to mediate RTD tiff with handicapped By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer As handicapped demonstrators blocked Regional Transportation District buses with their wheelchairs for the second straight day Friday, Mayor Federico Pena's staff stepped in to referee a growing dispute over broken wheelchair lifts. “Perhaps part of the ultimate answer will be to allow the disabled community to be part of the decision-making process," Pena aide Dale Sadler said Friday. “What we're hoping for now is to get everyone to talk." But Sadler could only watch as Denver police quickly arrested George Roberts and Renate Rabe as the pair rolled their wheelchairs in front of an RTD bus at 17th and California Streets at 12:25 p.m. Roberts and Rabe were the second and third members of the militant disabled-rights group known as ADAPT to be booked into city jail in two days in connection with obstructing a government agency and blocking traffic. Mike Auberger of Denver was arrested Thursday at the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and Cherry Street when he rolled his wheelchair in front of a bus with a broken lift. Auberger, who was jailed for about three hours, is scheduled to appear in Denver District Court March 12. He faces $250 in fines. Roberts and Rabe were released Friday afternoon. Roberts is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 25. Rabe is scheduled to appear March 15. ADAPT protesters have vowed to block buses at busy intersections throughout the six-county transit district for 80 days — or until the RTD board of directors agrees to spend $753,059 budgeted to fix the balky electrical systems on 303 lift-equipped buses. RTD has one of the nation's most accessible public transit systems with lifts installed on about half of it's 750-bus fleet. However, disabled passengers complain that they frequently suffer frostbite in the winter as four or five buses with broken lifts pass them. They said they have a right as taxpayers to ride regular bus service, rather than plan their lives days in advance around the limited schedules of van services. “A wheelchair lift on a bus means a disabled person can live wherever he wants and shop wherever he wants," Auberger said. “The (RTD) board doesn't have the right to tell me where to live and shop. They might as well put me back in a nursing home." The demonstrators offered to cancel Friday's rally in exchange for a meeting with RTD General Manager Ed Colby. RTD officials said Colby had taken the day off Friday, but agreed to meet with the protesters minutes before their scheduled protest. That wasn't good enough, ADAPT leaders responded. “Colby had all last night and this morning to respond to us,” said Wade Blank, an able bodied demonstrator who organized the protests. “He was just a little late." RTD board members will discuss the transit agency's handicapped access policy for the handicapped and its lift repair record Tuesday at a committee meeting.
ADAPT (100)
Rocky Mountain News, Mon., June 7, 1982 Denver, Colo. p.37 WE’RE ACCESSIBLE! We set our sights on July 1 for increased accessibility. We've beat our goal by nearly a month. During peak hours 50 percent of all Denver-area local service is now equipped with wheelchair lifts. Nearly 100 percent of off-peak local service is now accessible. Please check your schedule for times of lift-equipped buses. Trips will be marked with the wheelchair symbol. If you need special assistance in learning how to use the lift, just give us a call at 628-9000, extension 2118. We are pleased to be able to accommodate our handicapped patrons with expanded service nearly one month ahead of schedule! (signature) L.A. Kimball Executive Director and General Manager 3 PHOTOS (in clockwise order; no credits given). First: A man in a wheelchair sits on a lift into the front door of a city bus. An access symbol is visible by the driver's door of the bus. Second: A woman in a manual wheelchair entering the front of an accessible bus, by the farebox. Three: An RTD bus with RTD "The Ride" written on the side of the bus. In large print at the bottom it says: Striving for the Best Service RTD The Ride
ADAPT (166)
El Paso Herald-Post PHOTO (Herald-Post photo by John Hopper): Of an angry looking protester, Jim Parker, sitting in a manual wheelchair. He has shoulder length hair, a bandana headband, a goatee and moustache, black leather gloves with no fingers, and a black biker t-shirt. He is chained with a white link chain, to the doors of a business and has a sign in his lap, but it's not readable. Caption reads: Jim Parker. a handicapped El Pasoan, readies his placard after chaining himself to a restaurant door Friday. [Headline] Handicapped criticize lack of support By Robert Palomares, El Paso Herald-Post A group of protesters chained their wheelchairs to the doors of the McDonald's restaurant on Piedras Street and I-10 to protest the chain's “lack of commitment” to handicapped people. Before his wheelchair was locked to door handles Friday, El Pasoan Jim Parker said that although McDonald’s provides funding for disabled people, the commitment doesn't include making the restaurants accessible to the handicapped. "McDonald's has raised money for disabled people, but they don't make their restaurants accessible to us” Parker said. “It's like saying, ‘We will give you this money, but you can't eat in our restaurants.”’ he said. “This doesn’t mean they are exempt from providing us accessibility." said Mike Auberger of Denver. Robert Keyser, a spokesman for McDonald's Corp. also was in El Paso for the protest. Keyser said the protesters are not accurate when they say that the restaurants do not provide accessibility for handicapped people. “Since 1979. McDonald’s standard building designs provide accessibility to the handicapped, even though local codes do not necessarily call for it.” Keyser said. "In new construction table heights are considered" Keyser said. “We're not saying the restaurants should be modified overnight," said Bob Conrad, another protester from Denver. “But certainly new construction should have handicapped accessibility plans.” Auberger, Conrad and others have traveled from city to city, protesting at McDonald’s restaurants. The protesters say the height of the tables in the restaurant make it necessary for those in wheelchairs to sit in the restaurant's aisles. “So far, these people have not made an attempt to talk to us,” Keyser said. “These people are using McDonald's to make a political statement. We don't do business as a result of threats,” he said. The atmosphere inside the restaurant remained calm during the protest although customers did not know what was going on. The protesters said they believed the action was successful and after about an hour unlocked themselves and left the restaurant. Keyser said that McDonald's provides accessibility, “and will continue to work on ways to make our restaurants even more accessible, including improvements such as tables that are more convenient for our disabled customers,” he said.