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ADAPT (592)
[Headline] Wheelchair lifts required on all new transit buses Denver Post Staff and Wire Reports PHILADELPHIA -- Advocates for the disabled Tuesday hailed a federal court ruling requiring wheelchair lifts on new public buses, but a spokesman for transit agencies said the ruling doesn't address vexing problems. "We've been grappling with this for a long time" said Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of the Washington-based American Public Transit Association. He said wheelchair lifts receive limited use where they exist and are an added expense to transit agencies at a time when federal subsidies have been dwindling. On Monday, a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that Congress has made its wishes on accessibility clear, and that lift-equipped buses are part of that mandate. The court ordered the Transportation Department to rewrite a regulation allowing communities to offer alternative "paratransit” service, such as van rides, to the disabled. It said the 24-hour reservations that riders need to make for such services hinder spontaneous use of mass transit. The ruling apparently will have no impact on the Regional Transportation District in Denver, which already has a handicapped accessibility policy that mirrors requirements outlined by the appellate court, an RTD official said. RTD spokeswoman Diana Yee said 80 percent of the system’s 750-bus fleet is wheelchair lift-equipped. Additional service is supplied by a 16-vehicle paratransit program called Handi-Ride that uses vans and small buses to respond to individual transportation requests. RTD also is requiring private operators; soon to takeover 20 percent of the system’s routes, to use buses equipped with wheelchair lifts. James Fornari, a New York City attorney for a group of veterans with spinal-cord injuries, said the court ruling will force transit systems to look for the most efficient means of serving disabled people. “We are quite pleased with this decision, and I see it as a springboard for making other transit systems, which have buses accessible to the mobility impaired, so they can be mainstreamed into American life and society," Fornari said. Engelken said his association’s board, which comprises the heads of transit agencies. across the nation, believes agencies should be able to decide on a local basis how best to serve disabled people.
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Denver Post Thurs., Sept., 14, 1978? or 9? [Headline] One arrested during confrontation Photo by Denver Post photographer [Kunn B*s*0?]: Two people in uniforms carry a woman along a corridor. One has her under her arms, the other by the legs, which are crossed. A man in a suit looks from a distance down the corridor. Caption reads: Demonstrator Patsy Castor is carried from RTD building. She was one of more than 20 ejected after refusing to [unreadable.] Handicapped Protesters Forcibly Ejected From RTD Offices By BRAD MARTISILS, Denver Post Staff Writer One man was arrested and more than 20 handicapped protesters, some wailing and yelling and others kicking and resisting, were ejected forcibly from RTD headquarters Wednesday afternoon after they refused to leave voluntarily. The single arrest was made after Jeff Franek, 24, or 1123 Adams St. [unreadable] struck and knocked down an RTD employee. Franek, who isn't handicapped, was booked on suspicion of assault and released on a $50 cash bond. The demonstrators were removed from the building by about eight Denver policemen assisted by ambulance crews from Denver General Hospital. The ambulance [unreadable] there to assist demonstrators confined to wheelchairs included paramedics trained to handle disabled persons. Police also arranged for [unreadable] ambulance cabs to provide transportation for the demonstrators desiring it. THE PROTESTERS had occupied the fifth floor of RTD offices at 1225 S. Colorado Blvd earlier Wednesday. lt was one of a number of demonstrations over the past few months aimed at pressing RTD officials to provide more service for handicapped persons on regular bus routes. Protesters said they had planned to stay in the offices for three days. But when RTD's Executive Director John Simpson met with them shortly after 5 pm he explained that the building was closing and that they couldn't stay. The protesters refused to meet with him in a downstairs conference room. SIMPSON WAS interrupted by catcalls several times as he tried lo speak to the protesters. "You're not leaving me many choices," he told them when they refused to leave. Bob Conrad, 29, of 750 Knox Court, acted as spokesman for the protesters. When Simpson tried to explain RTD's policies, Conrad said he had been hearing the same explanations for years. "John, you've been telling us the same crap for three years," Conrad said. "We are being denied our rights because we can't ride the buses." Conrad said his group wants to take advantage of regular bus service. But Simpson said such service simply doesn't work for the handicapped. He pointed to a program in St. Louis, in which lifts were installed on 157 buses. In a year's time, he said, only 1,000 rides were given to persons in wheelchairs, at a cost of $200 per ride. THE IMPEDIMENTS to travel for the handicapped aren't primarily with buses," Simpson said. "Studies have shown that inability to get over curbs, to get to the bus stop, and to travel from the bus are much more important factors." Simpson said RTD's service -- which is due to be expanded -- is a better alternative than putting lifts on all buses. He said RTD's service accommodated more than 45,000 trips for handicapped persons in 1977, at a cost of about $10 per trip. He said service to the homes of handicapped persons is being provided by 12 special HandyRide buses. He said 18 more lift-equipped buses soon will begin running on fixed, circular routes, once their lift mechanisms meet the standards of the Denver Commission on the Disabled. Finally, he said 10 more specially equipped buses will soon begin running between RTD Park and Ride areas and various college campuses and shopping centers, where many handicapped persons need transportation. THE HANDYRIDE service operates by subscription, meaning the potential riders must arrange with RTD for the buses to stop at their homes. The fares are the same as for regular bus service. Simpson said the subscription service is filled to capacity, serving 55 wheelchair users and 78 persons with other disabilities. He said there is a waiting list of persons wishing to take advantage of the service. Simpson said equipping RTD buses with lifts to accommodate persons in wheelchairs would cost $4 million. Annual operating costs would be more than $6.5 million, he said. However, the protesters didn't hear his facts and figures because they refused to meet Simpson in the conference room and then were ejected. SEVERAL OF the protesters struggled violently when they were ejected from the building. At least one, Patsy Castor, 18, was slightly injured. She was hauled from the building struggling violently with ambulance crews call to assist police officers. A few onlookers said attendants purposely dropped her outside the door. Others said she struggled so violently that they dropped her accidentally. Wade Blank, director of the Atlantis Community for the handicapped in Denver, said the group was prepared for everything but forceful ejection. "We've asked to be arrested," he said, "But the way things look, I don't think we even have the right to expect that."
ADAPT (86)
Rocky Mountain News PHOTO, News Photo by Jose R. Lopez: A thin woman [Theresa Preda] with dark hair and a big smile stands facing a man [LA Kimball] sitting at a "classroom style" conference table. He has a sickly smile on his face as he looks up at her. Between the tables and beside the woman is a manual wheelchair and she is pointing to it. It appears a man in another wheelchair [Mark Johnson] is pushing the wheelchair toward Teresa. At the table next to Kimball another man, also a presenter, who does not appear to have a disability, stares at Kimball with a slightly startled look on his face. Caption reads: Theresa Preda presents a wheelchair to RTD Executive Director LA. Kimball, right. Disabled riders' flap marks parley By JERRY BROWN News Staff Acting under a court order, Regional Transportation District officials and members of Denver's handicapped community met Wednesday to discuss their differences, but a longstanding argument among the handicapped over the type of bus service they want dominated the session. The 90-minute meeting at the Cosmopolitan Hotel opened with two organizations that have fought for accessible service on RTD’s regular routes presenting a wheelchair to RTD Executive Director L.A, Kimball and urging him to use it to learn firsthand the difficulties handicapped people experience in riding buses. Kimball pledged to use the wheelchair presented by Atlantis and Holistic Approaches to Independent Living, but told reporters: “l probably won't tell you in advance when I'm going to do it." The meeting was the result of a negotiated court order between RTD and the two organizations stemming from a series of demonstrations the organizations staged at RTD buildings in January. Atlantis and HAIL were protesting the transit agency's decision not to put wheelchair lifts on 89 buses scheduled for delivery next year. They have filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court in an attempt to force RTD to put lifts on the buses. But more than half of the l00 or so handicapped people attending the meeting indicated they believed RTD should focus its efforts on the door-to-door service that RTD has provided the handicapped for more than five years — not the accessible service on regular routes advocated by Atlantis and HAIL. Kimball drew cheers when he announced that the door-to-door service, known as Handi-Ride, would not be discontinued this summer as planned. " Kimball said the door-to-door service would continue until sometime next year, and suggested that the handicapped groups present join in a regional effort to devise a system under which someone else would provide the door-to-door service when RTD ends it. RTD began providing wheelchair-accessible service on some regular routes last summer and has promised to have half of its peak-hour service and virtually all of its off peak service wheelchair accessible by July 1. Saying RTD cannot afford to provide both types of accessible service, RTD officials had said they would discontinue the HandiRide service after July 1. The threatened loss of HandiRide service has created a split within the handicapped community, which dominated Wednesday's meeting. Spokesmen for Atlantis and HAIL said they believe both types of service are necessary, and promised to fight any efforts by RTD to discontinue the HandiRide. They accused RTD of using the HandiRide to create dissension among their ranks and “stacking” the audience by sending invitations to HandiRide patrons. But Atlantis spokesman Wade Blank said: "In a way RTD did us a favor." Blank said the meeting would help open communications between the two handicapped factions.