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Home / Albums / Tag Wade Blank 139
ADAPT (1768)
Wade Blank, back to the camera, shakes hands with Denver Mayor Webb as Ida Unsain, Atlantis nurse, looks on. In front of them Mike Auberger is sitting in his power chair, and behind them Brook Ball is talking with Robin Stephens (you can only see her legs.) They are in the Atlantis office on Broadway. This is the office that was raided by the FBI when someone said Mike Auberger and Wade's daughter Heather Blank were making bombs in the basement. The accusation was so patently absurd the FBI finally wrote Atlantis a letter of apology.
ADAPT (1767)
Wade Blank, from the waist up, wearing a black ADAPT Free Our People T-shirt. He has long - below the shoulder length - straight blonde hair parted in the middle, and he is wearing round tinted glasses. Behind him you can see the red and white stripes of the ADAPT flag.
ADAPT (14)
The Denver Post - Tuesday October 26, 1976 [Headline] Housing Sought By Handicapped Seven members of the Atlantis Community for the handicapped in Denver have been moved into their own apartments throughout the Denver area, but more apartments are needed, an Atlantis spokesman said Tuesday. Wade Blank, Atlantis codirecter, said the move of the physically disabled into their own apartments increased the independence that Atlantis is attempting to foster among the disabled. One or two-bedroom apartments are needed for Atlantis residents who are confined to wheel chairs, Blank said. The apartments may be furnished or unfurnished, he added. The Atlantis staff, on duty 24 hours daily, visits members of its community who are in their own apartments to make sure that their daily living needs are met. Apartments also are sought for the disabled who are facing loss of their independent living situation unless they can receive services such as Atlantis provides, Blank said. Apartments for the disabled, Blank said, should have doors at least 28 inches wide, an entrance that has no steps or just one or two steps that can be fitted with one of Atlantis' portable ramps. Interested apartment owners, landlords or managers may call Atlantis at 893-8040 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays. An Atlantis member will meet with the landlord, and apartments that are suitable will be listed in an apartment guide for the disabled, Blank said.
ADAPT (1766)
Column title: PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE Photo: A downward shot of Wade Blank standing with his hands clasped. He has his signature long hair and tinted glasses and is wearing an anorak. Someone is partially visible behind Wade. Caption reads: Wade Blank dedicated almost 20 years of his life to fighting for civil rights for people with disabilities. The members of ADAPT - the disability rights organization Blank founded - will continue the battle in his memory. Title: A True Activist Wade Blank was raised in Canton, OH, where he learned to be a Cleveland Browns football fan. a condition that caused him great pain throughout his life. He earned the equivalent of a doctoral degree in theology from McCormick Seminary in Chicago, where he was ordained a Presbyterian minister. After seven years as a minister, he decided to take a year off for “human service" and became an orderly in a nursing home. His experiences there with young adults with disabilities led him to establish the second independent living center in the nation in 1975—the Atlantis Community. Wade Blank dedicated almost 20 years of his life to fighting for civil rights for people with disabilities. The members of ADAPT—the disability rights organization Blank founded will continue the battle in his memory. Blanks first years in his efforts to win civil rights for people who have disabilities were spent eliminating attitudinal and architectural barriers in Denver. Beginning with l2 young adults with disabilities who were placed in a nursing home for lack of any other options, Blank led them on an exodus into their own homes in the community, where he successfully persuaded the legislature to fund needed personal care assistance outside an institution for the first time. Since then, the Atlantis Community has liberated more than 900 people with severe disabilities from institutions and other sheltered settings and provides the services and support they require to maintain themselves in the community. Once the people of Atlantis entered the "free world," they found that society was completely unprepared to include them. So Blank and his friends set off to integrate Denver. The public buses they needed were inaccessible to wheelchairs. Blank led training sessions and actions that escalated from addressing the transit board to civil disobedience, blocking the buses people with disabilities couldn't ride. This seven-year campaign resulted in a 100% accessible bus system that offers affordable, self determined transportation to over 30,000 riders with disabilities in the area, and it developed an assertive group of people who vowed to fight for and win full and equal rights in their society. As the reputation of Denver as the most accessible city in the nation spread, activists from every state began to call for advice and help. ln1983, Blank founded ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) as a training project. The dramatic actions of ADAPT members have generated publicity that has raised awareness of disability rights throughout the nation, trained over 1,200 activists in the “fire” of civil disobedience, and provided the political muscle behind the Americans with Disabilities Act. When the right to access to public transit was won in 1990, ADAPT’s name was changed to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. The new focus is on winning a federal mandate and funding for personal assistance services for every person with a disability in the nation who needs such help to live independently. Blank and his son Lincoln drowned on February 15, 1993, off the Baja Coast. The people of ADAPT will continue the struggle for this essential victory in their memories until all Americans with disabilities have the opportunity to choose to live independent lives. —By Molly Blank
ADAPT (8)
Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 June 6, 1975 Mr. Wade Blank Atlantis Community Inc. 619 South Broadway Denver, Colorado 80223 Dear Wade: Thank you for inviting me to participate in the opening of the Atlantis Community units at Las Casitas. I know you made a special effort to work the ceremony around my schedule and I appreciate your arranging things so that I could share in the great moment. You are to be commended for your efforts on behalf of the Atlantis Community and I wish you continued success. Sincerely Timothy E. Wirth Best to all and stay in touch.
ADAPT (183)
San Antonio Light, 4/25/85 [Headline] Disabled protesters claim win After three days of public protests, members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit said they believe they have accomplished their goal of drawing the public’s attention to the transportation problems they encounter. The organization called off planned demonstrations yesterday after receiving a pledge from Mayor Henry Cisneros that he would seek improvements in local transit services. More than 50 members of ADAPT, who were staying at The Convent of the Holy Spirit, were expected to leave San Antonio and return to their homes in other states. “We have raised the issue substantially," said ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank. “Our issue is a mobility problem for more than 10,000 people in San Antonio," he added. “They are a ‘hidden minority." Sunday, ADAPT members blocked the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the American Public Transit Association was holding a regional meeting. Monday, ADAPT members moved into the VIA Metropolitan Transit offices on Myrtle Street and remained for several hours until they met with association officials. And Tuesday, the organization's members blocked VIA buses at several downtown intersections. Two ADAPT members were given citations for obstructing traffic, but no arrests were made. No disabled San Antonians joined the protests during which ADAPT members demanded that VIA buses be equipped with wheelchair lifts. VIA operates a special van transportation service for the disabled. Blank, who charged there is a lack of leadership and organization within the San Antonio disabled community, said it would be up to the people here to take up the issue now. The ADAPT spokesman said San Antonio police officers who dealt with the three days of demonstrations were the “most friendly, and, level-headed police in any city” in which the group has demonstrated.
ADAPT (128)
Accent on Living Summer 1983 Transportation Denver Busing Its Disabled Highlighted text: A failure in many cities, Denver has made accessible mass transportation work as an increasing number of disabled use it everyday. The Rapid Transportation District (RTD) in Denver is one of the most accessible transit systems in the nation – and the disabled community will take credit for it. For the last ten years, since 1973 when the RTD initiated “Handy-Ride,” a door-to-door subscription service, accessible buses have been a real issue. To date, disabled advocates have been the winners. “It has been a political victory for us,” says Wade Blank, co-director of the Atlantis Community, a highly active disabled group in Denver. He explains that they did not rely on 504 but instead used a successful strategy. Blank said that in 1973 when HandyRide was implemented, the disabled took the same stance the Blacks took during the civil right movement. “Separate in not equal. We agree that this type of service was fine, but what we really wanted was to have the entire bus system accessible. HandyRide would just be an extra.” Disabled people began demonstrating for accessibility on public buses – and in 1978 RTD agreed to develop mass transit accessibility. By June, 1982, it had met its commitment of having fifty percent of the buses accessible (two hundred twenty buses were retrofitted with lifts and one hundred twenty-seven new buses purchased in 1981 had lifts). In the meantime, however, Blank said the RTD reneged on its commitment of total accessibility because it announced in November, 1981, that eighty-nine buses to be delivered in late 1983 would not be lift equipped. These new buses are articulated buses, twice as long as regular buses. Wheelchair Ridership Graph - Shows ridership by month in 1981, 1982, and part of 1983 (up to April. ) Ridership pretty much rises except in fall and winter there is a downturn, and July of 1982 a sharp drop to a low point of about 300. Highest mark is almost 1300 in October 1982. Caption reads: There was a sharp drop in wheelchair ridership in July, 1982, because there were no accessible buses running.
ADAPT (218)
A photo (by Tom Olin?): A group of demonstrators, some using wheelchairs, seem to be waiting by the side of the road. Three posters are readable: "ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION NOW!" and "APTA OPPRESSES." Diane Coleman sits on the left side of the picture holding a CAPH (California Association of the Physically Handicapped) sign, beside her a woman stands, hands on her hips, behind her an attendant is standing. Beside her Tom Pugh sits in a manual wheelchair, and on his other side Frank McColm is also in a manual chair looking over his shoulder to his right. Standing behind and beside Frank, slightly behind the APTA Oppresses sign Wade Blank stands with his arms crossed in front of his ADAPT T-shirt. Beside him is another person standing. On the far right in the very front Beverly Furnice reclines in her chair looking off to her left with an unreadable sign in her lap.
ADAPT (120)
Rocky Mountain News [2 articles together] RTD won’t be bullied, Agency director asserts Contractors target of get-tough policy By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Regional Transportation District officials say they want to send a message that RTD can't be bullied. So they're considering whether to sue several contractors and consultants that they believe performed unsatisfactory work on the 16th Street Mall. "RTD is famous for saying, ‘Who? Me?“ RTD general manager Ed Colby said. “Those days are over. We're going to be proactive. RTD is going to be accountable to the taxpayers." RTD sources said that among the firms the agency might challenge on the $70 million mall project were Hill International Inc., management consultants for the mall complex; Johnson-Hopson & Associates, architects of the Civic Center bus station at the east end of the mall; and B.B. Andersen Construction Co., general contractor for the station. Colby terminated Hill and Johnson-Hopson last month when he said they allowed construction work at Civic Center to stop or slow repeatedly while haggling over construction changes. He also made Andersen promise to finish Civic Center, at the intersection of Broadway and Colfax Avenue, by Oct. 25. RTD officials filed suit Tuesday in Denver District Court against Weaver Construction Co. of Denver and the I.M. Pei architectural firm of New York City for their work in designing and installing the mall's granite paving. Unforeseen flaws and cracks have appeared in an “unusually high" percentage of the mall's granite paving slabs, officials say. Replacement and repair of the slabs along the 13-block mall-could cost $2 million to $8 million, they say. Colby said RTD is “evaluating potential suits against other firms but would not name the likely targets. The granite-paving suit and the consideration of other suits is the first of many steps RTD will take to erase its reputation for being inefficient and irresponsible managers of major construction projects, he said. “RTD is going to stand up for its rights," Colby said. Civic Center, which is supposed to be open for passengers by early December, is at least eight months behind schedule. Its cost overruns, RTD officials said, are still being tabulated. If it sues the companies it hired to build the mall, RTD would continue a long tortured history of litigation that has plagued [? word hard to read] the project since 16th Street was first torn up four years ago. Those suits and settlements include: * A 1983 settlement with Weaver for $2 million for more than l00 construction changes as-well as the delivery of improperly cut granite. * A $14.1 million lawsuit by Beaudoin Construction Co. of Denver for delays and cost overruns on the Market Street bus station. * A $400,000 settlement last month with B.B. Andersen that included payment of union-level wages to Civic Center construction workers, despite a regulation to that effect on all federally funded construction projects. Federal transit administrators, who have cited the mall as an example of how transit can galvanize a downtown area, said they will demand that [realistic?] building materials be used in future projects and that they and be kept within budget. “We raised questions at the outset about the wisdom of granite," said Ralph Stanley; director of the-Urban Mass Transit Administration. “We are now requiring construction oversight in all federally funded projects and an independent review by our agency of projects costing $25 million and over. You can demand a degree of excellence," Stanley said. 2nd Article: Ribbon snipped for bus station at 1 Civic Center Photo Rocky Mountain News Staff Photo by Frank Kimmel: A lone man [Joe Carle] in a manual wheelchair, back to the camera, watches as groups of people in suits cluster on an open plaza. A long ribbon crosses in front of a bus and one group surround a man who appears to be cutting the ribbon. Caption reads: Protester Joe Carle watches bus station opening. By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer When the ceremonial ribbon was snipped and the yellow sash fluttered to the pavement, the beleaguered Civic Center bus station remained standing. And more than a few Regional Transportation District officials joined in a collective sigh of relief. “There have been a number of headaches (on the project),' RTD chairman Byron Johnson said Wednesday at the station's formal opening. “But we're not worried about the headaches from this day forward. We see this as a tremendous breakthrough." Buses were supposed to be pulling out of the $20 million station, located at the intersection of Broadway and Colfax Ave., in April. But hundreds of complicated construction changes and bitter negotiations between contractors and consultants delayed its opening by six months. Last month, RTD general manager Ed Colby fired the station's architect and management consultant when parts of the concrete building had been left unfinished for 14 months and others had been ripped out and replaced as many as four times. Colby and his assistants took over management of the station themselves and demanded that the exterior be ready for Wednesday's ceremony and the arrival of President Reagan's mass transit director, Ralph Stanley. Stanley used the occasion to announce $6.5 million in federal grants to RTD and the Denver Regional Council of Governments. His brief speech was picketed by 10 handicapped demonstrators. Some of the the demonstrators were arrested in Washington last week when they disrupted a national transit convention where Stanley as a featured guest. "When you're putting on a party, nobody likes a crasher," said Wade Blank, who organized the silent vigil. We're here to make a statement." Workers were, at the site until 10:30pm Tuesday scrubbing the bus turn around out front and planting 17 trees along the Broadway facade.
ADAPT (49)
Rocky Mountain News Wednesday morning April 6, 1977 [Headline] Jeffco health chief says new tests show higher peril from Flats plant 4 PHOTOS FOR THE NEWS BY TIM SPANGLER: First photo (top left) is of a man in a dark jacket (James Chidlaw) standing and tipping over another man (Dennis Wilcox) in wheelchair; his right front and back wheels are off the ground and the standing man is holding the back of his chair. They are in a parking lot with a large white building behind them. In the background other people are standing or walking in the distance. A woman standing near them watching has her hands up. The man in the wheelchair (Wilcox) has a big beard, glasses and a hat with a brim. He is wearing a striped shirt, and the woman in front of him has bell bottoms on. His chair appears to be a motorized wheelchair. Second photo (top right), a man (Chidlaw?) in a dark shirt or jacket is on the ground and two other men are reaching downward in his direction, possibly pushing or holding him down. One of them appears to be wearing a work uniform while the other has on a hat with a feather, a turtleneck and bell bottoms. In the background other people seem to be approaching. Third photo (bottom left) shows the man with the feather in his hat and another person starting to lift the man (Wilcox) in the striped shirt up from the ground. His wheelchair is not visible. Another man (Wade Blank) appears to be talking to the man in the dark jacket (Chidlaw) who is now standing. Meanwhile the man in the work uniform has one hand on the jacketed man's back. The fourth photo (lower right) shows a small crowd of people. A man in a dark shirt (Chidlaw?) has his hand up one finger pointing while Wade and the man in the work uniform watch. Something is happening in front of them but it is hard to tell exactly what. Wilcox's arm in the striped shirt is visible from behind someone else, somewhere between ground and wheelchair heights. [Subheading] Demonstrator encounters rough going Parking lot manager James Chidlaw, upper left, pushes handicapped protestor Dennis Wilcox off his lot during demonstration at Denver's federal office complex Tuesday. Wilcox felt to street and fellow demonstrators...(not legible)...law to ground. At bottom, Wilcox is helped up while other protestors angrily....Chidlaw, who later was cited for assault. Incident preceded an all-night sit-in at the federal office building. Story another photo on page 6.
ADAPT (305)
The Disability Rag, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 1987 p. 10 part 2 of article that starts in ADAPT 306 is included her in ADAPT 305 but that text is included with ADAPT 306 for easier reading. This is the second article: Title: End of September will see ADAPT in S.F. Denver. Then Washington, D.C. Then Los Angeles. Then Detroit. For the past four years, members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit have held demonstrations during the American Public Transit Association’s annual convention, trying to get the lobbying and trade association for the public transit industry to change its mind about lifts on buses. APTA refuses to back mandatory requirements that public bus systems be accessible — instead, they promote a concept called “local option." Under “local option,” something ADAPT organizer Wade Blank has compared to “states’ rights” back in slavery days, communities should decide whether equipping a bus system's fleet with lifts is “better" for disabled people than a separate, “paratransit” system of mini-buses (often called "dial-a-ride.”) Since APTA has refused to change its position, ADAPT has continued to harass the group. Each year ADAPT’s ranks have grown. The first year ADAPT picketed APTA’s convention, in Denver, ADAPT was a local, Denver-based group of wheelchair riders. Today, there are ADAPT chapters in most major American cities. Local disability `groups` in the San Francisco Bay area are organizing for this year's convention and expect hundreds of disabled people from across the country for events beginning September 28. ADAPT’s San Francisco headquarters will be The San Franciscan Hotel, at 1231 Market Street (94103; 415-626-8000.) For more information on housing and actions for the week, contact either ADAPT in Denver at 303-393-0630, or San Francisco's September Alliance for Accessible Transit at 415-323-3736.
ADAPT (6)
United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 May 29, 1975 Mr. Wade Blank Atlantis Project Denver, Colorado Dear Wade: Congratulations on the opening of the Atlantis Project's facility. I wish that I could be with you today. You are to be commended on the perseverance you have shown in getting the Atlantis Project off the ground. I am sure that this facility will be a model for the nation in housing for the handicapped. Sincerely yours, Gary Hart U.S.S.
ADAPT (58)
Western Union Mailgram Mailgram Service Center Middletown VA, 22645 06/05/80 11:23P EST The Atlantis Community 4536 East Colfax Denver, CO 80220 THIS MAILGRAM IS A CONFIRMATION COPY OF THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE: MAYOR BILL MCNICHOLS ROOM 350 CITY AND COUNTY BLDG DENVER CO 80203 SIR THERE IS A GROWING FRUSTRATION AMONG THE DISABLED COMMUNITY CONCERNING THE LACK OF CURB CUTS THAT CAN BE DONE IN A PARTICULAR AREA ON REQUEST. WHILE WE APPLAUD THE CITIES PAST EFFORTS IN CUTTING MANY CURBS FOR WHEELCHAIRS, IN WHILE WE UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT POLICY OF CUTTING OF ALL CURBS THAT ARE REPAIRED-WE ARE PERPLEXED AND FRUSTRATED AT THE LACK OF ANY PROCEDURE BY THE CITY EOR CUTTING CURBS IN A PARTICULAR AREA SO A DISABELED PERSON CAN GET TO WORK, SCHOOL, CHURCH, OR TO A BUS STOP. WE WOULD APPRECIATE A MEETING WITH YOUR OFFICE TO DISCUSS THE PROBLEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE; WE HOPE THAT TOGETHER WE CAN REACH AN AMICABLE RESOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM SINCERELY WADE BLANK & GLENN KOPP CO-DIRECTORS OF THE ATLANTIS COMMUNITY 4536 EAST COLFAX DENVER CO 80220
ADAPT (1758)
Access LISA News March/April 1993, Page 25 Title: Remembrances of Wade Blank “Ironically, Wade died in the same way he lived - swimming into the face of hostile (political) undercurrents, and giving of his life to help another fight for theirs.” - Access Living ”Leadership he provided and resulting momentum have been instrumental to clearing our biggest obstacles. I don't think we would see wheelchair lifts on buses or a campaign to establish a national Personal Attendant program today if not for the work he and ADAPT have done.” - Marca Bristo "There are some people, just by looking at them, you know they have fundamental deep character. He certainly was one. He participated in the civil rights activity of the 60's from which he learned and applied to our own struggle. He was always straightforward and said what he thought. He was filled with idealism and I hate to lose him." - R. Kent Jones, founder of Chicago 's ADAPT chapter ”He basically stood up for anybody’s right no matter who they were and did so passionately.” - Mike Ervin, Chicago ADAPT member “Wade was an activist with a heart. His family included all people with disabilities. Whether Wade was chanting ‘We will ride’ or ‘Free our people‘ or ‘People united will never be defeated‘ he knew that he must continue to fight for a better America for all people, including those with significant disabilities.” - Sen. Tom Harkin ”To dwell on the tragedy of Wade Blank’s death would be a very large disservice to the future. Wade's life is the message. His existence was a towering triumph that demands to be shouted, to be heard, to be acted on. ”He was a superb organizer. He had total honesty and total follow through. You could take his promises to the bank. ”He understood that love does not smother with criticism, care and control; it encourages, emancipates and empowers. ‘Wade's leadership of love made ADAPT the family for those who had no family.” - Justin Dart Photo: In a park setting Wade stands amid a crowd of people in wheelchairs. His long blonde hair falls over his shoulders and he is looking down at his hands. On a hill top behind there is a lone of what appear to be police officers walking away. Caption reads: Wade Blank, and his family, joined fellow ADAPT members on the protest trail. This photo was taken at an ADAPT action in Baltimore, 1991.
ADAPT (23)
[Headline] Sympathy rejected PHOTO. UPI photo by Joe Marquette: Two people in wheelchairs and a man with long blonde hair (Wade Blank?) sit in front of a desk. Behind the desk, which encircles him in a corner, sits a man with glasses in shirtsleeves and a tie (Gov. Vanderhoof). Behind him are 3 large flags, and on the side of his desk another man squats doing something with equipment. The two people in wheelchairs have handwritten poster-signs on their backs; one [Carolyn Finnell?] reads "Support us in our freedom" with the wheelchair symbol drawn in the center, the other reads "The handicapped are people too! Support us [unreadable] Rally!!!" In the foreground is a rug with symbols of Colorado - a pick and a hammer crossed, three snow capped mountains, an eye in a triangle, and the motto NIL SINE NUMINE [nothing without the power]. Caption reads: Gov. John Vanderhoof Thursday met with young handicapped patients from Heritage House nursing home who want higher Medicaid payments. He expressed sympathy but offered no concrete aid. “I thank God I'm not where you are," Vanderhoof said. Disappointed youths said they seek a "charismatic" leader, will look elsewhere.