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The Orlando Sentinel, Thursday October 10, 1991 the best newspaper in Florida PHOTO by Phelan M Ebenhack/Sentinel: Three people (left to right: Frank Lozano, Bunnie Andrews? and Sue Davis) are standing in front of a wall. On the wall a cross with "Nursing Homes Kill" written on it is partially visable, as is the ADAPT flag (an American Flag with the stars arranged to form the wheelchair/access logo). The three are lifting up an old fashioned folding E & J manual wheelchair to hang it on the cross. Frank, who is blind and wears a headband and T-shirt with ADAPT on them, has his hand raised. Caption reads: Frank Lozano and Bunnie Andrews, both of Colorado Springs, and Sue Davis of Louisville, Ky., chain a wheelchair to a cross marked ‘Nursing Homes Kill.‘ Title: Disabled saw their message on many faces by Sharon McBreen of the Sentinel Staff Protesters say they made their message clear this week after 250 activists in wheelchairs converged on Orlando. “It’s almost as though they never felt it before we've gotten in their faces,” Diane Coleman said. “You can feel the impact of that. You can see it in their eyes." The members of ADAPT — Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today — carried a message to the American Health Care Association, which attracted 3,500 delegates to a convention this week at the Peabody Hotel. ADAPT membels want an alternative to nursing home care. And they want to live at home. During the convention, which ends today, ADAPT members tried to block the Peabody’s doors with their bodies and wheelchairs. Police arrested 75 protesters on trespassing charges. The group wants a fourth of the $23 billion Medicaid spends on nursing homes and other institutions transferred to at-home care. “We need to reach the `rank`-and-file members of AHCA and the American public," Coleman of Tennessee said at a Wednesday news conference. At least one convention delegate said he wanted to hear more, she said. Nursing home association representatives have asked ADAPT members to meet with them. But what the activists really want is a national policy giving the disabled a choice, said Mark Johnson of Atlanta. Johnson said the nursing home industry doesn't want to allow the disabled to live at home, because it would lose out on the Medicaid money they receive. Wednesday night's news conference had to be moved from the front of the Orange County Convention and Civic Center to a room in the Clarion Plaza Hotel because police threatened to arrest them, one of the organizers said. Orange County sheriff's spokesman Doug Sarubbi denied that. He said an agreement reached with the judge who released the protesters from jail prohibited them from trespassing on Peabody Hotel property. Sarubbi said the Sheriff's Office was tabulating the time and money — estimated at least $100,000 —- it spent on the protest.
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Thurs., September 28, 1989 Atlanta Journal Photo of Claude Holcomb, a thin man sitting/standing in a motorized wheelchair with a finger raised looking off to the side. On his left thigh is a small wooden letterboard [he uses to communicate]. He sits in front of a Greyhound bus and has an ADAPT flag (a flag that looks like an American Flag except the stars are arranged in the shape of the wheelchair symbol) on a pole tied to his wheelchair. The flag wraps around the bus covering part of the Greyhound dog logo and the name so that only the word hound shows. It appears to be in a bus bay at the terminal. Photo by Andy Sharp/staff caption reads: Claude Holcomb of Hartford, Conn., joins the Greyhound protest with an American flag in tow.
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Brochure cover for ADAPT 32 and 33. A History of Liberation Picture of ADAPT Flag in middle of page. This flag is like an American flag, however instead of stars in the blue rectangle it has the outline of a person in a wheelchair made from stars. Atlantis Community, Inc. in a rainbow ribbon.
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Weekly Reader Senior Edition Volume 44, Issue 8, November 3. 1989 PHOTO (by Roberta Barnes/San Antonio Light): A group of marchers, nine are visible but there appear to be more behind them, most in wheelchairs, roll toward the camera. In seems to be windy and sunny and they are on a downtown sidewalk. In the center a man with a busy head of hair and salt and pepper beard (Bob Kafka) rolls his manual chair as he shouts; behind him is a large ADAPT flag. He wears an ADAPT shirt with the no steps logo, suspenders and blue jeans; across is legs is a sign reading "victims of inappropriate accessibility" and he has a bag or something stuffed between his feet. He is looking to his right and a woman in a power chair in a white dress and dark sunglasses looks back at him with a slight smile. She seems to have a parasol. On his left is a man in a motored wheelchair (Hector Saenz) in a button down shirt and suit pants is rolling with him and also yelling. In the row behind them you can see two women in dark sunglasses and dresses walking and carrying posters, one reads "LIFTS NOT LIES." Between Bob and Hector you can see the line goes back and a man with dark hair and a beard (Frank Lozano) is visible pushing another person in a wheelchair. Between the marchers street signs "speed limit 20", "merge left" and a pedestrian crossing sign, are visible. Caption in large print reads: DISABLED AMERICANS WIN RIGHTS See story, pages 4 and 5
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3/14/90 Disabled demonstrators arrested at U.S. Capitol WASHINGTON (AP) — Police arrested disabled demonstrators who chanted slogans and chained their wheelchairs together in the Capitol on Tuesday in a protest demanding quick passage of a bill guaranteeing their civil rights. The arrests came after deliberate arts of civil disobedience by the demonstrators and a confrontation in the Capitol's cavernous Rotunda with House Speaker Thomas S. Foley and Minority Leader Robert H. Michel. Some 75 protesters were arrested, many of them in their wheelchairs. Removing the demonstrators and loading them into vans look police about two hours. Those who could walk were handcuffed, and some in wheelchairs were strapped into their seats by police. Those arrested were charged with two misdemeanors, unlawful entry and demonstrating within the Capitol, said police spokesman GT Nevitt. Both carry maximum sentences of six months in jail. In addition, those convicted could be fined $100 for unlawful entry and $500 for demonstrating in the Capitol. The arrests marked the second day of dramatic lobbying by people with disabilities, who are seeking passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. On Monday, some 60 people crawled out of their wheelchairs and up the West steps of the Capitol to underline their demands. PHOTO (The Associated Press): Three people in wheelchairs sit smiling at one another amid the crowd at the plaza at the bottom of the steps on the West front of the Capitol. Behind them the ADAPT flag flies, with it's wheelchair symbol made out of stars and the stripes like the American flag. Behind the flag is the dome of the Capitol against the sky. Caption: A group of handicapped people gather outside of the U.S. Capitol to draw support for a bill pending in the House that would extend civil rights to disabled persons.
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FRI. SEPTEMBER 29, 1989 The Atlanta Journal and Constitution [Headline] ADAPT: ‘Militant Group' Takes on the Mainstream Disabled Protesters Tired of ‘Lousy Way to Live’ By Pat Burson, staff writer Sallie Bach said she used to look at people with disabilities “like they were nothing.“ “When you're able to walk, you see people like this and you stand up and laugh at them. l know. l did it," said the 50-year-old Chicago woman, a waitress for 21 years until she became physically disabled after jumping from a third-floor window to escape an apartment fire. “l know what it feels like now," she said. “Now I understand.“ Ms. Bach joined more than 100 other disabled and non-disabled people who are members of American Disabled for Accessible Transportation, or ADAPT, as they blockaded a federal office tower and the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta this week to call attention to their demands that wheelchair lifts be installed on all new buses purchased with federal dollars. ADAPT, based in Denver, promotes non discriminatory, mainline public transit system that are accessible to people who use wheelchairs. This week's protests were planned to coincide with the American Public Transit Association‘s (APTA) annual convention ADAPT has held similar protests in Denver, San Francisco, Cincinnati and Montreal, trying to persuade APTA members to support total accessibility of public transit systems. The transit group and ADAPT differ on the federal government's role in mandating access to public transportation. APTA agrees that transit systems should make their buses and trains accessible, but the group believes local government not Washington, should decide. Whether or not members of the disabled community agree with ADAPT's more radical tactics, they applaud its members unceasing demand for access. “They are a militant group, and l think their militancy had been imposed upon them," said Jay W. Brill, a longtime activist for disability rights and manager of the Initiative on Technology, Disability and Post-Secondary Education at the American Council on Education in Washington. "There's a point where the community [of disabled people] becomes so frustrated with transit authorities, and a door opens wide for ADAPT," said Mr.Brill. ADAPT founder Wade E. Blank, a 48-year-old minister with shoulder-length blond hair, said he got the idea to start the group when he worked as a nursing home orderly. "l said to myself, 'What a lousy way to live your life," he said Wednesday, standing behind a police barricade as 25 fellow protesters at the Greyhound station were loaded onto a lift-equipped bus by police. Co-founder Michael Auberger describes ADAPT as “a fringe group‘ that has become mainstream." “It attracts the person who has been within the system and tired of it and the person who is locked out of the system,... somebody who's really disabled, on a fixed income and needs to use public transportation." The organization, formed in 1983, has about 1,800 members and 33 local chapters. As protesters tried to close down the Richard B. Russell Federal Building this week, linking arms and wheelchairs at the tower's main doors and elevators, some compared the demonstration to those during the civil rights movement of a quarter-century ago. "The civil rights movement started because of busing" said Jerry Eubanks, a 31-year-old-dispatcher for the Chicago Sanitation Department, whose legs were amputated below the knee after a train accident. “We just want the right to ride the bus."
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The Handicapped Coloradan / Page 15 & 16 [This article continues in ADAPT 1786, but has been completely included here for easier reading.] Title: "If heaven isn't accessible God had better Watch out!" Photo: Waist up picture of Wade Blank with his below shoulder length blonde hair and round tinted glasses. He is smiling and wearing a vest. Caption reads: Wade Blank ADAPT founder dies in Mexico. Wade Blank went down to Baja, California, in February and drowned there trying to save his eight year old son Lincoln. He was there vacationing with his family. The money for the trip came from Wade’s share of a legal settlement in San Francisco when bad guys violated the civil rights of ADAPT demonstrators. He couldn't afford that kind of trip on his own. He never made more than $16,000 in his life. Lincoln was in the water swimming. An undertow got him and Wade went in after him. He had to know there was very little chance either one would survive. Some fisherman from a nearby village fished Wade’ s body from the water. His wife Molly brought his body home and they covered the coffin with an American flag. Only the stars on this flag formed a wheelchair. Lincoln’s body was never recovered. A few days before he left on that vacation, I told him to skip Baja and its treacherous waters for the calmer seas off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Wade said he’d think about it but we both knew he wouldn’t alter his plans. Wade Blank liked to be where the action was. Many of the 1100 people who filled the ballroom at the Radisson Hotel on Sunday, Feb. 21, to say goodbye to their fallen comrade had accompanied him into battle. “If heaven isn’t accessible,” one of them warned, “God better watch out!” Wade founded the Atlantis Community in 1975 when he helped several disabled people move out of a nursing home and into their own apartments. Then he went on to help organize protests against RTD for not having wheelchairs lifts on its buses, a move that later led to the creation of ADAPT, which then stood for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (“The hard part is getting the acronym right,” he told me at the time.) I asked Tom Olin who was going to replace Wade. “No one,” he said. “Wade was into empowering disabled people. It’s a tribute to him that we’ll just keep on going.” Maybe. But it won’t be the same. People like Wade Blank don't come along very often. A writer for Westward once called Wade the nearest thing to a saint he had ever met. But Wade wasn’t perfect. After all, he was a Cleveland Browns’ fan. He had it so bad that on game day he’d call home to his folks in Ohio and have them put the phone next to the radio. He was president of the Cleveland Browns Fans in Exile Club. A small part of him died when Elway found Jackson in the end zone in the 1987 AFC Championship game. He was a devoted father who had a vasectomy reversed after he married Molly. He called me soon after the operation and bitched about having to lie still to prevent the tubes from severing again. It was the only time I knew him to stay still. The time spent was worth it. He loved Lincoln and Caitlan just as he loved Heather, his adopted daughter. He instilled in them special values. A neighbor recalled a time when she came home and observed Lincoln in front of his house directing some other kids. They weren't playing cowboy and Indian or war or any of the usual childhood games. They were playing rally. “All right,” Lincoln said. “United we stand, never apart.” Wade was a Presbyterian minister whose language would make a coal miner blush. I quoted him a lot on these pages over the past ten years or so but I never quoted him accurately. He used four letter words the way other people use punctuation. Someone made a TV movie about the events at Heritage Nursing Home and Wade said it was close to the truth. But the actor who played Wade didn’t quite capture his style. Wade wore his hair long and looked a little like a construction worker who took a wrong tum back in the 1960s. He once asked me if I wore ties. “I own one,” I said. “It keeps my sleeping bag rolled up.” He liked that. He hated ties. At the memorial service, those few men who showed up wearing ties were asked to remove them—out of respect. By then I owned a real tie. You can‘t go to a funeral in my small hometown without one. I left it at home for Wade. He didn’t have the eloquence of a Martin Luther King. He didn't need it. He wasn’t interested in grabbing the spotlight for himself. He taught his friends that their wheelchairs were a weapon and if they used them right, the whole world would take notice. RTD took notice. Denver became one of the first cities in the U.S. to adopt accessible public transit. Wade helped carry that message to countless other cities. He showed people how they could make a statement by going to jail and then he went out and raised the bail money. Eventually, in a parking lot in Atlanta, the feds gave in. Accessible public transit would be the law of the land. Wade wasn’t about to rest on his laurels. He turned his attention to an earlier cause. ADAPT changed the acronym to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today and took on the nursing home industry. Wade knew that the disabled warriors who took on the federal government over accessible transit and got themselves arrested scores of times were strong enough to live in their own homes. He vowed to force the federal government to take money away from the nursing homes and make that dream a reality. That battle goes on. His friends at ADAPT are planning a memorial service in his honor in Washington, D.C. this May. At the same time, they’re going to make sure Bill Clinton honors his promises to provide funds for such attendant care. It's a fitting memorial but you can find plenty of monuments to Wade Blank in this country. There one at every street comer where there’s a curb cut and one on every bus equipped with a lift. And every time someone who is exploited because of a physical disability raises a fist in defiance and fights for his or her freedom and humanity, you’ll see Wade’s image in their eyes and his dream in their hearts. So long, Wade. If it’s really heaven, there won’t be a dress code. Written by Tom Schantz
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This Brain Has A Mouth (The Mouth) Jan/Feb 1991 PHOTO by Gary Bosworth: A small neat looking white woman in a motorized wheelchair, Cindy from Mass., sits in a revolving doorway. Wrapped loosely around her shoulder, wheelchair and the door frame is a long metal chain. She has a poster sign across her legs, but in the photo it is too dark to read. On her left side and slightly in front and partially in the picture, another small neat looking woman in dark sunglasses, Lillibeth Navarro, sits in her chair and appears to be talking over her shoulder. Below the picture is a text box that reads: In March of 1990, 104 members of ADAPT were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda for lobbying the old-fashioned way — with their stubborn bodies and loud mouths. Four months later President Bush sent a personal invitation to every one of those arrestees to attend the ceremonies at the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the White House Rose Garden. ANGER can make you a hero, or put you in jail, or both. written and photographed by Gary Bosworth. I was one of 200 people with disabilities who converged on Atlanta three months after the historic ADA was signed, to raise the banner of ADAPT’s new demand: a clear-cut national policy on attendant service programs. The lack of basic attendant services keeps one million disabled Americans imprisoned in nursing homes when they could be full-fledged, contributing members of society. While it costs $30,000 a year to keep one of us in a nursing home, the cost of providing attendant care services for the same person is $4,000 to $6,000 a year. In an ever-deepening federal budget crisis, ADAPT’s simple proposal will cost not a single penny, but simply redirect 25% of the funds currently spent on nursing home care. Attendant services in fact save money and cut the deficit by allowing all Americans — not just the able-bodied — to be productive workers, taxpayers. October’s action for disability rights at Morehouse College in Atlanta was the national kickoff for this vital issue. Morehouse College’s most famous graduate is Martin Luther King, Jr. Our protest there followed in King's grand tradition of non-violent passive civil disobedience. Morehouse College is also the alma mater of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Louis Sullivan — the man with the power to push for a new national policy on attendant services. ADAPT had written to Secretary Sullivan months in advance, asking for a meeting. Sullivan was scheduled to be in Atlanta the week before. ADAPT asked for an hour of his time. Sullivan did not respond. More than fifty of ADAPT’s demonstrators took over the President's office at Morehouse College for the night of October 1st. A young boy saw news of our protests on TV that evening. He stayed up late into the night to make a sandwich for each demonstrator, pack each sandwich into a bag, and write on every bag: "You are my Hero." The boy and his mother delivered those hero sandwiches to the demonstrators the next morning. When we returned from the college, street vendors along the route stood up and applauded our wheelchair parade. At another protest in Decatur, Georgia, traffic stopped several times on a four-lane highway while the drivers honked their horns in support of the issues we raised. On October 3, we forced the issue further, blockading the doors of the Federal Building. [See photos...] During the four hours it took for the police to arrest 64 people with disabilities who were blocking the entrance, one police officer took a break to speak with a woman in a wheelchair who waited to be loaded onto the arrest bus. The cop said that his wife had just suffered a stroke. Because there is no attendant services program in Georgia, he expected to see his wife go into a nursing home — against both their wishes — within the next six months. The woman he had arrested told him that's why she was demonstrating: to speak for people like his wife who couldn’t speak out themselves. After the woman was loaded onto the arrest bus, the policeman asked to hold her hand. She reached out the window. He took her hand. Then he cried. Please, let us all put our anger into action and speak out for attendant services. Whatever happens — jail or heroism or both — we're going all the way. PHOTO by Gary Bosworth: A group of about 7 protesters, all but one in wheelchairs, stand in front of the mirror glass walls and front door of a building. One person standing and one person in a wheelchair hold a giant ADAPT flag behind a man in a wheelchair giving the power fist. Bob Kafka is sitting behind the flag and Cindy from Boston and another wheelchair user hold the end of the flag. The end Gary Bosworth has been active in disability rights for 8 years, is co-founder of Desert Access of Palm Springs, California, and member of the Board of Directors of Southern California ADAPT.
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PHOTO: by Tom Olin. A long, single-file line of ADAPT marchers is headed by Lee Jackson (left), Bob Kafka (center), and Terri Fowler (right) being pushed by some one. Lee and Bob have on different ADAPT no steps logo T-shirts. Behind Bob someone is carrying the ADAPT flag, behind that person you can see Claude Holcomb, and a few more people back you can see Wade pushing someone (Paulette Patterson?). They are marching down the street (in front of the Russell Federal Building in Atlanta) A TV cameraman is standing on the sidewalk filming the march, and near him two people in wheelchairs and another person are on the sidewalk.
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The Atlanta Constitution MONDAY SEPTEMBER 25 1989 Photo (Dianne Laakso/Staff): A long line of ADAPT protesters marching single file. Above their heads is a very large banner reading "ADAPT WE WILL RIDE." The first young man in line is wearing a sign across his knees reading ADAPT or Perish. Caption: Disabled demonstrators roll down Peachtree Street Sunday en route to the Atlanta Hilton Hotel on Courtland Street, site of an American Public Transit Association convention. The disabled group wants removal of all barriers to public transportation. [Headline] Disabled Demand Accessible Public Transportation Protest Directed at Mass Transit Conference Here By Sandra Mclntosh, Staff Writer About 100 disabled people from across the United States and Canada, most of them in wheelchairs, protested in front of the Hilton Hotel in Atlanta Sunday at the start of a convention of mass transit authorities. Stephanie Thomas, a spokeswoman for the group calling themselves ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation), said the protesters are angry over the transit group's continued opposition to federal legislation that would prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. The protest was timed to coincide with the opening of the convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA), a trade group representing a majority of public transit systems in North America. The bill, known as the Americans With Disabilities Act, would make it illegal to discriminate against disabled people in employment and places of public accommodations, would assure those with speech or hearing impairments of special equipment allowing them to communicate with anyone, and would remove barriers in transportation. It is the latter part that upsets the members of the APTA. "We assume it will become law, and if it does we'll implement it," said Albert Engelken, APTA’s deputy executive director. "But that doesn't mean we have to be happy about it." Mr. Engelken said he does not want to sound cold-hearted but with shrinking federal transportation funds it sometimes does not make sense to use those funds to install seldom-used wheelchair lifts on buses. "We‘re not harsh people, but our job is to offer the most people the most mobility for the best possible price," Mr. Engelken said. Ms. Thomas said her group does not expect the transit systems to refit all their buses immediately, nor make all the train stations immediately available to the disabled. "We realize it's a longtime goal, and we're willing to wait. We know the costs involved." Ms. Thomas said as other members crowded around, “All we're asking for is a commitment that they‘re willing to do these things and they won't give us that." The protest, which closed part of Courtland Street. lasted about four hours, and was watched by nearly as many police officers as there were protesters. Police Maj. W W Holley said no arrests were made. ADAPT members had a permit to hold Sunday's protest, but Major Holley said no other permits have been issued. The group said it plans to stay until Thursday when the convention ends, and may protest again.
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New York Times NATIONAL Tuesday March 13, 1990 Bill Barring Discrimination Against Disabled Hits Snag By STEVEN A. HOLMES, Special to The New York Times WASHINGTON, March 12 — Having strongly supported a comprehensive bill in the Senate to extend civil rights protections to 43 million Americans with physical and mental disabilities, the Bush Administration is balking at efforts to toughen penalties against businesses that do not comply. Officially, the White House has not withdrawn its support for the bill, which would require all new buildings and services used by the public to accommodate the disabled. “We do support the legislation," the White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said today. "We‘re very supportive of their rights and their cause." But other Administration officials said President Bush was reluctant to support the measure if its backers persisted in seeking penalties for job discrimination that are harsher than those in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law bars discrimination on the basis of race, sex and national origin and limits penalties to court injunctions directing a business to stop discriminating and to reinstatement and back pay for those dismissed or not promoted as a result of bias. Both the disabilities bill passed by the Senate and one pending in the House state that penalties for violating the anti-discrimination provisions will be the same as those in the Civil Rights Act. Letter From Attorney General But a new bill introduced in both the House and the Senate last month would toughen the penalties in the 1964 law to allow for compensatory and punitive damages. Thus it would affect those in the disabilities bill as well. Sponsors say chances for passage of the proposed changes in the Civil Rights Act are good. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, in a letter sent tonight to Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, the chief sponsor of the House bill, said the Administration would seek to amend the disabilities bill to delete any link to the 1964 act and to lay out specifically what the employer sanctions would be. A spokesman for Mr.Thornburgh, David Runkel, said tonight that the Administration does not want the penalties in the disabilities act to go beyond the court injunctions and reinstatement and back pay now in the 1964 law. Senior Administration officials said the White House may withdraw its support from the bill if it is unable to delete any reference to the 1964 legislation. The disabilities measure, which passed the Senate in September by a vote of 76 to 8, has 246 sponsors in the House and passage seems virtually assured. Alixe Glen, a White House spokeswoman, declined to say whether the President would veto the bill if it continues to be linked to the civil rights laws. Rally by Disabled People The maneuvering over the bill came as more than 250 disabled people, many of them in wheelchairs, held a rally at the White House and then moved on to the steps of the Capitol to press for prompt House passage of the disabled rights bill. "Too often disabled people are seen as objects of charity or pity," Bob Kafka, a quadriplegic from Austin, Tex., said. "We're here to change that image. And we're here to send a message to the President and to Congress that this bill needs to be passed with no weakening amendments." If passed in its current form, the Americans with Disabilities Act would be the most sweeping civil rights law enacted since the landmark 1964 act. It mandates that all new buildings used by the general public, including restaurants, lodgings, places of entertainment, doctors’ offices and other establishments, provide the disabled with the means to enter and exit and that existing businesses make appropriate modifications if that can be done without creating a financial burden. The bill would also require that new railroad and subway cars and buses purchased by public and private transportation companies be accessible to people with disabilities and that telephone companies provide public telephones that can be used by persons with speech or hearing impairments. It was to gain the support of the White House and Senate Republicans that the bill's backers agreed to link the penalty provisions to those in the 1964 civil rights law. The bill's supporters had wanted to allow disabled people who proved they were victims of intentional and willful job discrimination to sue for compensatory and punitive damages. But the Administration argued that the disabled should not receive protections that were greater than those accorded to women and minorities. With the Administration's backing, the Senate approved the bill. But as it worked its way through House committees, a separate measure, the Civil Rights Act of 1990, was introduced in Congress with the backing of a coalition oi civil rights organizations that includes groups representing people with disabilities. The new measure amends the 1964 law to permit compensatory and punitive damages for victims of job discrimination. ENLARGED TEXT INSERTED INTO THE ARTICLE: How tough should the penalties against businesses be? PHOTO (The New York Times/George Tames): Three women in wheelchairs (Paulette Patterson, Christine Coughlin, and Lillibeth Navarro) across a sidewalk roll in front of a large white pillared government building [part of the White House complex]. The closest woman is holding a small bull horn and chanting; she is being pushed by another woman with an ADAPT headband and T-shirt. The other two women are in power chairs, the one in the middle has a placard that says something about Rights, and she is carrying the ADAPT flag and chanting. All four women look very determined and strong. Caption reads: Hundreds of handicapped people demonstrated in Washington yesterday to press for passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
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History and Mission Independent Living for People with Disabilities [This brochure continues in ADAPT 33, but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] PHOTO by Tom Olin (bottom right): A man (George Roberts) in wheelchair raises the power fist with his right hand. He is carrying a sign that reads "Nursing Homes = Jail." Behind him a group of other wheelchair protesters are lining up. Atlantis was founded in 1975, the second “Independent Living Center” in the country after Berkeley. A group of young disabled adults and six concerned staff from a Denver nursing home concluded that no amount of outings to concerts or bingo games could normalize life for these young people. The real solution was to move into the community, in apartments within the city’s neighborhoods, to create self-determined lifestyles where the disabled clients choose their own food, direct their own care, and determine their own priorities. This was a revolutionary concept in 1975, but the people of Atlantis were able to convince the State Legislature to fund personal care assistance outside an institutional setting for the very first time. In the more than fifteen years since its founding, the agency has been able to assist over 400 disabled adults in moving from sheltered settings and maintaining independent lives. The Atlantis Community staff specializes in assistance for very severely, multiply-disabled people, carrying out our belief that any disabled person can live outside an institution, if s/he is willing to accept the risks and inconveniences in order to enjoy self-determination and liberty. To that end, the staff and clients are experts in helping with everything from finding an apartment to applying for benefits, from grocery shopping to weddings, from cooking training to camping trips. The assistance with daily living activities and the basic skills training and reinforcement offered are complemented by the trained and state-certified staff of home health aides and their supervisors who visit the clients at home as often as needed — usually several times a day. The people of Atlantis also offer other independent living services to people throughout the nation — ranging from information and referral services to assertiveness training and technical assistance. The city of Denver and the Atlantis Community have become a mecca for disabled people seeking an accessible environment and comprehensive services. PHOTO by Tom Olin (top left corner): 4 people in wheelchairs (left to right, Joe Carle, Diane Coleman, Bob Kafka and Mark Johnson) lead a march. Everyone is dressed in revolutionary war garb -- wigs, three cornered hats, jackets with braid on them. Over their heads is a large flag, the ADAPT flag. PHOTO (bottom right): An older man (Mel Conrardy) in a white jacket and pants, sits in a wheelchair on a lift at the front door of a bus. To his right on the side of the bus door it says RTD Welcome Aboard. Mel looks relaxed and is smiling.
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Handicapped Coloradan [Headline] These are the people who chased APTA George Florum, 47, of Colorado Springs, is a T3 para who fell out of a cherrypicker. He went to work for Atlantis and became involved with ADAPT in April of 1985. Florum has been arrested between 15 and 20 times on charges ranging from instigating a riot, blocking entrances, and chaining himself to doors and buses. "I think the disability movement has really grown," Florum said, "In April of '85 in San Antonio 15 people were willing to be arrested. Now people are standing up for their rights, and I think it's great." Joe Carle, 51, of Dallas, is a single amputee with artery problems. "I was the first to go through the training seminar," Carle said. "The second big seminar was to take on McDonald’s. Now, transportation is fairly won, but access will be a continuing battle. The disability movement can go anywhere." Rick James, 39, had encephalitis when he was two years old. Five years ago he was one of 20 people who did a "crawl on" on a bus, and three weeks later he was part of a group that got together and blocked a bus. “We will get ADA passed," James said, "and then take on any issues we feel necessary, such as health care, attendant care, the Greyhound company, housing - any of a number of issues." Cathy Thomas, 60, of Irving, Tex., has spina bifida and became involved with ADAPT - when a disability group she belonged to that was trying to get accessible transportation in Dallas asked ADAPT for help. She says, “At this point rights for disabled people are inevitable, We want to get as many buses accessible as possible. If President Bush is sincere in wanting to mainstream people with disabilities, then it's time he took the first step in getting us accessible transportation so we, too, can pursue the American dream." Rhonda Lester of Denver is the mother of Kenny Perkins, 5, who was refused access to an RTD bus in October 1987. “They viewed Kenny as a baby because of his chair," Lester said. “They wanted to board him separately from his chair-in other words, he was to be carried on. So I called Wade Blank on a Thursday and on Friday help came. Larry, George, Ken, ET and Julie blocked a bus. They let us on, we changed the policy, and I was allowed to attend a training meeting." When asked if there has been a lot of resistance to Kenny, Lester said, "Oh, yeah. People see one of ‘Jerry's Kids,' not the wheelchair I hope our actions and civil disobedience help to get full integration for my son." As to the controversial issue of children in the disability rights movement, Lester said, "As the mother of a disabled son, I feel that no one has a bigger right than myself to fight for my son's rights, although there are some who would disagree very strongly with this view. "Children need to be in the movement because it is for the children . . .the ultimate goal.” THANK YOU, ADAPT A poem by Rhonda Lester There is a little boy Very close to my heart Who is a bit different But handsome and smart. Strangers who meet him Can't get past the chair, But he goes on bravely, Not seeming to care. He's strong and he's tough- He almost has to be- But he is one of the warriors Who wants to be free. We are always standing by you, For our fight is real. We wanted you to know How grateful we feel. So thank you all clearly For all that you've done For the movement, myself, And my son. All photos in this issue by Bob Conrad. PHOTO: of George Florum looking to the side in an "ADAPT or perish" t-shirt. His dark hair is short and a trim beard and mustache outline his mouth and jaw. He looks fit and determined. PHOTO: George Cooper, an older man in a wheelchair blocks a doorway partially with another person in a manual wheelchair. Walking bureaucrats, some with badges stand behind them looking as though they want to get through. George is speaking with a woman who is looking down toward the floor. Caption: George Cooper of Dallas occupies the Federal Building. PHOTO: A small person in a manual wheelchair being pushed by a woman behind, sits at one end of some police barricades while a man in a manual chair sits at the other end. Behind the barricades a ways off is a line of police standing together. Caption: At the barricades. PHOTO: A group of people in wheelchairs is gathered at one side of the picture, a woman in a wheelchair at the back of the group holds high the ADAPT flag. Beneath it you can see Lincoln Blank and a few other protesters are clustered on the other side. The group seems to be at the entrance of a hotel type building. Caption: A large flag is unfurled.
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Different TIMES THE NEWSPAPER DEDICATED TO THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL PERSONS ARE CREATED DIFFERENT, BUT EQUAL $125 Vol. IV, No.4 April, 1990 Protesters disable capitol Photo (World Wide Photos): Three protesters in wheelchairs sit in front of the Capitiol building beside the crowd. One sits, back to the camera, Walter Hart faces the camera with a bandanna and dark glasses, and Joe Carle sits sideways. Behind them in the far distance is the dome of the Capitol and directly behind them between the dome and the group is the ADAPT flag (an American flag with the stars arranged in the access symbol.) Caption reads: About 1500 persons of disability rallied for protest outside capitol in Washington, D.C. last month. STORY 1: by Vonne Worth Protest marches last month may influence passage of a strong Americans with Disabilities Act soon. 1500 join in Washington, DC demonstrations to pass ADA in House On March 12, Americans with Disabilities for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) marched from the White House to the Capitol Building, said Mike Auberger, an organizer with ADAPT. About 1500 people from all over the country with many different disabilities took part, he said. At the White House, a spokesperson "reaffirmed President Bush's position that he wanted to see the Senate version of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed intact," Auberger said. The ADA is a civil rights act for persons of disability which prohibits discrimination in employment, transportation, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications. It has passed the Senate and is now in the House of Representatives, where some business interests are lobbying heavily against it. ADAPT was demonstrating to work for passage of the ADA, according to Auberger. After the march to the capitol, several speakers talked to the crowd. They included Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.); Rep. Major Owens (D-N.Y.), one of the sponsors of the ADA; Justin Dart, of the Congressional Task Force on Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities; Jim Brady, former President Reagan's press secretary; Auberger, and others. Then there was a crawl up the steps of the capitol. "The reason for the crawl was to let everybody in the House know that we're not going to let any obstacle stop us from having the ADA passed," Auberger said. “It wasn't to gain sympathy or to gain votes." ADAPT protesters marched to the rotunda the following day, March 13, and took over the rotunda. 104 of them were arrested. March l4, ADAPT demonstrators went to the Sam Rayburn Building. “We took over [Rep.] Bud Schuster's (R-Pa.) office who's the minority chairman of the Transportation Committee," Auberger said. “He's been the one within the Transportation Committee who's tried to add amendments like ‘Cities under 200,000 would not have to lift-equip their vehicles." “Also he was going after inclement weather—if you had too much snow, like we have here in Denver, you wouldn't have to have lift-equipped vehicles even though we already do. We have an average of 60 inches of snow a year," Auberger related. “Most of those amendments were defeated," Auberger added. “At the same time, we met with Hamilton Fish, (R-NY) who is the minority chairman of the Judiciary Committee," Auberger said. The ADA is undergoing constant attempts to weaken the remedy section; however, Fish didn't seem aware of this, according to Auberger. But Fish sat down in his office with about 30 disabled people and "talked with us probably for about a half hour and made a commitment that he would do everything within his position as minority leader of that Committee to see that there isn't any weakening and we were also at the Judiciary Committee Offices and we were working on setting up a meeting with Attorney General Thornburgh because he was the one who had been raising the issue of weakening the remedies section," Auberger said. “They were working on that and they tried to stall so at about seven o'clock, they were closing the capitol, we all refused to leave from Bud Schuster's office and from the Judiciary Committee and there were 60 people arrested in those offices and we got out about one o'clock that night," Auberger related. He said the demonstrations seemed to work. “lt clearly had this real effect on the hill when you went up there." PHOTO (by Tom Olin): Looking from over the shoulders and head of a woman (Cassie James) on the floor sitting between the back of a power wheelchair and a desk, she is holding onto the desk with her left arm and is scrunched in. Over her head on the other side of the room 3 other people people with disabilities out of their wheelchairs (Eric von Schmeterling, Carol Marfisi and Kent Killam) are sitting on the floor. Behind them is a desk and the wall with photos on it, Congressional meomentos. Caption reads: Demonstrators sit in Rep. Bud Schuster’s (R-Pa.) office to protest his sponsorship of amendments that would have substantially weakened ADA sections dealing with transportation. All of a sudden, these representatives knew the ADA was an issue and that disabled people were here and they [the congresspersons] had that look of ‘Are you one of them that are raising all the hell?’ They had a whole different understanding of disability—that you need to see a different side of disabled people, not the side that you want to think of as poor and helpless. They clearly were educated very fast over those two days,” Auberger commented. “Now as a result of that demonstration and one in Philadelphia, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has rewritten the final regs to require all mainline systems to be lift-equipped into the future and to provide paratransit for those people who cannot get to the bus stop. These are new regs that have 90-day comment periods—the transit industry is not going" to oppose them,” he explained. Also, ADA should come to the House for a vote soon. It will be brought the the floor within 60 days and there is a lot of support for the bill, said Charles Siegal, from Speaker Foley’s press secretary’s office. ADA went through the Energy Committee without any amendments and no changes from the Senate version, Auberger indicated. “That happened while we were there and I'm sure that's why it happened that way," he said. STORY 2: by Vonne Worth A protest in Washington, D.C. by a disability group has resulted in the filing of a half-million-dollarlawsuit against the District of Columbia Court System. Americans with Disabilities for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), many in wheelchairs, crawled up the stairs to the nation ’s capitol and took over the rotunda on March 13. They demanded to talk to Speaker of the House Tom Foley (D-Wash.) and Minority Leader of the House Robert Michel (R-Ill.) about passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). “He [Foley] was not happy to come to meet with us" said Mike Auberger, organizer with ADAPT. "He didn't seem to have met with a lot of disability groups, he didn't quite know how to respond to that many disabled people and he talked about him pushing and speeding up the process and he tried to explain ‘we don’t understand the legislative process,’ and we said, ‘of course, we do, we're not totally stupid, just disabled.” “And Michel pretty much came out with the same sentiment and we let him know that he and other Republicans could be targets of the demonstration later in the week simply because they put more and more and more weakening amendments into the ADA,” Auberger added. The talk seemed to break down and the Capitol Police were called. “They were continuing to speak, we heard enough and so we were pretty much just chanting at that point ‘ADA now, now less,"' Auberger said. “At the point where we decided people could get arrested, all went to the center of the rotunda and circled there and several of us chained ourselves together with kryptonite locks," Auberger related. Within 15 minutes, 104 people, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested, Auberger indicated. Then the police couldn’t cut through the locks. “They tried bolt cutters, they tried two different types of bolt cutters, they didn't work, so they had to bring in a hydraulic bolt cutter and it finally did work on the first one, but it broke on the second one, so they finally tried the bolt cutters again and they went through this whole process of getting these 104 people who were chanting in the middle of the rotunda ‘ADA now’ out," Auberger said. “It took about two and a half hours to get everybody out of the building since they only used one elevator which could take only one person at a time," Auberger explained. “At 1:28 Eastern time, they had to close the capitol to the public so that they could ‘get rid of all those rowdy disabled people." “They didn't have lift-equipped vehicles, so they had to lift everybody into vans and it took four or five officers to lift each chair into a van and they drive off with two chairs to a van to the police station, and then it took four or five more officers" to get them off, Auberger said. “They took everybody to police headquarters where they booked everybody and released them the next moming about one o'clock," Auberger related. It took 12 hours for the police to book 104 people. “This was a major process, them getting everybody out there," Auberger said, “lt was just a nightmare for them." The next afternoon, they went to the Sam Rayburn Building and took over offices of the congressmen on the Transportation and Judiciary Committees. About 60 people were arrested that day. The next two days were spent in court, Auberger said. “The majority of people ended up paying $10 in court costs and suspended sentences and that was pretty much it,” Auberger said. “There were five people who were given probation in their own cities from six months to a year just for being, I would suspect, ringleaders," he said. The judge in the case was disabled. “He had an arm that he couldn’t use at all,” Auberger said. Auberger said he felt the judge wasn’t sympathetic to the case. “His position was ‘You write your congressman if you want to change things,”’ Auberger said. “We all did that, clearly. It didn’t do a damn bit of good, but he wasn’t going to hear that. He pretty much gave out fines, four of them were for $100 and ten day suspended sentences and mine was $500 and a 20 day suspended sentence plus I have the longest, a year probation in-my city.” Auberger said it was rare for courts to send probation orders back to one’s home city. “Ironically, what was so incredible was the next day, when we went to file our probation papers, the building we were supposed to file our probation papers in was inaccessible,” Auberger said. “We come back to the courthouse, we talked to our attomey; unfortunately, the judge wasn’t around.” “They [had] put us all on probation and then we couldn’t get into the building to do the probation. Well, then, they told us, ‘Do it out in the hall by the courtroom.’.No. That's unacceptable. If everybody else goes into the building, we should be able to as well.” “So we’ve now filed a half a million dollar lawsuit against the District of Columbia Court System for denying us our civil rights.” About 250 people took part in the action. Copyright 1990, Different TIMES
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June 12, 1990 - Guardian. 5 Disabled 'ecstatic' as rights act clears House By DIANE COLEMAN The Americans with Disabilities Act, considered by many to be the most sweeping civil rights legislation since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, easily cleared the House of Representatives May 22. It is expected to reach the president‘s desk by July 4. The act prohibits discrimination based on disability in public accommodations, employment, transportation and telecommunications. It is intended to address "rampant, daily discrimination in every sphere of American life,“ Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., told her colleagues on the House floor. “Mentally retarded persons are kept out of restaurants. Persons with cerebral palsy are turned away from theaters. . . . Employers cite fears of hiring disabled persons because their customers will feel uncomfortable or even repulsed,” Schroeder added. Despite strong opposition from private business and transportation lobbies, chief among them the National Federation of Independent Businesses and Greyhound Lines, Inc. , the Americans With Disabilities Act achieved bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. The House vote was 403-29. Under pressure from the NFIB and the National Restaurant Association, the House version of the bill was amended at the last minute to allow employers to remove people with HIV infection from food handling positions. Sponsored by Rep. Jim Chapman, the amendment passed narrowly, although the Texas Democrat conceded there is no “evidence that‘AIDS can be transferred in the process of handling food.” Tom Sheridan of AIDS Action, representing 500 community-based service organizations, predicted that the Chapman amendment would go down to defeat in the House-Senate conference committee. “It’s a horrible amendment for all people with disabilities because . . . it begins to codify the fact that irrational fear is protected by the law,” he said. Nonetheless at press time Senate conferees had agreed to include the restrictions. “Cheers and tears” filled the House gallery at the moment of the ADA's long-awaited passage, according to Tennessee disabled activist Michael Gibson, “but we all know that the bill is only a first step. Several agencies will be writing key regulations which offer innumerable opportunities to weaken the effect of this legislation,” Gibson said. SOME DELAYS, FEW LOSSES While many activists feared the House would water down the Senate version of the bill, Marilyn Golden of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund said that the ADA “has not been weakened anywhere near the extent that much legislation is. " According to Golden, who has worked intensively for the bill's passage over the last two years, various timetables and phase-in provisions were adopted to avoid other forms of compromise. The ADA’s protections against employment discrimination, which parallel those applied to federally funded entities since 1973, do not go into effect for two years. Prohibitions against discrimination in public accommodations, such as theaters and restaurants, will require accessibility in facilities “construct[ed] . . . for first occupancy no later than 30 months after the date of enactment." Telephone companies will have three years to put in place a relay service for deaf people and others who depend on non-voice telecommunication. A requirement that all new public buses be lift-equipped will take effect in only 30 days. Many attribute this to seven years of non-violent civil disobedience by the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. Greyhound, a private carrier, was given six years to begin replacing its retired buses with accessible ones. Activists also waged a last-minute battle over employment discrimination remedies. Recently proposed legislation would add damages to the relief available to discrimination victims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the face of this, Golden said. the Bush administration tried “to renege on its agreement for parallelism” between the ADA and the 1964 act. It backed an amendment that would have kept remedies for disability-based discrimination at current levels if and when discrimination remedies are increased for other minority groups and women. The amendment was narrowly defeated just prior to the final vote on the bill itself. Overall, Golden said. “We're ecstatic." The ADA “will hopefully begin to convey to the American public. left, center and right (because in some ways I don't think the consciousness of the left is any better), that disability is not a personal issue, that there’s a systematic oppression of people with disabilities. . . . Even Congress has faced the fact of the systematic discrimination. " PHOTO (by Tom Olin): A closer view of a mass of marchers coming around a huge tree on a broad sidewalk leading up to the Capitol. Stephanie Thomas, Frank Lozano, Jennifer Keelan and others lead the march which is 12 across in some places and scattered in others. The ADAPT flag (an American Flag with the stars arranged in the wheelchair symbol instead of in rows) flies over the crowd from a few rows back. Some people are in suits and ties, some in T-shirts. Some are in wheelchairs, some carry cameras; children to older folks are in the mix. Caption reads: Seven years of nonviolent civil disobedience by the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit has been credited for the requirement that all new buses be lift-equipped. Above, ADAPT march on U.S. Capitol.