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ADAPT (448)
Reno Gazette-Journal 5-2-89 Nevada [Headline] Handicapped protest expenses: $116,000 Last month's disturbances by handicapped activists at John Ascuaga’s Nugget and other locations in Sparks cost taxpayers at least $116,000, according to preliminary figures reported Monday. The estimates are from the Sparks Police Department, the Washoe County Sheriff's Office and Sparks - Municipal Court. About 75 members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation demonstrated outside the Nugget, where the American Public Transit Association was holding its Western regional meeting. The members of the Denver, Colo.-based group picketed to support their demands for more wheelchair ramps on public transportation. There were 72 arrest during nearly a week of protests. About half that number went to jail. Sparks police estimated their expenses in controlling the group at $79,275. The sheriff's Department, which runs the consolidated city-county jail, placed its costs at $34,164. Municipal Court Judge Donald Gladstone expects his costs will run about $3,000. Sparks City Manager Pat Thompson says the expenses can be paid out of contingency funds.
ADAPT (322)
Logo of a sun. The Arizona Republic April 13, 1987, Phoenix, Arizona [This story continues in ADAPT 314 but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] PHOTO by David Petkiewicz/Republic: A large group of people are standing, heading into the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Among those standing some people in wheelchairs are visible, and a reporter is there with a camera. Caption reads: Wheelchair-bound protesters and their supporters gather at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix. The group converged on the American Public Transit Association's convention at the hotel last week. Title: Driven by anger, disabled man has fought long, hard for access. By CHUCK HAWLEY The Arizona Republic Mike Landwehr pushes his own wheelchair, but it's really anger that drives the wheels. "Every day, my anger is brought forward again when l have to push my wheelchair 10 blocks in my own hometown,“ said Landwehr, a Chicago man who has been arrested a dozen or more times since 1978 while demonstrating for access to public transportation for the disabled. “I'm running out of patience.” Landwehr spent much of last week in Phoenix as a spokesman for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. The Denver-based group has a reputation of “getting in the face" of public officials by creating ruckuses at meetings of the American Public Transit Association, a group Landwehr describes as "the enemy." Surrounding hotels, restaurants and buses where transportation officials meet, ADAPT members express demands in rhythmic chants: “What do we want? "Access! “When do we want it? "Now!" It is, the group says, a civil-rights demonstration. Howard Adams is not driven by anger, although he was paralyzed from the neck down in a swimming accident 20 years ago. Adams, a Phoenix councilman, said disability is something he lives with, but he doesn't thrive on it. "I‘m not an expert on it,“ Adams said, “it's not the most important thing in my life." He disagrees with the civil-disobedience tactics used by ADAPT. "I guess I pour my anger into other things," he said. Adams, who served in the Arizona Legislature before his election to the City Council, recently was appointed by President Reagan to the 22-member Architectural and Transportation Compliance Board. The board oversees enforcement of federal regulations governing access for the disabled. It can recommend withholding federal funds from any organization or local government that fails to meet federal requirements for access, Adams said. Although Adams does not use city buses regularly, he said, he has used them and believes Phoenix "is in pretty good shape" with respect to disabled people. The demonstrators, he says, have a beef with the American Public Transportation Association, not with Phoenix. "The goal has always been equal opportunity and to participate in all aspects of life as best as they can," Adams said. "I agree with their goals, but I don't agree with their tactics. "They were not here to point a finger at Phoenix. They were here to protest to a group that provides public transportation to people around the country." Public transportation in Phoenix is inadequate for all people, not just the disabled, Adams said. "If I wanted to go to the council chambers right now, (8:30 p.m.) I couldn't get there on the bus anyway," he said. "If I were in a city with a higher population density, such as Chicago or New York, it would be a different story. I would expect to be able to." Adams said there appear to be "some people who are professionally disabled just like there are people who will always be soldiers in World War II." "We all carry burdens with us, but we have to overcome them," he said. "You can't take away all of the problems everybody has; you just can't. "But, to the extent that society has created barriers, you have to remove them, and I think we are doing it here." Because he uses a lift-equipped van, Adams does not ride Phoenix buses often, but he said he is not unfamiliar with the difficulty of getting from one city to another. In Los Angeles recently, he said, he was told that he could board a plane in a folding wheelchair and that his battery-operated machine would have to be left behind for a later flight in a baggage compartment. "I have trouble with airlines," he said. "They don't care. They just want to get you out of there." When his motorized chair arrived in Phoenix on a later plane, he said, "there was $2,000 in damage to it." Landwehr, 43, was born with spinal bifida, a severe birth defect that now often is correctable. New surgical techniques came too late for him, however. He lost the use of his legs during surgery when he was 12 years old. Landwehr remembers that he once tried to deny his disability, shun his wheelchair and be like everyone else. "I would get myself seated in a restaurant and ask the waitress to take my chair away and fold it up in a corner," he said. "It was a way of being like everyone else. Deep down, disabled people strive to appear not disabled.” It was painful, he said, when his parents had to move from Chicago because he could not attend public high schools there with able-bodied teen-agers. The family moved 60 miles to the suburbs after rejecting the Chicago school system's offer to provide a special bus to pick him up and deliver him to a school for the handicapped, the only school he said school officials would allow him to attend. "Thank God they (his parents) knew I would only learn to live in an institution," he said. In the suburbs, Landwehr said, he struggled to lift himself into a school bus unequipped for handicapped people. Daily, he lifted himself up the school steps as other teen-agers watched. "I know what it is like to be stared at," he said. "It's painful." It also is painful, he said, that Chicago, the nation's third-most-populous city, after New York and Los Angeles, has no city buses with wheelchair lifts for the disabled. Landwehr said that the daily difficulty of overcoming obstacles just to gain access to places others take for granted has hardened his stance for total access. He is militant. Arrests and abuse do not appear to faze him. Embarrassing others and taking the risk of alienating the public also do not seem to faze him. "There is nobody more alienated than people living in little rooms in institutions," Landwehr said. "We want to expose the public to the full range of people who are disabled. "I think our presence here at least gives the public the opportunity to reflect upon their perceptions of disabilities and disabled people. "We hope that a byproduct of our presence will give us some leverage with local politicians." Landwehr, who studied journalism and psychology at the University of Illinois but didn't earn a degree, is unemployed. He once worked with the Disability Rights Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., until federal funding for the group was cut. "We fooled them, though," he said. "Twenty-two of us started collecting Social Security disability checks and just kept on working, doing what we had been doing until the money ran out." Public officials sometimes complain that the cost of total access for the disabled is too great and the need too small. Landwehr says he doesn't believe it. For example, Milwaukee once touted the purchase of lift-equipped buses but operated them randomly on unannounced routes. Photos above: head shots of Howard Adams in white shirt and tie, and Mike Landwher with flannel shirt and mustache. Caption reads: Howard Adams (left) and Mike Landwehr both are disabled, but Adams disagrees with the civil-disobedience tactics used by Landwehr's group.
ADAPT (684)
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.
ADAPT (319)
The Arizona Republic, Monday April 8, 1987 Title: Handicapped Hold Protest Photo by Pete Peters/Republic: People in wheelchairs in ADAPT T-shirts form a picket line in front of a hotel, the Regency Phoenix. They are holding posters. Behind them, in the shadows of the entrance-way to the hotel people are standing looking on. Caption reads: Members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit picket before the Hyatt Regency. The ADAPT demonstrators have targeted a meeting by the American Public Transit Association. Photo top right Photo by Pete Peters/Republic: A woman standing uses a sprayer to cool a woman in a wheelchair holding a large poster. caption reads: Carla Montez squirts Kelli Bates with cool water. They traveled to Phoenix from Denver to participate in an ADAPT protest. subtitle: Disrupt event; ask transit access By Chuck Hawley The Arizona Republic About 100 members of a militant group of wheelchair-bound activists blocked the roads and entrances to Rustler’s Roost on Sunday night in an attempt to stop those attending a steak fry for the American Public Transit Association’s convention. Chanting and carrying place cards members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit lined up across the two roads, a stairway leading form a lower parking lot and the doors including the handicapped entrance to the restaurant, which is at the Pointe at South Mountain. Police monitored the protest. The 450 people attending the weeklong convention arrived in six Phoenix buses. Some were forced to scramble up a steep gravel incline and enter through the kitchen. Others walked up the back driveway. “We plan to be here all week and to inconvenience you as much as we can,” called out one protestor, who was blocking the stairs. Earlier in the day, protestor had picketed at the Hyatt Regency, where the conventioneers are staying. The protestors at the restaurant carried placards that said, “Police wagons accessible; buses not,” and chanted, “What do we want? Access. When do we want it? Now.” The group, well-known for militant protests across the country, wants all public transit to be accessible to the wheelchair-bound. “I think they have a just cause, but I think they are carrying it to an extreme,” said Bob Hicken, general manager of the Phoenix Transit System, who walked up the hill from the lower parking lot. “We’d like to serve them all, but we can’t. If there were enough money in the world, we could do everything we wanted to.”
ADAPT (344)
Cheyenne Tribune 9/27/87 Title: Disabled to Protest for Public Transit Access SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - Hundreds of disabled activists say they will demonstrate for more access to public transportation during the American Public Transit Association's four-day meeting, which starts Sunday. Organizers of the protests, aimed at making a point to 4,000 delegates from 400 public transit systems, expected more than 600 handicapped and disabled people from all over the country to participate. Groups including the September Alliance for Accessible Transit have been trying for years to get the APTA, the nation’s public transit lobbying arm, to declare a national policy giving disabled people the same access to buses and trains as able commuters. “If it were women or blacks who couldn't get on the bus, it would clearly be a civil rights issue," said Kitty Cone of the Berkeley, Calif., group. Her organization and Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit threaten to block city streets, hotel lobbies and entrances to the Moscone Convention Center to show delegates how it feels to be denied access. Some demonstrators also promised to invade banquets and cocktail parties attended by delegates. “We are not going to allow these people to have a good meal,” said Bill Bolte of the Denver organization. He was arrested earlier this year for a demonstration at a transit meeting in Phoenix. The transit group's policy is that questions of access should be left to local transit districts. “Mainstream access may work well in the Bay Area but don't tell systems in Akron, Ohio, or Buffalo, N.Y., that they have to do the same thing,” said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of the association. He said many systems in smaller areas cannot afford to renovate buses and trains or to purchase new vehicles, so have chosen to provide door-to-door van service for the disabled. He also said that protests or no protests, no major policy changes were expected to be adopted during the meeting. Federal regulations approved in 1986 give local agencies the option of using mainstream or so-called paratransit services, such as the door-to-door vans.
ADAPT (231)
The Cincinnati Post Saturday, June 21, 1986 125 East Court ST, Cincinnati, OH 45202 513-352-2000 Editor Paul F. Knue Managing Editor J. Stephen Fagan Editorial Page Editor Claudia Winkler Associate Editor James L Adams Editorials Title: Transit for the disabled The recent tactics of the handicapped militants who attempted to block traffic, obstruct entry to the Westin Hotel and stop buses by grabbing onto the wheel wells to protest the lack of wheelchair lifts on public buses detracted from the legitimate claims of the disabled for better transit service in Cincinnati. The fact is bus service for the handicapped here is inadequate. On that score, Queen City Metro management and the handicapped agree. Both sides also agree that dwindling public transit funds compound the problem. It is a problem, however, that Queen City Metro needs to resolve. Service for the disabled should be improved and expanded. Metro officials sat down four years ago with the Specialized Transportation Advisory Committee, representing the handicapped, and worked out a five-year plan to develop service for the disabled. The plan called for providing curb-to-curb service with a fleet of vans called Access. But a shortfall in public funds prevented that plan from being fully implemented. As a result, the committee is charging Metro with failing to keep its promise. On the surface, the Access service is impressive. The 15 vans operate six days a week and make as many as 400 trips a day, carrying 105,000 passengers annually for 60 cents a ride. But the demand is so great that handicapped persons often have to wait as much as a week or longer to get a van to carry them to the dentist or grocery store. Understandably, frustration is mounting. Now the disabled are lobbying for dual service—Access vans and expensive lift-equipped buses on the regular routes. The handicapped contend they have as much right to ride the bus as able-bodied citizens. But Tony Kouneski, Metro president, still believes he can get more for the money—serve more disabled people—by expanding Access. Kouneski’s argument is hard to refute. Experience in some other cities bears him out. In Los Angeles, 1800 buses equipped with lifts are transporting all of 40 wheelchair users a day. But the issue has now become philosophical as well as financial, and Queen City Metro officials must take care to remain responsive. The leaders of the handicapped in Cincinnati are to be commended for their refusal to participate in the demonstrations staged by the Denver-based group. Metro management, by demonstrating its good faith, should make sure that the handicapped never regret their choice.
ADAPT (326)
Arizona Republic 4/17/87 Photo (whole right of the page) by Peter Schwepker/Republic: A small woman [Mary Ann Collinsworth] braces her legs to pull another woman [Katie Hoffman] in an airport style manual wheelchair across some rough terrain. Katie is holding the arm rests of the chair. Caption: Mary Ann Collinsworth helps Katie Hoffman maneuver across rocks as the Denver women head for a protest at the Mansion Club) Title: 5 Protesters Arrested for Wheelchair Honking By J.F. Torrey The Arizona Republic [This is an article that appears in ADAPT 326 and 325, but the entire text has been included here for easier reading.] Excessive wheelchair horn-honking led to disorderly conduct arrests of five members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit on Monday afternoon in front of the downtown Phoenix Hyatt Regency. The arrests came from a frustrating morning for members of the group, which is in the city to protest the policies of the American Public Transit Association. The association is holding its annual Western meeting at the Hyatt. ADAPT would like to see the association, a trade group of public-transit-system officials, adopt a policy recommending that all public buses be equipped with lift systems to accommodate wheelchair-bound passengers. The arrests began at 3:41 p.m. after ADAPT members refused to stop blowing the horns on their electric wheelchairs. Four of the five people arrested were arrested Sunday at another demonstration. Phoenix police Lt. Ted McCreary led a half-dozen plainclothes officers over to the group of horn blowers, who were at the northern end of a line of 48 wheelchairs and a baby carriage that the protesters had assembled in front of the Hyatt. The group had spent more than an hour chanting and singing outside the hotel when McCreary made the attempt to silence the horns, which had been blowing intermittently during the demonstration. As police closed in, the original group stopped blowing the horns, only to be surrounded by other demonstrators in wheelchairs who began blowing theirs. Police eventually identified a demonstrator they planned to arrest, only to be surrounded by the rest of the demonstrators in wheelchairs, an action that made it difficult for police to move the suspect to a waiting lift-equipped van. McCreary later expressed frustration at the problems involved in policing the demonstration. "None of this is ever good,” he said. “We’re never in a winning position.” One of those arrested, Marilyn Golden, 33, of Oakland, California, complained that police had broken an agreement reached with ADAPT members in Monday’s arrests. “We were told that if we were going to be arrested, we would be warned,” Golden said. “I wasn’t, and I don’t even know what they’re arresting me for.” Sergeant Ken Johnson, a police spokesman, said he was not aware of the agreement to provide a warning. “Certainly there is no legal requirement that we give a warning,” Johnson said. “Maybe she couldn’t hear it because of the horns.” Earlier in the day, at a demonstration at the Mansion Club near the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Sergeant Brad Thiss, another police spokesman, expressed similar sentiments as nearly 30 plainclothes officers approached a group of demonstrators who were attempting to block access to a luncheon of spouses of association members. When asked why only a few officers were in uniform, Thiss replied, “We’re trying to soften our image a little bit. Of course, how can you soften your image in wheelchairs into vans and arresting them?” The Mansion Club luncheon protest did not result in any arrests because those attending walked to the restaurant. ADAPT organizer Mike Auberger said that the protest achieved its goal because no buses passed the group’s line. “We want the function to go on as it would,” Auberger said. “We just want the people to experience the same convenience that handicapped individuals do.” After a brief standoff at a bridge over a Salt River Project canal, Auberger led the group back to a parking lot at the Biltmore Hotel where they surrounded a Phoenix Transit Authority bus they believed was to take association spouses back downtown. The bus turned out to be a decoy, and the spouses took a second bus back to the Hyatt. Thiss said the department will not calculate the expense of policing the convention until it is over. “For now, all I can say is the costs are enormous,” he said. Police arrested 26 ADAPT members Sunday for trespassing at Rustler’s Rooste, a southeast Phoenix restaurant where association members were attending a banquet. Those arrested were released later after being given a written citation. One protester, Clarence Miller, whose age and address were unavailable, was arrested for one count of aggravated assault on a police officer, a felony, and booked into Maricopa County Jail. ADAPT’s Auberger said Miller was required to post $1,370 in bail before being released Monday. Auberger, who said Miller is retarded, faulted the arrest.
ADAPT (235)
The Cincinnati Enquirer (This article continues on ADAPT 232 but the story is included here in its entirety for easier reading.) Title: Disabled protesters spark Metro debate BY PAUL FURIGA The handicapped protesters who halted Queen City Metro buses have left jail and Hamilton County, but the controversy they created remains. Leaders in the disabled community shied away from the demonstrations and arrests, but quietly applauded members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation's (ADAPT) actions. Almost two weeks ago Cincinnati police arrested 17 ADAPT members when they attempted to block the Vine Street entrance to the Westin Hotel and the Fourth Street entrance to Queen City Metro's offices. The demonstrators came from all over the United States to protest at the convention of the American Public Transit Association at the Westin. Their protests raised hopes in Cincinnati. A fire has started; and it's important to keep the flames fanned," said Basil Vlahopoulos, co-chairman of Metro‘s Specialized Transportation Advisory Committee (STAC). “if it dies, it will take another 10 years to get it started.” Metro officials who run Access, the local transit service for the disabled, also find themselves in the public eye for the first time in several years. “I think we" understand the need is there for more service,” said Judith Van Ginkel, spokeswoman for Metro. “The question is one of funding and do we have the funds available.” “Every dollar is precious, and the issue is to put each dollar to best possible use,” said Murray C. Bond, Metro's assistant general manager. Both camps agree that the ADAPT visit raised the public awareness of public transportation for the handicapped. Both also agree that a big debate on Access is in the future, the result of the ADAPT visit and recent changes in federal regulations. Metro officials and handicapped leaders do not agree on the extent of problems with the current situation, or on the solutions that might improve transportation for the handicapped. At Metro, Access manager Carl Palmer and Bond point out that each one-way Access trip costs taxpayers more than $10. The annual cost for Access, Palmer said, is more than $1 million. For that money, he said Metro makes an estimated 105,000 one-way trips for passengers each year, charging them 60 cents each. Palmer said Metro turns away only 4% to 5% of those who call to schedule Access service. But he acknowledges that Access meets only 6% of the estimated potential demand in Hamilton County. A new federal interpretation of regulation 504, which mandates handicapped service, will require Metro to add about $200,000 to its Access service in 1987. That may allow service with two to three new vans, Palmer said. But even that, he said, will not make much of a dent. Bond says he sees few alternatives. As expensive as the Access service is, he argues that it would cost $6 million to equip Metro's 379-bus fleet with lifts that would accommodate handicapped passengers in lieu of Access.
ADAPT (101)
RTD bobbles budget, buys rejected lifts By: Burt Hubbard News Staff The Regional Transportation District board of directors rejected to move to equip its new buses with wheelchair lifts but unknowingly included $1.2 million in its budget to buy them. The revelation came one day after the RTD board approved a $185.8 million budget that includes $21.4 million to buy 89 articulated buses for 1983. But the buses will cost the district only $20.2 million. The remaining $1.2 million is slated for wheelchair lifts that won’t be put on the buses. RTD Executive Director L.A Kimball has said that handicap ridership on the more than 300 buses that now have lifts do not justify the cost for the new buses. “WE HAVE CARRIED as many as 50 (handicapped) individuals on any particular day using 331 vehicles,” he told the board Thursday. RTD board member Charlotte Houston said Friday she didn’t realize that fact when she made a motion Thursday to add $1.3 million to the 1983 budget to outfit all 89 buses with lifts. The board defeated the motion 10-5. Those voting against the lifts said current low-frequency ridership by handicapped people doesn’t justify equipping more buses and cited increased maintenance costs of the lifts. Asked about the snafu, Houston said, “I guess I should have known.” Nor did RTD board member Tom Bastien know the lift money had been kept in the budget when he moved to equip half of the new buses with lifts. The board rejected the move 8-6. “THAT’S INTERESTING,” said Bastien Friday. “Why didn’t the (RTD) staff tell us?” Even Kimball said he wasn’t aware that the lift money was still in the budget. Kimball blamed the error on a staff member who, he said, apparently had failed to delete the money for the lifts from the budget. The confusion dates back to July 1981 when the district signed a contract with M.A.N. Truck and Bus Corp. to buy the 89 buses for $21.4 million with the lifts included. The buses were to be delivered between June and September 1983. But in December 1981, the RTD board voted to take the lifts off the buses and reduce the total price by $1.2 million. The 1983 budget, however, failed to reflect the reduced price. Kimball said the omission won’t alter the budget. “THERE’S NO NEED to change it,” he said. “We won’t spend it.” About 80 percent of the cost of the lifts would have been paid by a federal grant. And Houston and Bastien said the fact that they wouldn’t have had to increase the budget to get the lifts didn’t affect the vote. “I don’t think it would have made much difference,” said Houston. “We needed 11 votes to pass it.” The votes on the lifts came after about a dozen people, including several politicians, urged the board to make the buses accessible to the handicapped. The handicapped community has vowed to try again for the lifts after a newly elected RTD board takes office in January to replace the appointed 21-member board.
ADAPT (241)
The Cincinnati Post, Wednesday, June 11, 1986 11A Opinion Small photo of the head of a white man with short hair and black rimmed eye glasses. James L. Adams Crosscurrents Title: Pretenders to the Civil Rights movement The attempts of minorities of all stripes to identify with the black experience in America to gain even legitimate goals strike me as being a deception and a fraud. It also trivializes the dehumanization the blacks suffered at the hands of the white majority for 350 years. Only one group was brought to this country in chains, treated like animals, sold on the block like livestock, forced to live in shanties and valued only for the labor they could produce. And even after being freed from the shackles of slavery, blacks were denied their civil rights for another 100 years. No other group in this country has had to suffer those indignities. Yet minorities as diverse as militant feminists, homosexuals and the handicapped hoist the banner of oppression and try to do a black face routine as farcical as the old showboat acts on the Mississippi of the last century. The wheelchair protests staged by the Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) here last month are only the latest examples of groups with gripes trying to piggyback on the black civil rights struggle. Let us all agree that more needs to be done to make sure the disabled among us can get where they want to go. And there obviously are cities doing more than Cincinnati to make public transportation accessible. Denver is one. But that is begging the question. Cincinnati is not Denver. Queen City Metro is strapped for funds. It cannot provide all the service it would like for the handicapped—or even the able-bodied. But the issue is money, not civil rights. Determined to get arrested, the wheelchair protesters blocked the Westin hotel entrances, grabbed onto the wheel well of buses to keep them from moving, and one wacko with a death wish even rolled into the path of a bus going 40 mph. Bob Kafka, one of the 14 arrested—and given special treatment at the Hamilton County Justice Center—wrote a letter to The Post that began: “I am writing this letter from the Hamilton County Jail, in which I am spending Memorial Day, for the crime of trying to ride public transportation." Kafka's emotional appeal falls flat. (He obviously was trying to imitate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail" stirred the conscience of a nation.) Kafka's crime was not that of trying to ride public transportation. He was charged with disorderly conduct for crawling aboard a bus, dragging his wheelchair, dropping 50 cents in the fare box and then demanding to ride - knowing full well the bus could not move with him on it. But Kafka, in his letter, attempts to equate the problems of the handicapped with those of blacks who were forced to ride in the back of the bus: “Those in power have decided to oppress us and make sure disabled people do not ‘step out of line’ and assert their rights," Kafka wrote. “Queen City Metro decided they were going to keep disabled people in their place.” By couching his complaint in vintage 1960s language, Kafka confuses the issue. The disabled should be heard. But they should give rational reasons for their demands for equal access to public transportation and not try posing as an oppressed minority that dares not “step out of line." I didn't see any cattle prods or police dogs used to quell the demonstrations. After the protesters had left town, Council Member David Mann had pangs of conscience that caused him to make some of the silliest statements in the annals of Mann. “It seems to me that every human being in Cincinnati — visitors, handicapped or otherwise — had the absolute right to enter the Fountain Square South complex on equal terms," Mann wrote, as if he had been living in a cave during the four-day wheelchair protests. “If you and I were free to move unfettered into the public areas of the Westin, then those who happen to move by wheelchair should have been treated precisely the same." I know philosophers have struggled for centuries to define reality. After reading Mann’s views on what took place in front of the Westin, I can understand why. His perceptions are unreal. Those who happened to “move by wheelchair” were not treated precisely the same as others because they were intentionally trying to block the entrances and disrupt bus service. That's called breaking the law. It seems to me that even a council member from Clifton, who happens to be a lawyer, should be able to make that distinction. The restrictions were not based on class discrimination. Rather, they were triggered by those misguided handicapped persons who believe they can gain greater access to public places by denying that right to others. The wheelchair protesters would have scored more points with the public by shunning crazy antics and making their appeal in a sane manner. I think it revealing that the Greater Cincinnati Coalition of People With Disabilities refused to participate in the public demonstrations. The coalition leaders believe they can accomplish more by talking with local city and bus officials than by trying to disrupt traffic. They certainly will gain more public sympathy. James L Adams is associate editor of The Post. PHOTO by the Associated Press: Two men in wheelchairs, one with dark curly hair and a beard in a manual wheelchair (Bob Kafka), and the other with long braids, a headband and a dark beard (Mike Auberger), block a narrow hallway. Both are wearing light colored shirts with the ADAPT no steps logo in black. Behind them at least seven men -- two appear to be police officers -- stand, looking somewhat exasperated. caption reads: Bob Kafka. left, and Mike Auberger chained themselves together to block the entrance to Queen City Metro offices.
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The Irving Daily News Thursday, November 13, 1986 [Headline] Curb cut policy called 'slap in the face' continued... Installation of the ramps would cost utility companies $300-500 over the costs of the work being done, he said. The city would have to change the present ordinance if utility companies are expected to install the ramps, he said. The additional costs arise in most cases because both utility companies and the city tear out only a portion of the sidewalk corner. In order to install a ramp, 14-15 feet of the corner must be torn out, said Lewis Patrick, director of Public Works. But Thomas and other handicapped representatives present at the meeting said some action must be taken by the city, either to change its policy or correctly interpret the policy. “It is the ultimate in stupidity and asininity to tear down a structure and re-create it with as much of a barrier for the disabled as existed before,” Thomas said. The lack of action by the city is a “slap in the face, a spit in the face and the ultimate insult,” he said. “It says to the handicapped, ‘We don’t want you around.’ Without the ramps, transportation does us no good.” Thomas said every corner in the city without a curb cut needs to have a ramp installed. His argument apparently was convincing to City Council members, who agreed to look into the current ordinance to see if changes are needed. “It appears to me as time goes on whether we choose to accept or resist changes, they’re going to come about,” Councilman Jack Nulty said. “It would behoove the city in the long run to try to be ahead of the game and lay the curbs. It is inevitable that it will have to be done because of the growth in the handicapped population." Nulty said that any work being done on a curb at an intersection warrants installation of a ramp. The city can come up with the extra funding that will be needed, he said. Council members agreed that the ordinance could bear some examination. “We need to look into an ordinance change so that the curb can be done right while we‘re already doing the work,” Councilwoman Fran Bonilla said.
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Rocky Mountain News Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1983, Denver, Colo. New RTD board Oks lifts for 90 buses By Burt Hubbard News Staff The news Regional Transportation District board, to the applause and cheers of wheelchair-bound onlookers, voted Monday night to spend $1.3 million to equip almost 90 new buses with lifts for the handicapped. The decision, by a 13-1 voted, reversed a yearlong policy against the lifts by the old board. It was the newly seated board’s first official decision and was made despite a recommendation by the agency executive director L.A. Kimball not to buy the equipment. “It’s not a question of money,” said RTD board member Byron Johnson. “It’s a question of federal, state and local government recognizing that the handicapped person has been ignored.” About 30 disabled people at the meeting cheered and applauded the decision after the roll was called. Only RTD board member Ann Walton voted against the lifts. The 15th member, Mary Duty, was in the hospital. Kimball who opposed buying the lifts, said the decision would mean delivery of the buses will be delayed up to four months. The buses had been scheduled to begin arriving in August. The lifts will cost $1.3 million with federal funds paying 80 percent. In other action, Kimball reported that through 1983, the district has spent more than $9.3 million studying light rail and acquiring land for rights-of-way. In addition, six staff members will spend all year working on light-rail activities, he said. The old RTD board has proposed a 77-mile system that would cost at least $5.8 billion by the time it would be finished in 2002. But several members of the new board have said they want to consider alternatives to light rail. Boxed Text: New RTD board elects chief Retired banker William Johnson on Monday night narrowly was elected chairman of the new Regional Transportation District board after more than two hours of voting and 10 ballots. Johnson, board member from Jefferson County, won by an 8-6 vote over former state Rep. Jack McCroskey, board member from Central Denver. The decision came after three other candidates dropped out of the balloting. Other candidates who withdrew during the balloting were Bill Rourke, Don Feland and Ann Walton.
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The Orlando Sentinel Local & state B TUESDAY, October 8, 1991 [This clipping contains two articles. Artilce 1, titled Q & A is a boxed insert. It is continued on a page that are not currently available. Article 2 continues in ADAPT 686 but the entire text of the article is included here for easier reading.] Main Title: Disabled protesters refuse to attend talks Article 1 - Title: Q&A no author given; Lauren Ritchie is interviewer. Mike Auberger discusses why the group of disabled people that he helped organize is protesting the meeting of the American Health Care Association. Auberger was interviewed Monday from his cell at the Orange County Jail by Lauren Ritchie. Question: Why is ADAPT targeting nursing home operators? Answer: The nursing home industry is a $50 billion a year organization. lf you happen to be 30 years old and disabled and live, say, in Ocala —— and there are no personal assistance programs — than you're forced into a nursing home simply because you have physical needs you can't take care of yourself. Q: Why, from your perspective, is that bad? A: If you've ever talked to anybody who's been in a nursing home, the only difference between there and jail is the color of the uniforms. The jail uses guns to keep you there; the nursing home uses pills. You have no choice about when you get up, what you wear, what you eat or don't eat and when you go to bed. When we talk about nursing homes, we talk in terms of incarceration. You never escape from a nursing home. lf you are older and disabled, you could be forced to sell your home, forced to give up everything. The issue is quality of life. Most people can be taken care of in their own homes. Q: Why does ADAPT focus on nursing homes rather than the federal goverment? A: Under the Medicaid program, each state is required to participate in nursing home funding [for the disabled]. Every time a state does a budget it has to identify a certain amount of dollars for nursing homes. If you ... please see Q & A, B-4 Article 2 Photo by Red Huber/Sentinel: The picture is divided almost down the middle by a line of police barricades. On the left side a row of uniformed police officers stand leaning forward, arms stiff, holding the barricades in place. On the right a line of ADAPT protesters (San Anontio Fuentes closest to the camera) face off with the police. Behind them several standing people look on. Caption: A steel barricade and a line of Orange County deputy sheriffs prevent protesters from reaching the doors at the convention center. Title: Deputies expect the protests will grow worse when famous speakers address the convention. By Mary Brooks, of the Sentinel Staff Disabled activists demonstrating at a convention of nursing home operators rejected an offer to meet with industry leaders Monday, calling it a ploy to end their protest. But a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, which is playing host to 3,500 people at its annual conference in Orlando, said members of ADAPT -- Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs - seemed more interested in drawing television cameras than in drawing up an agreement at a discussion table. Activists say they plan to continue trying to block entrances to the Orange County Convention and Civic Center until the conference ends Thursday. Deputies expect the worst will come during the visits of the convention's noted speakers. This morning, Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole will address the convention. Television weatherman Willard Scott is scheduled to speak Wednesday. In their second day of demonstrations Monday; about 120 ADAPT members clustered near the three main entrances to the convention center on International Drive. They were barred from approaching the center doors by portable steel fences and 130 Orange County deputy sheriffs. "In the past they've blocked entrances with chains. We want to prevent that," said sheriff's spokesman Cpl. Doug Sarubbi. “They have a right to be here, but the conference attendees have a right to be here. too." Two protesters were arrested late Monday after they refused to stop using a loudspeaker. The protesters, many of them in wheelchairs and a few with guide dogs, sang, chanted and shouted at convention-goers. Tension mounted for several minutes when some of the disabled rammed their wheelchairs into the barricades. There were no injuries. Organizers said the 74 protesters arrested in clashes with deputies on Sunday at the Peabody Hotel on International Drive would not post bond and would remain in the Orange County Jail. Pat Hasley, a hotel security guard who suffered a heart attack during Sunday’s demonstration, was in stable condition Monday at Sand Lake Hospital. Denver-based ADAPT wants Medicaid to funnel 25 percent of the $23 billion nursing home budget to home care for the disabled. The group also wants the chance to address convention participants. “Right now, if you're disabled and need medical services and can’t afford it, they’re going to lock you up" in a nursing home, said Stephanie Thomas, an ADAPT organizer. Demonstrators claimed that 1.6 million disabled people in nursing homes really shouldn’t be there. “We don’t think the extreme needs of a very small percentage should dictate where all the money goes,” said Molly Blank, an organizer from Denver. During about four hours of protest Monday, some convention-goers stood outside the center to watch. Ralph Frasca of Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Mary Scheider of Joliet, Ill., were among a few who ventured over to talk to the demonstrators. “They have a legitimate grievance,” Scheider said. “The main issue is at-home care, diverting funding from institutional care to home care. The funding system now is skewed toward institutional care." Frasca, a journalism professor at the University of Northern lowa, said many convention participants were tumed off by ADAPT’s approach. “The discussion thus far has not centered around issues but rather the sensationalism of the event. I think a non confrontational, peaceful dialogue should be taking place." Linda Keegan, a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, said the demonstration did not disturb the convention activities. She said ADAPT had not contacted the association about a meeting or about getting time on the convention agenda before Sunday. She said the health care association’s executive board has met with the group twice this year, each meeting ending in chaos. “We made a commitment to meet. They made a commitment to protest.” The association proposed on Monday to meet with ADAPT on Thursday under the condition that the activists stop protesting. “We don't think that is a good faith offer," said Thomas. The Sheriffs Office and the jail had made extensive preparations for handling the disabled protesters, including special training and added staff. Sarubbi said the Sheriff's Office would not know what the cost would be until the demonstrations are over. Ed Royal, an Orange County Jail administrator, said volunteers from jail ministries were helping to defray some of the costs of handling the disabled inmates. The jail also had to get foam mattresses, diapers, chargers for wheelchair batteries, and other special equipment. The problems of caring for the protesters are many, Royal said. Staff and volunteers had to document and administer medication, and to help inmates relieve, bathe and feed themselves. Jail officials were able to make trades for some supplies with hospitals, but other materials had to be bought. Monday morning, 37 jailed activists began refusing food and liquids and another 10 would not eat but were drinking. Medical staff were monitoring the hunger strikers and were prepared to take them to hospitals if needed, said Royal. On its lawyers’ advice, the corrections department has been videotaping the disabled inmates since their arrival. "They have a history of saying they were mistreated while in custody, so we're taking no chances," said Royal.
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San Antonio Light, April 21, 1985 Viewpoint Thomas F. Brereton [Headline] Give handicapped the transit they deserve PHOTO: Head shot of a man in suit and tie, with a beard and moustach. He is smiling, and he appears to be Brereton. San Antonio's convention calendar features an unwanted bonus this weekend: some out of town demonstrators who have vowed to disrupt a conference at the Hyatt, in order to focus attention on a neglected national issue. The American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) are the unwelcome guests at the American Public Transit Association's western regional conference. They have been similarly unwelcome guests at APTA conferences in Denver, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., where 28 members were arrested for civil disobedience last October. So now San Antonio's VIA Metropolitan Transit gets to take its turn playing cat's paw to make their point. ADAPT's demand is a simple one: civil rights for the handicapped, specifically the right to ride the same bus as everyone else. This means requiring public transit systems to make all of their mainline services fully accessible, particularly by installing wheelchair lifts instead of relying exclusively on separate “para-transit” services like VIA-Trans. They contend that this dual service system is a segregationist anachronism: 25 years ago blacks could at least ride in the back of the bus: today the handicapped still can't even get on board. At first blush, it may seem hard to believe that a person who is wheelchair-bound would really prefer to struggle to and from the bus stop in order to ride a regular bus, rather than being picked up and delivered door-to-door in a specially equipped van. But there are some real problems with a van service which makes it inherently less usable than full access to the regular transit network. First there is the matter of registration. In order to ride VIA-Trans, you have to be certified by a physician or a social service agency as completely unable to use the regular bus. As a result, there are only about 7000 people registered in Bexar County. Estimates of the potentially eligible “mobility-impaired" population range from 12,000 to 52,000, depending on whose definition you accept. Out of town visitors, of course, have a special difficulty of making arrangements in advance. Then there is the matter of time. You have to call and make a reservation at least two hours ahead, and preferably a couple of days. This may be okay if you know you have a doctors appointment every Wednesday at 2 o'clock. but it is no way to go out drinking with your friends on the spur of the moment. And since this is a shared-ride system, you will probably have to leave a lot earlier than you would like, and then to endure a long, circuitous journey to your destination, while other passengers are picked up and dropped off en route. So imagine yourself now in a wheelchair. Which would you rather do: Wheel yourself down to the nearest bus stop to get on a bus and go whereever it takes you, or call VIA-Trans a couple of days in advance to make a reservation? You don't have to buy ADAPT's tactics in order to see their point. Handicapped people naturally want to be as independent as possible, with a minimum of degrading “special privileges." On the other side, transit authority spokesmen ridicule the demand for wheelchair lifts as economically prohibitive and technically impractical. A study by the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board estimates the total additional cost of operating a fully accessible fixed-route bus system at about $2,000 per year per lift-equipped bus. But unlike VIA-Trans, where more riders automatically mean more vans and drivers - at an average actual cost of $l0.70 per trip — this cost does not increase appreciably with greater use by the handicapped. Opponents of accessible transit also object that the wheelchair lifts break down too often. And, you would have to take some regular seats out of the bus, to provide space to secure the wheelchairs. And the requirements of operating the lift would throw the bus off schedule, because the driver would have to take extra time to assist the passenger. In reality, the actual number of times per day you would have to stop the bus to use this lift makes nonsense of this argument. But what about the problem of getting to and from the bus stop, along streets without curb cuts and often without sidewalks? This objection is an excuse for not solving one problem because there are other problems beyond it. If you were in a wheelchair, you would probably need to live in a different house, too. You would consider this a factor before you moved. Note that this is not an either/or proposition, between specialized vans and lift-equipped buses. The same study by the Transportation Research Board estimates that only 30 percent of the "severely transportation handicapped" could use an accessible fixed-route bus. The other 70 percent — those on medication, with mental impairments or multiple handicaps — would still need to rely on VIA-Trans, taxicabs, or other means to get around. To me. this whole argument is pretty one-sided. The real clincher is the simple fact that other cities have already done what VIA says is impossible: to provide full accessibility on their mainline services. The old excuses won't wash anymore. it's time we stopped putting a price tag on people's dignity and independence. Tom Brereton is a former professor of urban studies at Trinity University.
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San Antonio Express News, 4/22/85 Photo by Express News: A woman stands (Doris Rae?) behind an older man in who is seated (Frank McColm). Both are yelling, their faces full of passion. caption reads: wheelchair protesters [Headline] Disabled blast transportation, Protest inaccessibility by Gary Martin, Express-News Staff Writer About 50 disabled rights activists from across the nation rolled through downtown San Antonio streets in wheelchairs Sunday, protesting inaccessible public transportation for the handicapped. The group of protesters, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), headed the march into the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is holding a five-day conference. Chanting “We will ride" and “Access now," the group presented a resolution to APTA officials, asking for support of federal regulations that would force local communities to install wheelchair lifts in all public transportation vehicles. Jean Stewart, spokeswoman for ADAPT, said the group wants 100 percent accessibility to all public transportation nationwide and accused APTA of segregating disabled riders by not supporting federal regulation of the industry. “To us there is no difference between riding a different bus and riding in the back of a bus if you’re black,” said Stewart, a resident of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. A San Antonio marcher, Rachel Rodriguez of 7180 Oaklawn Drive, said she was forced to ride VIAtrans vans in San Antonio because buses were not accessible for handicapped patrons. “You feel like your rights are violated,” she said. “lt‘s not a matter of riding in the back of the bus, it's a matter of not riding at all.” The group met wit APTA officials only after refusing to leave the Hyatt registration desk. Defending current policies of APTA, Vice President Jack Gilstrap said each community should have the opportunity to design its own system for its own particular needs. "There is no place for federal regulations,” he said. Gilstrap also accused the ADAPT group of trying to take away “this wonderful system" that has increased its service to disabled riders by l0 times over the past few years. Hecklers attacked Gilstrap and the VIA Metropolitan Transit System saying the convention site, San Antonio, had the worst accessible public transportation system in Texas. Although no VIA officials attended the rally, General Manager Wayne Cook said the local system contains 20 vans that carry 9,000 disabled riders each month. Cook said VIA purchased the vans instead of placing lifts in its buses after a committee representing the disabled requested the special access vans. At a cost of $1.2 million, Cook said the local system will spend four times more for disabled riders than the federal government requires. “We are very dedicated to serving the handicapped in San Antonio," he said.