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- ADAPT (141)
Denver Post 2/16/85 PHOTO by Denver Post's Jim Pre[name cut off]: A uniformed policeman kneels beside a man in a wheelchair [George Roberts]. George has shades and an Afro and he is tilting his head to the side toward the policeman. The policeman is writing a ticket on his knee and George is telling him his information. Behind the two of them is another uniformed officer, visor on his cap shading his eyes, arms crossed across his chest and disapproving turn to his mouth. Behind him is a blurry crowd of people with their backs toward the camera. Caption reads: Officer R.H. Kaspersen issues a ticket to George Roberts during blockade of metro buses. Handicapped block buses 2 protesters are arrested; talks planned By Judith Brimberg 2/16/85 Denver Post Staff Writer For the second day in a row, wheelchair-bound protesters blocked an RTD bus in downtown Denver Friday. They were demonstrating against possible discontinuation of accessible bus service for the handicapped. Despite efforts by the Peña administration to mediate the dispute, the protest went off as scheduled, and two handicapped demonstrators were arrested. Denver police identified them as George Roberts, 36, and Renate Rabe, 30, who live in the same apartment complex at 1255 Galapago St. The pair, afflicted with cerebral palsy, were charged with impeding traffic and disobeying a lawful order. Rabe was released on her own recognizance, but Roberts, who participated in a similar demonstration several years ago, was held overnight in Denver County Jail. Thursday, another member of the disabled-rights group known as ADAPT, Mike Auberger, 30, was arrested at East Colfax Avenue and Cherry Street for impeding traffic. But efforts by Dale Saddler of the Mayor’s Commission on the Disabled ultimately paid off. Late Friday, both sides agreed to meet early next week to try to resolve the dispute. Demonstrations scheduled for this weekend were called off. The handicapped community contended that RTD failed to understand that separate, private transportation for the handicapped doesn’t meet everyone’s needs, said Wade Blank, an able-bodied demonstrator who organized the protests. On Tuesday, an RTD committee is to review policies affecting the elderly and the handicapped. Among the options to be considered are discontinuing accessible service on public buses and expanding handyride services or brokering services to private providers. In an interview, Blank said he organized the protests because “the handicapped aren’t going to be the stepping stones to a new budget.” More than two years ago, he and others obtained a commitment from RTD to install wheelchair lifts on 50 percent of the peak-hour buses. But RTD, like other transportation districts across the country, is facing severe cuts in federal aid and Blank fears the agency may try to balance its budget at the expense of the handicapped. Many wheelchair lifts have proved unreliable and costly to repair. Larry Perry, chairman pro tem of the RTD board, said Friday that Blank’s fears were groundless. “If they will sit down and talk with us, they will learn they won’t be hurt,” he declared. Earlier this week, however, General Manager Ed Colby told board members it costs $72 a year to maintain bus lifts because 12,000 disabled persons ride the buses each year. It’s cheaper to maintain lifts on the handy vans, Colby said. Blank countered that RTD is sabotaging its accessible program by refusing to perform inventive maintenance on the Colby’s handyride figures are distorted, he added, because they include the elderly as well as the disabled. - ADAPT (80)
Rocky Mountain News [Headline] RTD board stalls action on bus lifts By JERRY Brown News Staff Photo by Jose R. Lopez, News: A man sits in a manual wheelchair with a somewhat disgusted look on his face. He is wearing glasses, has a goatee type beard and a powerful looking body, in that CP, non-body builder way. He holds a coat in his lap. Caption reads: Leroy Duran speaks at RTD hearing on the subject of wheelchair lifts for 89 articulated buses. He was one of more than 20 people, many of them handicapped, urging RTD board members to reverse a decision not to buy the lifts. The Regional Transportation District board of directors made no decision after spending three hours Tuesday listening to appeals from the handicapped community that the directors reverse a decision not to put wheelchair lifts on 89 articulated buses scheduled for delivery in 1983. With only ll of the 20 members present for the special meeting, the directors postponed action on a compromise proposal to put lifts on 45 of the high-capacity articulated buses until its regular monthly meeting on Dec. 17. Eleven affirmative votes are required for any board action, so it would have required a unanimous vote of those attending Tuesday’s session to reverse or amend the board's Nov. 19 decision not to buy the wheelchair lifts. Most of the board members at the meeting also attended a secret two-hour staff briefing on the issue before the public session. L.A. Kimball, RTD executive director, said public notice of the board briefing wasn't necessary because it wasn't a formal board meeting. At the public meeting, more than 20 speakers urged board members to reverse their decision not to buy the lifts. Attomey John R. Holland, who represented the Atlantis Community for the handicapped in an earlier lawsuit against RTD, said the decision not to put lifts on the articulated buses violates a 1979 negotiated court settlement under which Atlantis agreed to drop a lawsuit against the agency on the accessibility issue. Gregory D. Jones, RTD's legal counsel, disagreed. In that agreement, RTD promised to make its fleet accessible to the handicapped “through a program of accessible new bus purchases and the wheelchair-lift retrofit of existing buses susceptible to retrofit." In a separate policy statement, the board members promised to make half of RTD's peak-hour service accessible to the handicapped — a policy that some board members have suggested should be rescinded. Even without lifts on the articulated buses, Kimball said, RTD will meet the commitment to make half of its.peak-hour service accessible to the handicapped. RTD has [846? the number is very difficult to read] lift equipped buses in its [646? unclear] bus fleet, but only 60 of the lift-equipped buses are used for wheelchair-accessible service. Kimball promised that the lifts on the remaining 286 buses would be operating by next summer. The buses first must be equipped with wheelchair restraints, RTD officials have said. Holland also said RTD may be required by state civil rights legislation to make the articulated buses accessible to the handicapped. Members of the Atlantis Community have threatened to sue RTD an effort to force the agency to put lifts on the buses if the agency doesn't order the lifts. RTD's staff recommended that the lifts be eliminated from the bus order because of the cost — $1.1 million, or more than $12,000 per bus — and expected maintenance problems. Eighty percent of the money for purchasing the lifts would come from federal funds. RTD originally ordered the buses with the lifts, but on Nov. 19 the board voted 11 to 5 to rescind the decision to buy the lifts. When the buses were ordered in March, federal regulations required that wheelchair lifts be installed to all buses purchased with the aid of federal funds, but that rule has since been withdrawn by the Department of Transportation. - ADAPT (119)
Billings Gazette 6/15/83 Disabled learn persuasion tactics by ROGER CLAWSON, of the Gazette Staff Disabled persons have a right to ride public buses, and — with a bit of political savvy - they can enforce that right. That was the message Wade Blank, a Denver handicapped association activist, brought the Montana Independent Living Project conference in Billings Tuesday. Blank said it would cost $180,000 to equip Billings’s Met transit system buses with wheelchair lifts. The federal government would pay 80 percent of that cost. Blank said public buildings have been made accessible to handicapped persons, public transportation should also be accessible. He outlined how his group, the Atlantis Community, fought to make the Denver bus system provide wheelchair lifts and suggested tactics to those who would make the Met accessible to handicapped: * Lobby for support. In Denver, Blank said, major churches endorsed the Atlantis crusade. * Build public awareness. Because handicapped people are unable to ride the buses, they are never seen by bus drivers or transit officials. Blank suggested putting a person in a wheelchair on every bus to spend the day riding and handing out literature calling for equal access. * Lawsuits may be needed to force public officials to explain how federal money, given with certain strings attached, has been spent. * Serve notice that you won’t be bought off with special transportation systems. “They do not run special buses for blacks,” Blank said, "they should not be allowed to segregate the handicapped.” Participants of the conference noted that the only transportation available to the handicapped in Billings is furnished by Special Transportation Inc. (STI), a private, non-profit corporation that provides transportation for the elderly and handicapped under contract. Use of STI by handicapped adults is confined to trips for medical appointments. - ADAPT (191)
San Antonio Light 4/24/85 (This article continues on ADAPT 190, but the text is included here entirely for ease of reading) PHOTO by Roberta Barnes/San Antonio Light: Sitting in front of a VIA bus in her scooter, an older heavy set woman (Edith Harris) in a tank top and culottes looks ahead and spreads her arms wide at an angle, almost like a bird's wings. Her upper hand grasps the windshield wiper, while her other hand stretches toward the ground. Caption reads: CATCHING A BUS: Edith Harris of Hartford, Conn., blocks a VIA bus on Broadway. [Headline] Disabled may get aboard some buses VIA Cisneros By David Hawkings, Staff writer After wheelchair-bound protesters clogged downtown streets by placing themselves in front of city buses, Mayor Henry Cisneros vowed yesterday to press for improvements in local transit service for the disabled. The mayor made the pledge after meeting with protesters, who called off demonstrations scheduled last night. But a spokeswoman for the demonstrators refused to completely rule out further action. Before the mayor agreed to meet with the group, about 50 members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit had slowed traffic by creeping across intersection crosswalks and placing themselves in front of VIA metropolitan Transit buses. There were no arrests, though two misdemeanor citations for obstructing traffic were issued. The action by ADAPT marked the third day of protests, which included a demonstration at the VIA headquarters Monday afternoon that prompted 90 buses authority employees to lock themselves in their office. It began Sunday with a demonstration at the Hyatt Hotel, where the American Public Transit Association is holding a regional conference. In a statement, ADAPT said the transit association’s policies are “perpetuating discriminatory transportation systems in cities throughout the U.S.” At yesterday’s session with ADAPT, the mayor agreed to lobby the Reagan administration to reinstate a federal rule -- struck down as a result of a suit brought by APTA -- mandating all public transit be accessible to the disabled. He also said he would urge those in Congress representing South Texas to support funding to help cities pay for making all buses available to those in wheelchairs. The mayor would not, however, endorse an ADAPT position paper “as it is now written” calling for all new municipal buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts. The devices cost about $10,000. Instead, Cisneros said he would work to get “some buses fully equipped on some routes” and would lobby to get a handicapped person appointed to the VIA board. “Cisneros is obviously someone who’s sensitive to minorities, but the problem is he needs a good deal of education that we are a minority,” Jean Stewart, a spokeswoman for ADAPT, said in an interview after the meeting. Stewart, also one of the two protesters cited, was ticketed near the Hilton Hotel. The other protester cited by police yesterday was Robert A. Kafka of Austin, who allegedly was blocking traffic near the Marriott Hotel. PHOTO by Roberta Barnes/San Antonio Light: A man in a power chair (Claude Holcomb) sits squarely in front of a bus in the middle of a traffic filled street. He is wearing shorts and hiking boots, no shirt, and his legs are tied to the leg rests of his chair. He looks to his left as a woman on a scooter (Edith Harris) rolls toward the back of the bus. Inside the bus the driver is just visible, and a paper sign on the windshield reads "APTA Western Conference" and at the top of the windshield a destination type sign with lighted letters reads "Sightseeing." Caption reads: BLOCKADE: Claude Holcom [sic] of Hartford, Conn. blocks VIA bus. - ADAPT (102)
Rocky Mountain News Friday, May 7, 1982 All RTD routes to serve disabled By Jerry Brown News-Staff Regional Transportation District officials plan to provide wheelchair-accessible service on all RTD routes beginning next month, fulfilling a commitment made three years ago. “As far as I know, we are the first in the country to get this far,” in providing bus service for the physically handicapped, said district spokeswoman Kathy Joyce. About 150 rides a week currently are taken by handicapped passengers on the 10 routes in Denver, two in Boulder and all routes in Longmont that offer wheelchair-accessible service, Joyce said, with a peak weekly ridership of 270. The expansion of accessible service follows completion of the installation of wheelchair lifts on 186 AM General buses purchased by RTD in 1977 and 1978. RTD purchased 127 new buses from General Motors of Canada, and RTD also has 33 older buses that had been previously equipped with lifts, giving the agency 346 lift-equipped buses out of a total fleet of 671. RTD spent $3,882,222 - or $20,872 per bus - retrofitting the AM General buses, Joyce said. RTD doesn't have cost figures for the lifts on the new buses, which were delivered early last year. The cost of lifts on those buses was included in the $15.5 million purchase price, Joyce said. Beginning June 6, half of all rush-hour buses and all off-peak buses will be wheelchair accessible, RTD Executive Director L.A. Kimball said. Wade Blank, co-director of the Atlantis Community for the handicapped, said his organization is pleased with the proposed new service. RTD also has promised a public relations program to promote the new service, another longtime Atlantis goal, Blank said. Atlantis filed a lawsuit in 1977 and staged a series of demonstrations in 1977, 1978 and 1979 in efforts to force RTD to make its regular routes accessible to the handicapped. In mid-1979, RTD agreed to make all its routes wheelchair accessible after the U.S. Department of Transportation issued national regulations requiring that half of all rush-hour buses be wheelchair-accessible by July 1982. The federal regulations were rescinded last year, but RTD agreed to meet its earlier commitment, anyway. Earlier Atlantis held more demonstrations to protest RTD’s decision not to put wheelchair lifts on 89 new buses scheduled for delivery next year. Atlantis is challenging that decision in Denver District Court. RTD became one of the first transit agencies in the United States to offer wheelchair-accessible service on regular routes last June when it began providing such service on some of its busier routes. - ADAPT (589)
A-12 /The Houston Post/Wednesday, February 15, 1989 NATION & WORLD [Headline] Disabled hail ruling on bus access [Subheading] Court requires transit agencies to install wheelchair lifts ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — Advocates for the disabled Tuesday hailed a federal court ruling requiring wheelchair lifts on new public buses, but a spokesman for transit agencies said the ruling doesn‘t address vexing problems. “We've been grappling with this for a long time," said Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of the American Public Transit Association in Washington. He said wheelchair lifts receive limited use where they exist and are an added expense to transit agencies at a time when federal subsidies are dwindling. A 3rd U.S. Circuit Court ol Appeals panel ruled 2-1 Monday that Congress has made its wishes on accessibility clear, and lift-equipped buses are part ol that mandate. The court ordered the Department of Transportation to rewrite a regulation allowing communities to offer alternative paratransit service, such as van rides. James D. Fornari, a New York City attorney for a group of veterans with spinal cord injuries, said the ruling will force transit systems to look for the most efficient means of serving disabled people. He said the ruling also could influence DOT regulations on light rail and commuter rail systems. Transportation department spokesman Bob Marx said DOT attorneys had not seen the decision and would not comment. Officials of Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority also had not seen the decision, but MTA spokeswoman Carol Boudreaux said the authority would comply with any new regulations. Representatives of the disabled community in Houston lauded the ruling. “The disabled community is excited and we hope Alan Kiepper, manager of Houston Metro, hears this message from the courts and the disabled community. Access is a civil right," said Vicki Harris, executive director of the Center for Independent Living. Currently, Metro's MetroLift program provides scheduled curb-to-curb transportation for mentally or physically disabled persons who are unable to ride regular buses. Bob Kafka, an American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation representative who joined Harris at a news conference, said he believed the cost of retrofitting buses with wheelchair lifts would be too costly, but said he hoped the ruling would force Metro to buy new buses with lifts. "Disabled people are part of this community, and they should have access to mainline transit," he said. Engelken said his association's board, which comprises the heads of transit agencies across the nation, believes agencies should be able to decide on a local basis how best to serve disabled people. lt costs $15,000 to equip a bus with a wheelchair lift, and buses cost about $200,000, said Joaquin Bowman, a spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. - ADAPT (269)
The Cincinnati Post Tuesday, May 20, 1986 Lighthouse logo of Scripps Howard and the motto: "Give light and the people will find their own way." Editor Paul F. Knue, Editorial Page Editor Claudia Winkler, Managing Editor J. Stephen Fagan, Associate Editor James L. Adams 125 East Court Street, Cincinnati. OH 45202 (513)352-2000 Editorials Title: Buses and the disabled Shades of the civil rights movement returned to Cincinnati yesterday when members of ADAPT, which stands for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, interfered with the operation of Queen City Metro buses. One latched onto a wheel well, and two others boarded and refused to leave. The protesters say members of the American Public Transit Association, who are meeting here this week, are moving slowly or not at all toward making all buses and trains fully accessible for the handicapped. They point to Metro, which has many buses without wheelchair lifts and 87 with lifts that it refuses to operate, as a microcosm of the problem nationwide. Some may condemn the protesters’ tactics of interrupting normal transit service, albeit by relatively non-violent means. The larger question, however, is whether the transit systems are going out of their way to leave the handicapped at curbside. That's certainly not the case with Metro. Metro has contracted with a private company to provide door-to-door (more accurately, curb-to-curb) service for the handicapped within Cincinnati. The system isn't perfect, but it is growing. Complaints abounds that scheduling the Access vans is difficult, and Metro has failed to meet a five-year goal of providing van service to all of Hamilton County, says general manager Tony Kouneski. The problem, here and elsewhere, is one of money. ADAPT wants the lifts as well as the door-to-door service. It’s tough to have it both ways, especially since federal dollars for mass transit have been cut almost 25 percent by the Reagan administration. States have been hard-pressed to fill that gap, and a sales tax increase for Metro failed miserably in 1980. Kouneski says if Metro did, indeed, have an extra $350,000 for operating and maintaining the 87 wheelchair lifts, the money would be better spent on door-to-door service. That's a decision that groups such as the Greater Cincinnati Coalition of People With Disabilities and Metro's own advisory council for the handicapped should help make and implement. Members of national groups such as ADAPT, meanwhile, have made their point. They should now turn their efforts to such things as legal parades and peaceful picketing. Instead of continuing their Cincinnati protest, they should devote their energies to lobbying Washington and the legislatures to fund their full-access plan before someone is seriously injured. - ADAPT (186)
San Antonio Light, Monday April 22, 1985 METRO Section PHOTO by Jim Blaylock, San Antonio Light: ET, Earnest Taylor, holds his long lanky self in a wheelie on his manual wheelchair down on street level while other folks in wheelchairs and a couple of touristy looking walking people go by on the sidewalk by the edge of the hotel A woman in a motorized wheelchair up ahead has a sign on the back of her chair. Behind ET on the sidewalk, George Roberts?, rolls his motorized chair forward; he is wearing a cowboy hat and has a camera on a tripod attached to the front of his wheelchair. Caption reads: EQUALITY IS THE ISSUE: Members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation temporarily blocked the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel yesterday afternoon to protest the lack of transportation access to the handicapped. [Headline] Protesters on Wheels Want Access By Laura Fiorentino [This article continues in ADAPT 185 but the entire story has been included here for ease of reading.] About 75 placard-carrying people in wheelchairs rolled through downtown streets, then stormed the lobby of a hotel, to protest the lack of transportation access to the handicapped. More than 30 San Antonio police officers were called in to keep the peace as the protesters, who belong to the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), temporarily blocked the Hyatt Regency Hotel lobby yesterday afternoon. The demonstrators – many who had traveled from as far as Denver and El Paso – came to San Antonio yesterday to emphasize the need for wheelchair accessibility to conventioneers attending the American Public Transit Association’s weeklong meeting at the hotel. The group assembled at the Alamo, then moved to the Hyatt, which they circled four times before entering the lobby. “We’re talking about equality.” Mike Auberger of Denver, an ADAPT spokesman, said. “For so long blacks were separated, and that’s what we see happening here. The cost of these lifts isn’t what we’re talking about. It’s integrating everyone into the system.” In addition to the protesting transportation group, ADAPT also condemned the lack of wheelchair lifts VIA Metropolitan Transit buses and trolleys. Auberger said there are about 12,000 people in the San Antonio are confined to wheelchairs. He said only a small number of those are served by special buses provided for the handicapped every day. He said seven of the protesters outside the hostel yesterday were from San Antonio. But VIA General Manager Wayne Cook said local handicapped population does not want wheelchair lifts and instead prefers door-to-door service provided by special buses. “They (wheelchair lifts) are not an option,” Cook said at the hotel. “The local handicapped population does not want it. They want door-to-door service. We spent $1.2 million on the handicapped this year. They told us they don’t want lifts - they want special VIA trans buses instead.” Cook said each wheelchair costs about $15,000 and extra funds would be necessary to train a staff to maintain them. “What’s the point in having the ability to vote if you can’t participate?” Auberger said. “How can you give handicapped individuals jobs if they can’t get to work? Association officials at the hotel said that while they understood the protesters’ desire they agree with allowing each city to decide whether to install the lifts. “I sympathize with their desires and I wish I had the resources to make them (buses and trolleys) more accessible,” said association spokesman Jack Gilstrap, who met with the protesters before they disbanded. “The ironic aspect to all this in that we are on the same side. We want the best for the handicapped. We feel the courts’ decision that each city should decide how it should be handled is correct. They (the protesters) believe that ought to be dictated by Washington,” Gilstrap said. - ADAPT (634)
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. - ADAPT (79)
Rocky Mountain News Tues., Nov. 6, 1979, Denver, Colo Photo by Steve Groer, News: A woman in a parka stands, smiling, holding the push handles of another woman's wheelchair. The woman in the wheelchair is facing the camera and smiling, eyes closed, a polite face. She's about eye level to the woman standing behind her because she is on a lift getting into a van. Caption reads: Pam Mellon helps Sonja Kerr into her van at Atlantis. [Headline] For some, just getting to job is an obstacle EDITOR'S NOTE‘: Nearly three fourths of Denver's 700,000-plus commuters drive to work alone by car. This is the latest in a series of stories about those who don't. By JERRY BROWN News Staff Paul and Jan Stewart almost lost their jobs with a local life insurance company after someone stole their car three weeks ago, leaving them with no way to get to work. Attorney Les Berkowitz owns a specially equipped car and hires a driver for his commuting and work-related travel. He estimates the special arrangements add $350 to his monthly commuting expenses. Sonja Kerr lives 3 1/2 blocks from the stop where she catches her bus to work. But she has to travel an extra two blocks to get there because of obstacles along the way. Mel Conrardy shells out $11 for each of his thrice-weekly Amb-O-cab trips to and from work. For the Stewarts, Berkowitz, Kerr and Conrardy, physical handicaps complicate their efforts to get to and from work — and restrict their commuting options. There‘s just no transportation for the handicapped if you don't have your own vehicle,” said Jan Stewart, whose husband is a paraplegic. As a result, Mrs. Stewart said, she and her husband "were in pretty desperate straits" when their car was stolen. "We don't have any money," she said. “We couldn't rent a car." Taking a bus to work was out of the question, she said, because they don't live close enough to the bus routes on which service for the handicapped is provided, and regular buses aren't equipped to handle Mr. Stewart’s wheelchair. And Amb-0-Cab, which provides door-to-door pick up and delivery service for the handicapped, was too expensive - $17 per round trip. The state Commission on the Disabled provide the Stewarts with transportation to work for two weeks. “They were very nice, but it was helter-skelter," Mrs. Stewart said. “They only have one driver and one van. Some mornings they would get us there (work) at 9 a.m., sometimes at 10:30." That didn't make their employer too happy, Mrs. Stewart said. Particularly since the Stewarts were supposed to be at work by 8 a.m. And the commission's driver quit at 4:30 p.m., leaving the Stewarts without transportation home. They turned to “friends, my boss and anybody else kind enough to give us a ride," Mrs Stewart said. “There were a lot of tears, a lot of frustration and a lot of worry" until they scraped together the money to buy an old used car, she said. The transportation problems of the physically handicapped are "all easily solvable if all you have is money," said Berkowitz, who maintains an active law practice despite being confined to a wheelchair and having only limited use of his arms “Unfortunately, I don't have that much." “Transportation is a difficult and an expensive proposition," he added. “But regardless of the negatives, the handicapped do what they have to do. It's not an insurmountable problem. If someone wants to do it, they can do it." But others within the handicapped community say the lack of cheap, dependable transportation for the handicapped prevents many of the estimated 6,000 to 8,000 Denver area residents confined to wheelchairs from being able to work. RTD offers limited service for the handicapped — three fixed routes and door-to-door service by subscription only — but doesn't expect to make its regular bus service accessible to the handicapped until 1982. Accessible bus service will enable many handicapped persons to find jobs who simply have no way to get to work today, according to spokesmen for the Atlantis Community, which has led the fight for accessible buses in Denver. Kerr, who works for Atlantis, uses RTD’s existing fixed-route service for the handicapped to get to work several days a week. She also owns a lift-equipped van — bought for her by her uncle — and sometimes rides to work in it with her roommate who drives. Kerr’s roommate plans to move, however, and Kerr said she doesn't think her reflexes are good enough for her to drive the van herself in Denver traffic. By trial and error, Kerr has found a route between her home and her bus stop. But she can't ride the bus in bad weather or when there is snow or ice on the ground. And if she misses her bus -— or fails to make a transfer connection downtown -- she has to wait two hours for the next bus. Conrardy also works at Atlantis, three days a week. But he lives with his mother and doesn't work to support himself, so the $11-a-day commuting expenses are something he can live with. “lt gives me something to do, Conrardy said of his part-time duties for Atlantis. - ADAPT (95)
Rocky Mountain News, Fri., Sept. 2, 1977, Denver, Colo p.6 [Headline] Handicapped seek ruling on RTD service By CLAIRE COOPER News Staff Wheelchair-bound witnesses Thursday urged a federal judge to order the Regional Transportation District to equip new buses with devices to facilitate transportation of the disabled. RTD has 231 buses on order. Only 18 of them will be outfitted for passengers in wheelchairs. Handicapped and elderly plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit in Denver U.S. District Court claiming RTD will discriminate against them if it fails to provide them with suitable bus transportation. The plaintiffs have asked that the buses be equipped with boarding ramps or hydraulic lifts and with interior devices to hold wheelchairs in place. During the hearing before Judge Richard P. Matsch, an arthritic youth complained that he faces “social isolation“ because of lack of transportation. ROBERT CONRAD SAID. “lf l don‘t get out, l’ll go crazy. I don't like looking at four walls." Conrad said it’s often impossible for him to board regular buses because oi‘ the pain in his legs. When he can do it, he said, he suffers embarrassment because it takes him three minutes to negotiate the steps. Other witnesses also complained about the social and psychological consequences of being unable to use the public transportation system. Glenn Kopp said he feels like “a second-class citizen.” Kopp is co-director of Atlantis Community Inc., an organization of disabled persons. His job is to help the handicapped become self-sufficient. But for Kopp to go to work, he said, "I have to depend on somebody to pick me up.” Carolyn Finnell said, “I just don't like using people as tools" for transportation. Marilyn Weaver said the lack of transportation isolates her from" her friends and her parents. "They do come to see me, but it would be nice sometime to go home," she said. Ms. Weaver and others testified that economic burdens are forced on them by the necessity of hiring private transportation. Ms. Weaver said she spends about $120 a month, one-fifth of her income, for “ambocabs," a private taxi service for passengers in wheelchairs. Ambocab charges $18 for a round trip, Kopp said. Ms. Weaver claimed the high cost deters all but essential use. “I should be getting therapy more than I do,“ said the 38-year-old polio victim, adding that her financial situation determines whether she can afford transportation to her therapist. SEVERAL WITNESSES said confinement to their neighborhoods means they have to pay more for groceries and other necessities. Kopp said he doesn’t like to ask friends to take him shopping because it takes along time him to go through the stores. The witnesses said RTD’s HandiRide service for the disabled isn't a good solution to their transportation problems because it makes only scheduled stops at medical facilities, schools and places of employment. Ms. Weaver, who works at Atlantis, said she takes the HandiRide to work because she starts at a set time. But she has no set quitting time, so she can't take it home. According to the complaint, HandiRide serves fewer than 150 persons. The complaint says about 17,600 persons in the Denver-Boulder area are being denied public transportation because of "unnecessary physical and structural barriers in the design of transit buses." Lawyers representing RTD have not presented defense testimony. The hearing continues Friday. - ADAPT (593)
2/89 New York Times [Headline] Court Orders Buses Fitted for Handicapped PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 14 (AP) - A Federal appeals court ordered the Department of Transportation on Monday to require transit authorities around the country to equip new buses with wheelchair lifts. In its ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, said another Transportation Department regulation allowing communities to offer the handicapped services like special vans hindered the spontaneous use of mass transit by the disabled. The court also upheld a decision requiring the Transportation Department to eliminate a 3 percent limit on the amount of money transit authorities must spend to make transportation accessible. The lawsuit, filed by Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, a coalition of disabled people, and 12 organizations, attacked a provision of the Federal regulations on public transportation that allows local authorities to offer people in wheelchairs transportation in buses, special vans or a combination of the two. Judge Carol Los Mansmann of the appeals court, writing the 2-to-1 decision, said, "Congress wanted to provide the disabled with the capability to utilize mass transit to the ‘maximum extent feasible.'" Timothy M. Cook, director of the Washington-based National Disability Action Center, who argued the case before the court, said the ruling was "a major, major victory" for the handicapped. But a spokesman for transit agencies said the ruling did not address vexing problems. Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of the American Public Transit Association, said wheelchair lifts receive limited use where they exist and are an added expense to transit agencies at a time when Federal subsidies have been dwindling. Many local transportation officials declined comment on the ruling because they had not seen it. But Peter Dimond a spokesman for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston, said, "we have made a pledge that all buses we purchase in the future will be lift-equipped." It costs $15,000 to equip a bus with a wheelchair lift and buses cost about $200,000, according to Joaquin Bowman, a spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. - ADAPT (628)
Edition USA/Colorado ADAPT seeks home care for all by Kerri S. Smith A national disabled persons’ advocacy organization based in Denver has launched a campaign aimed at moving people from nursing homes to home care. American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) has at short-term goal: to re-direct 25 percent on the government's annual nursing home care budget. That money—estimated at $5.5 billion federal money and $5.5 billion from state coffers-would fund a national home care program instead. Under the ADAPT proposal, nursing home residents whose care is covered by Medicare or Medicaid could live at home. The government would pay home are attendants to care for them, rather than paying the facility. ADAPT spokesperson Mike Auberger said the group seeks “the ultimate demise of the nursing home system," and contends that paying an attendant to provide home care for a person usually costs less than nursing home care. In theory, the ADAPT plan would spend government money more efficiently-the same money would be used to care for more people who need assistance. The government is not enthusiastic about the idea, and a local nursing home industry spokesperson said ADAPT's demands are unrealistic. Auberger said Health and Human Services secretary Louis Sullivan declined to meet with ADAPT representatives. "We've been going back and forth with them, and the outcome is he doesn't meet with radical groups," Auberger said. And Arlene Linton, executive director of the Colorado Health Care Association (CHCA), said moving nursing home residents out of facilities “would isolate many of them from the community. “They'd also be without the 24-hour-care and rehabilitative services provided in nursing homes," Linton said. CHCA is the local branch of the American Health Care Association, which represents the nursing home industry. Linton added that ADAPT "is talking dollars, not people. Some residents have outlived their family and friends, and need the support a nursing home offers." A national campaign to publicize ADAPT's proposal began Jan. 15. Members demonstrated at government offices (including Health Care Financing Administration offices) and nursing homes in 24 cities. Auberger said media coverage was minimal, due to the Persian Gulf Crisis. Locally, ADAPT representatives demonstrated in Lakewood at Bethany Care Center. In the mid-'70s, the facility was operated by different owners and was known as Heritage House. Conditions at that time sparked a 13-year lawsuit over nursing home residents’ rights. The Federal Omnibus Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1988 also addressed quality of life issues for nursing home residents. The bill became effective Oct. 1, 1990. ln 1974, former Heritage House residents joined with Denverite Wade Blank and others to form the Atlantis Community, a local home care agency that currently cares for 135 people in Denver and Colorado Springs. Later, Atlantis Community leaders founded ADAPT. The group mobilized the civil rights movement for disabled persons, and ultimately affected the way nursing homes are inspected and regulated nationally. Auberger claims many current nursing home patients don't require intensive medical care, and "end up there only because they're out of money or their families can't care for them." Linton said CHCA met with ADAPT representatives twice to discuss the attendant proposal, "but they rejected our request to form a task force to find common ground." While Linton endorses home care as “a part of the long-term care continuum," she called the ADAPT proposal “robbing Peter to pay Paul. "We cannot support the concept of lowering funding for nursing home patients, to set up another funding to attendant services," Linton said. “We need new, additional funding for that." Recent federal budget cuts may make additional funding unlikely, at least in the near future. Atlantis and ADAPT are determined, however, and they are prepared for a long campaign. - ADAPT (244)
The Cincinnati Enquirer Wednesday, May 21, 1, '86 p14—A Title: The handicapped Bus service that can meet special needs is the answer The handicapped demonstrators who are demanding greater access to transportation systems could find that, even if they succeed, they may not like what they get. About '75 members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) have been in Cincinnati for the regional meeting of the American Public Transit Association (APTA). Their purpose has been to protest what they see as a violation of their civil rights. They want to be able to use all modes of public transportation as others do. ADAPT is focusing on bus systems, asking that all buses — on a progressive basis -- be provided with lifts for the handicapped. That might be a valid answer, if the money were available, but the experience of states such as California and Michigan shows that the handicapped prefer a more personalized service, such as the Access shuttles that Metro provides. Both California and Michigan have state laws requiring fully accessible systems, but the use of regular buses is negligible. Most of the handicapped prefer the “Dial-a-Ride” services that supplement the regular system. That service seems the best way. With Cincinnati's hilly terrain for example, how would the handicapped reach the bus stops? How far would they have to go to reach a "regular" bus stop? How far must they travel when they get off? What happens in chilly, stormy or snowy weather? From the bus service's standpoint, how do buses keep schedules? How many areas on a bus would have to be cleared for handicapped equipment? What would be the costs? How would those costs be met? APTA officials say their policy is to recommend that local services do what is best, considering their terrain, climate, resources and needs -— always in consultation with the community served. Metro’s Access has had its troubles meeting the needs of the handicapped. Last year, the demand was so great that the handicapped had to wait for as long as a week before they could schedule a ride. Although the problem has been helped somewhat, Metro’s officials frankly agree that it is not ideal. Improvement is needed. The handicapped must have freedom of movement. The question is, what is best for them and what is possible? The problem won't be easily solved. More bus service is needed in many areas of Greater Cincinnati, and with the cut in federal funds, money will be hard to come by. But Cincinnati's coalition of the handicapped has found negotiation preferable to confrontation. Although the coalition is upset about the limitations of Access, it still sees co-operative decisions as the wisest course. And it is. Together with Metro, they must find a practical answer to their needs. - ADAPT (250)
Cincy orders protesters out A May bus protest in Cincinnati has been described “as the most effective, courageous and fun action ever accomplished in the movement for disabled rights," according to literature mailed out by the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT). Some 85 members of ADAPT were in Cincinnati in mid-May to picket a regional convention of its arch-enemy, the American Public Transit Association (APTA) and to dramatize what a lack of accessible buses means to the disabled population of that Ohio city. The action began with the customary march on the convention hotel on Sunday, May 18. No arrests were made but marchers were greeted at the Westin Hotel by police and double barricades. None of the protestors was allowed into the hotel. Pointing out that other people were passed through the barricades, Bob Kafka of Austin, Texas, said the wheelchair protestors were being discriminated against. However, Cincinnati police captain Dale Menkhaus said that such actions, were proper when taken to protect private property from any group seeking to disrupt other lawful gatherings. The following day Kafka and fellow Texan George Cooper of Dallas dragged themselves onto a City Metro bus, paid their fares, and were arrested. They were reportedly told that “it’s not safe for disabled people to be on the regular bus.” The two were later released on $3,000 bond and ordered out of town, an action that ADAPT leaders described as blatantly unconstitutional. A third protestor, Mike Auberger of Denver, who is a former resident of Cincinnati, was arrested when he attempted to block the bus on which Cooper and Kafka were riding. Auberger said he originally left Cincinnati because of that city's “nineteenth century” attitude toward persons with disabilities. None of the Queen City Metro buses are accessible to the disabled, although 87 of the buses do have lifts which have been bolted down. Metro officials estimate it would cost them $350,000 to return those lifts to operational status. A local Cincinnati disabled activist said that's why she agrees with ADAPT’s goals, even if she can't go along with their methods. Dixie Harmon, co-chairperson of the Specialized Transportation Advisory Committee to Queen City Metro and a member of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, said that the city’s service for disabled riders was inadequate. A disabled person must request space 24 hours in advance from Access, the paratransit system, but even then there's not always a space. “They dictate our lives to us because we have to go and come as there's space available.” ADAPT members said that's why they were willing to go to jail to publicize their cause. Police, however, made no arrests when 15 wheelchair protestors rolled onto a highway where vehicles were traveling at 40 miles per hour and blocked seven buses that were carrying APTA delegates and their spouses to a dinner at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in nearby Canton. Police were caught by surprise, as they had barricades to turn back protestors at the entrance to the Hall of Fame. Two local disabled leaders who were accompanying the APTA delegation to the dinner were taunted as “Uncle Toms” in front of TV cameras. Early the next day ADAPT members were back in front of the Weston Hotel where they erected a huge cross and hung a wheelchair from it in a mock crucifixion. On the final day of the convention, 17 protestors were arrested when they blocked the hotel driveway and refused police orders to move. Many of those arrested were ordered to jail unless they agreed to leave town. Three protestors, Auberger, Cooper and Kafka, decided the time had come for disabled protestors to do “hard time” and ended up serving 10 days. Five other protestors were turned out of jail because they had special medical problems or speech impairments. Others were released after pleading “no contest” to the charges in hastily organized trials. “Even the story we had left town and the protest was over made TV news," an ADAPT spokesperson said.