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Úvodní stránka / Alba / Štítky APTA
+ Bob Kafka 5
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[This artlice continues in ADAPT 412, but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] PHOTO 1: A group of protesters in wheelchairs, in a rough line, head down the street toward the camera. In front and to one side a policeman on a motorcycle/trike. Caption: ADAPT demonstrators, with police escort, on their way from the Arch to Union Station, via Market Street PHOTO 2: Four protesters in wheelchairs block a flight of stairs in a lobby type area as people walk by. From left to right they are Ryan Duncan, Heather Blank, unknown protester, and Wayne Spahn. Caption: Demonstrators blocked access to stairways in Union Station, trying to force a confrontation with APTA officials. [No Title or author or publication given for this article on the clipping. It does not appear be the start of the article.] "They bill it as door to door service, but it does crazy things like, if you want to go from west county to the city, it will pick you up but leave you at the city-county line." Bi-State plans to expand the service in December by adding 11 lift-equipped vans and extending the service into the city. The system will also extend its hours of operation, to 6 a.m. to 7 p m. Its use in the city limits will be limited to disabled passengers, Plesko says, and, with the extended hours, disabled workers will be able to use the service to get to their jobs. While some other cities are making similar (or greater) progress — San Francisco, for one, has lifts on every one of its buses — things are still moving too slowly for the members of ADAPT. And they blame the slow pace on APTA. (ADAPT members who came to St. Louis this week stressed that they were here because of their quarrel with APTA and were not here to demonstrate against Bi-State. They said they approved of the plans Bi-State had made for the achievement of 100 percent accessibility, but nonetheless questioned the slow pace at which that was occurring.) The fight between ADAPT and APTA has its roots in the 1970s. During the Carter administration, the Department of Transportation (DOT) issued rules requiring transit systems to have at least half of their buses equipped with wheelchair lifts. Those regulatioms came out of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a landmark federal law that many in the disabled community point to as being equivalent to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But APTA filed suit against DOT for its regulations and a federal court upheld APTA's argument for "local option," that is, allowing individual transit authorities to decide how they would comply with the spirit of the regulation requiring adequate accessible transportation for the disabled. Says APTA's Engelken, "These decisions are best made locally, because the local transit systems understand the needs of their passengers. For example, it would not be feasible to have a transit system for the disabled based on 100 percent lift-equipped buses in Fargo, North Dakota, because in the winter it would be almost impossible for someone in a wheel chair to get to a bus stop and wait for a bus. Able-bodied people have enough trouble (there)." Says Bob Kafka, another ADAPT leader, "(That) is one of the arguments people use for not providing transportation. They say, 'People in a motorized wheelchair can't get there, so why provide (accessible buses)?' But do you know what a person in a motorized wheelchair has to do to get to the bus stop? He has to hit a joystick. Little old ladies cleaning people's homes for years, with fallen arches, and having to carry shopping bags, no one has ever said we need special transit for them. But a disabled person who has to hit a joystick to operate his wheelchair, we need special transportation for them because it’s too cold, too snowy, too hilly, too wet, too this. "It's like were going to break, were going to fall apart." ADAPT sees APTA's insistence on local option as an attempt by the group to foster so-called "separate-but-equal” transportation systems. They say that APTA is attempting to segregate transit systems; keeping disabled passengers out of the mainstream system. ADAPT was formed in 1982 in Denver by Auberger and a handful of other members of that city's disabled community. It was put together because APTA had scheduled a convention for Denver and APTA's resistance to 100 percent accessible main-line public transportation for the disabled made the trade organization the moral equivalent of "the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi party" for disabled Americans, Kafka says. Thirty demonstrators showed up at the first protest, and there have been eight subsequent protests, all at APTA regional or national conferences. The demonstrators model their actions after the non-violent civil rights activists of the 1960s. They block access to buses: they block access to the APTA convention sites. Some, including Auberger, chain themselves to buses or to doorways. The aim is arrest and the accompanying media attention. Auberger has been arrested at least 30 times by his own count, including this past Sunday at the Omni Hotel. ADAPT's militant tactics have drawn criticism from several corners, including others who work in the disabled community. "While we agree with the goals and-objectives of accessibility for disabled persons, we don't agree with the tactics of civil disobedience or confrontation as a means to achieve those objectives," says Ginny Weber, assistant to Deborah Phillips, the commissioner of the city's Office on the Disabled. "There are other ways to get things done," she says. "You can go through the legislative process. You can conduct public awareness campaigns. Over the last 10 years, some progress has been made. To change conditions that have been in existence for a long time takes a while. You have to just stay in there' and keep working towards it." Sheldon Caldwell, executive director of the St. Louis Society for Crippled Children, agrees. "I don't think it pleads our case well to have a group with a disruptive militant attitude. This is my personal opinion: I haven't polled my staff on this, but I don't think disruption is ever the way to go about it. But others are not as harsh in their judgment. "I take a different position (from those who criticize ADAPT)," says Paraquad's Tuscher. "I have the point of view that there are many ways to get from where we are to where we want to go. We're more likely to use negotiation, legislative action, legal action, public relations campaigns. Confrontation is not one of our methods, but I don't think it's my place to judge (ADAPT). Let history judge: let history prove whose method is the right one." About the criticism from within the disabled community, ADAPT's Kafka says, "Those who are in power are not going to give it up to you willingly. Without the push of civil disobedience, even the Civil Rights Act would never have come about." Says Auberger, "(Negotiation and public relations campaigns) delay the justice. It's not perceived as delaying justice, but it is. They are doing harm to their disabled brothers and sisters by saying, 'I don't support their tactics, but I do agree with their position.— Because other groups for the disabled receive so much financial support from corporations, they are less willing to be as direct in their demands as is ADAPT, he says. "They will eat a lot of garbage just to get half the loaf. "If you're going to change things, you have to get rid of the notion right away that you are going to be someone's friend," he says. "Be-cause someone is going to want something different than you do. The city of St. Louis and I will never be friends. The police and I will never be friends, but I won't lose any sleep over it. I know when I leave here, people will be talking about this issue in a way it hasn't been talked about before and something might change. "You look at demonstrators in history. Go back to the civil rights movement. The blacks who demonstrated weren't seen as 'nice.' If you go back further, to the women's suffrage movement, those women who wanted the right to vote weren't seen as mom and apple pie. But typically people who have been vocal about their rights are never perceived as being nice." PHOTO 1: Two men, one a plain clothes policeman and the other the bus driver, load a man in a scooter onto an accessible bus as several other people in suits and uniforms look on. Caption: St. Louts police arrested 41 demonstrators at the Sunday protest by ADAPT at the Omni. PHOTO 2: A man (Mike Auberger) with his hair pulled back tightly, wearing glasses, a beard and an ADAPT no steps T-shirt, sits in a long hall with bars of light on the walls and ceiling. He holds up his hands, fingers permanently folded at the first joint, guesturing as he speaks. He has a chest strap to hold him in his motorized wheelchair. Caption: Mike Auberger, one of the founders of ADAPT
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Cleveland Plain Dealer p.8 Title: Cincy frees wheelchair access bus activists CINCINNATI (AP) -- A judge granted early release yesterday to three wheelchair-bound activists who were arrested last week for participating in protests to demand access for handicapped people to public transportation. Hamilton county Municipal Judge J. Howard Sundermann, Jr. granted a defense lawyers request for early release of Michael Auberger of Denver, George Cooper of Dallas and Bob Kafka of Austin, Texas, who had served six days for criminal trespassing. Sundermann had sentenced the three to jail terms of 10 days each for their part in last week’s demonstration at the headquarters of Queen City Metro, Cincinnati's public transit agency. Their lawyer, Joni Wiikens, had argued against a jail term, saying the men could have suffered health problems if they were jailed for an extended period. Before he granted the early release, Sundermann asked the men if they planned to go to another city and repeat the demonstration. Auberger and Kafka said they planned to return home. Cooper did not reply. “I think we made our point. The issue won’t go away,” Kafka told reporters after the hearing. Auberger, Cooper and Kafka are members of Americans’ Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), a national organization that sponsored last week’s protests outside a downtown Cincinnati hotel where the American Public Transit Association was conducting a regional meeting of bus system executives. The activists were protesting Queen City Metro’s policy of requiring the handicapped ride on separate vans for the disabled rather than on regular buses. ADAPT members urged the system to fit the buses with wheelchair lifts, but Metro officials said they did not have money to do so because of the Reagan administration’s cuts in federal transit funding. The vans must be reserved 24 hours in advance. Handicapped people complain that the vans often are booked days in advance, leaving them isolated and unable to get to work or other destinations.
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RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Monday APRIL 10, 1989 [Headline] 49 disabled protesters arrested in Sparks Photo by Cralg Sallor/Gazette-Journal: Two men in wheelchairs are being arrested by police in the middle of the street. The man on the left, Bob Kafka, is being bent forward in his chair and being handcuffed behind his back. Across his legs he has a poster but it is not readable from this copy. The man on the left, Bill Bolte, is sitting up hold a sign about Rights in front of his chest. The policeman is standing beside him bending forward to do something to his chair it seems. caption reads: CONFRONTATION: Sparks police arrested Bob Kafka, left, of Austin, Texas, and Bill Bolte of Los Angeles. Text box has the quote: 'My rights are worth fighting for.’ Bill Bolte/demonstrator [Headline] Public transit meeting draws demands for accessibility By Darcy De Leon/Gazelle-Journal Sparks police arrested 49 disabled protesters demanding accessibility to public buses during a protest Sunday aimed at national transit officials meeting at John Ascuaga's Nugget. About 75 wheelchair-bound members of Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) rushed two entrances of the hotel—casino about 3:15 p.m., but Nugget security officers and police inside blocked the doorways. ADAPT activists chanting, “Access is a civil right,” struggled to open the doors an confront officials with the American Public Transit Association (APTA) attending a five-day convention through Wednesday. Bob Kafka of Austin, Texas, and Bill Bolte, a Los Angeles resident, were the first protesters to he arrested. "My rights are worth fighting for," said Bolte, 57. “APTA is discriminating against us," said Kafka, who has used a wheelchair since breaking his neck in a car accident at the age of 26. "We feel that APTA is to the disabled what the KKK is to the black community.“ At the height of the protest police dragged away three demonstrators lying in the casino entrance. No injuries were reported, police said. Sparks police Lt. Tony Zamboni said that as of late Sunday night, five of the 49 demonstrators arrested had been transferred to the Washoe County jail, after their arraignment in Sparks Municipal Court. They were being held in lieu of $1,025 bond for investigation of obstructing traffic, obstructing a police officer an blocking a fire exit, Zamboni said. Arraignments continued Sunday night for the remaining protesters. Disabled residents from Reno and 30 other cities throughout the country joined in the protest of an expected appeal of a federal court order that requires all public bus systems to be equipped for wheelchairs. ADAPT filed a lawsuit asking for the decision last year. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled in favor of the group in February. Demonstrators Sunday hoped to persuade the transit officials to work against the appeal, expected to be made by the U.S. Department of Transportation today. APTA spokesman Albert Engelken said the group's protests are “compelling and heart-rending." But he said APTA cannot afford a national mandate for the lifts, which cost $15,000 to install and even more to maintain. Engelken also cited low usage of the buses and suggested the lift requirement be a local option instead of a state mandate. “We're for accessible transportation for the disabled, and we do have it, but the local transit systems and the local disabled communities should decide what is needed because they know what's best." Reno’s Citifare would not be affected by the decision because transit officials already have made a commitment toward a 100 percent wheelchair-equipped bus system, said Bill Derrick, planning manager for the Regional Transportation Commission. All Citifare buses bought since 1984 are wheelchair-equipped, he said, and all non-equipped buses will be replaced by 1996. Mike Auberger, ADAPT founder and protest organizer, said the group has staged at least 14 demonstrations at APTA conferences during the last seven years throughout the United States and Canada. Auberger, 33, of Denver, who has been confined to a wheelchair since a bobsled accident 17 years ago, said demonstrators will follow APTA convention-goers for as long as it takes. “We’re not fighting Reno or any other city. We're fighting APTA,” he said. “We will go to jail, we'll get arrested, but so what — it's a misdemeanor. We'll do it again." Citifare accommodates the disabled more than some other cities, said Reno resident Dottie Spinnetta, 51, who suffers from muscular dystrophy and rides the buses five days a week. But RTC could improve the system by offering additional wheelchair space on the buses and bus pickups every 30 minutes instead of every hour. “I should be able to get around as everyone else can and not have to ask,” she said. “That’s what everybody wants — to be independent." The only drawbacks of using Citifare for John Civitello, 21, is that he has to get up at 4 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. bus that takes him to his job with American Handicapped Workers. He then waits outside the office another hour until his workday begins at 8 a.m. PHOTO by Joanne Haskin: Two policemen are standing one behind the other, facing a third and behind him is a fourth officer who is using what looks like a video camera. All the police wear hats and are looking down. From their midst, the wild head of Arthur Campbell sticks out, his long white hair flying in different directions, a strange grin on his face and his intense eyebrows above his dark eyes. The police seem to be cradling him, and look down at him. Caption reads: Protest scuffle—Sparks police detain one of the ADAPT protesters that blocked the entrance to John Ascuaga's Nugget during a demonstration Sunday afternoon. Sparks police made a total of 49 arrests during the protest.
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WHEN IS TOO MUCH: "Helping" the Disabled by Mary McKnew Just as airplane pilots want assurance that a plane's steering wheel won‘t come off while flying over Europe, people utilizing a bus wheelchair lift deserve to expect that the lift will operate in a safe and predictable manner. However, I have to admit that too much focus on “safety” issues has me a little worried. To some transit officials, “safety” issues in providing transportation services for people with disabilities raise old stereotypes of helplessness and can quickly become a rationale for imposing paternalistic policies. For example, here in Olympia, the local Intercity Transit Authority and the state's Department of General Administration are co-sponsoring a shuttle service between the capitol and downtown Olympia with routes passing other major states offices. With the local parking problem, this system is extremely convenient. From the beginning, all vans used in the service have been equipped with wheelchair lifts. All this, of course, is very commendable. So, what's the problem? Unfortunately, the van's tie-down system, lack of grab-bars and driver policies reflect a paternalistic attitude towards disabled passengers by promoting dependence in the name of safety. The tie-down system is one of the most primitive I have ever encountered. It uses straps to bind each of a wheelchair's four wheels to the floor in a rather intricate system that takes the driver approximately five minutes to accomplish. To tie-down a wheelchair, the driver must get on his or her hands and knees. Thus, it is not possible for even very mobile wheelchair users to accomplish this independently. However, once the straps are in place, none of the wheels will move even a centimeter. During this five minute routine, other van passengers wait outside (some glancing at their watches) until the driver folds the lift back in place and allows them to board. After being strapped down, the driver then will place a seat-belt around the wheelchair user. Seat belts are not available for other passengers. If the wheelchair user decides to reject use of a seat belt, the driver will attempt (sometimes loud) persuasion, finally telephoning into the office to report that the passenger has refused use of the belt. I use a wheelchair for mobility due to a low and incomplete spinal cord injury. I object to many of the features in the Intercity Transit system that, to me, are designed on the premise that people with disabilities will always need a lot of assistance from the driver. Although the driver should be trained and willing to provide assistance if it is requested, the system should be designed to promote maximum independence. Most tie-down systems can be easily manipulated by most wheelchair uses with finger movement. Although some wheelchair users need a seat belt due to problems with balance, drivers should not assume they are needed by all such passengers. A policy that requires a driver to phone in to report a passenger's rejection of the seat belt is founded on the belief that people with disabilities are incapable of making sound decisions regarding their own safety. Additionally, although grab-bars are located along the ceiling walls of other seats, none are available near the tie-down area. Thus, if the bus lurches while enroute, a wheelchair passenger has nothing to hold onto. I suppose this makes it more likely a wheelchair passenger will comply with the seat belt policy, recognizing that a passive restraint is better than none at all. Intercity Transit has been providing paratranslt services to people with disabilities for a number of years. They have moved into the provision of mainline transportation services (i.e., access to the regular bus service) only recently. It appears that they have simply shifted their operating policies and procedures from one system to the other without considering if these are applicable to the new service. I have brought my objections to Intercity Transit’s attention. Although the staff disagree with most, they are reconsidering others. Safety is a concern to people who use wheelchair lifts. However, we cannot allow it to become a convenient rationale for either eliminating the service or instituting restrictive policies that treat people with disabilities in a disparate manner from other passengers. PHOTO (by Tom Olin): A large crowd marches downhill on a wide street. In the front row a little girl in a wheelchair (Jennifer Keelan) is pushed by her mother (Cindy). Beside them a woman in a motorized wheelchair (Diane Coleman) and a long skirt and white jacket has a sign behind her reading "we the people." Beside her a man in a manual wheelchair (Bob Kafka) with a big salt and pepper beard rolls along. In the row behind, between Bob and Diane, is a woman in a wheelchair (Mary McKnew) and a man who walks (Lannie Schuman) are visible and next to them another man marches behind Diane. Behind Jennifer and Cindy is Tari Susan Hartman. Rows of marchers go further and further back up the street to the top of the hill and presumably beyond. Caption reads: Just to the right at the placard Washington residents Lannie Schuman and Mary McKnew participate in a San Francisco demonstration for transportation rights. ABOUT THE AUTHOR... In 1987, Mary McKnew tried to get arrested for the first time. She sat in front of a San Francisco police van and refused to move. She sat in her wheelchair directly under the wheels of a bus and refused to move. "I did many illegal things." she says wryly. What she did, she did in the name of accessible public transportation for people with disabilities... a personal and political quest McKnew has been following for the past 12 years. Although McKnew wasn't arrested at that demonstration (in spite of her civil disobedience efforts), many others were. More than 500 people organized by the American Disabled tor Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) marched through the streets oi San Francisco to the city hall to protest the continuing discriminatory policies supported by the American Public Transit Association (APTA). ADAPT has been a persistent thorn in the side of APTA for many years. Fortunately, their persistence paid off. With the final signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) expected any day, ADAPT—- and McKnew — will see many of their demands for fair, accessible transportation become reality. But McKnew says that just because you pass laws doesn't mean you quit being an activist. "The ADA will bring private transit companies under regulations just like public ones," she says, "but just passing a law doesn't mean we solve the problem. implementation is a whole other thing." In part, McKnew was referring to the possibility that some private companies may reduce the seating capacity in some of their smaller vehicles in order to side-step the accessibility requirements mandated by the ADA. "What the ADA will do is provide a clear avenue for lawsuits," she says. Is McKnew planning on handling some of those lawsuits herself? It may be too early to tell. Currently an executive policy assistant in the Office of the Governor, McKnew is also a second-year law student at the University of Puget Sound. (This story continues in the original format on 571 but is included here in its entirety for ease of reading.)
ADAPT (507): 300 strong ADAPT waits outside APTA Hotel
PHOTO (by Tom Olin): Black and white photo looking up the street divided by the wooden barricades. The picture is taken from behind the ADAPT people behind the barricades which curve across to block the whole street in the foreground. A car comes down the empty side toward the camera. Metal barriers divide the other side of the street from the sidewalk where there are a couple of low temporary structures. A police officer in a helmet and leather jacket stands at one side of the picture, handcuffs and gun visible on his or her belt and radio on the shoulder. All the ADAPT folks seem to be looking up the street at the approaching car. The crowd is two or three people deep and seems to extend a city block or possibly more. Bernard Baker wears a “We Will Ride” sign on the back of his motorized wheelchair and Mike Ervin has a sign reading “On It or In Front of It” on his. In the far distance, beyond the car a policeman seems to be talking with some of the protesters.