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+ Secretary Elizabeth Dole 2
ADAPT (180)
THE HANDICAPPED COLORADAN Volume 7, No. 3 Boulder, Colorado October 1984 PHOTO: A man in a leather brimmed hat, long hair beard and moustache down vest and jeans, seated in a motorized wheelchair (Mike Auberger), leans to his right as he is surrounded by abled bodied people. Back to the camera, a man plain clothes is partially in front of him, papers sticking out from his back pocket. A uniformed officer is also back to the camera and is holding Mike's arm which in front of Mike. A second uniformed officer is doing something behind Mike's back while a woman stands up on the sidewalk to his side watching with her hands on her hips. (She was an organizer with National Training and Information Center and was assisting with the Access Institute.) cation reads: D.C. Police Arrest Denver Disabled Protestor MIKE AUBERGER, a community organizer for the Atlantis Community in Denver and a member of the American Disabled for Accessible Transit (ADAPT) is arrested by Washington, D.C., police outside the Washington Convention Center where the national convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) was just getting under way. A spokesperson for APTA said that the demonstrations only delayed the start of the convention by a few minutes. Inside the convention hall Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole abandoned her prepared text and said the administration was working to provide public transit for the disabled. Outside the hall, demonstrators branded the secretary's plan as another “separate but equal" scheme and demanded that the federal government require all public transit systems be made accessible to the handicapped. Demonstrators not only blocked the entrances to the convention but also surrounded chartered buses that took delegates from their hotel to the convention center. The disabled activists represented a number of cities, including Denver, Syracuse, N.Y., Boston, El Paso, Los Angeles and Chicago. Additional photo on page 4. 28 Busted in D.C. The 28 disabled activists who were arrested for civil disobedience during the national convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) in Washington, D.C., last month are trying to raise $1500 to make their bail money by a Dec. 3 deadline. At the same time, they're preparing to carry their demand that the APTA members buy only wheelchair-lift equipped buses to the transit organization's regional convention in San Antonio on April 20. The Texas contingent from the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) under the leadership of Jim Parker of El Paso has been especially militant in their demands. Taking their lead from an editorial in the September Handicapped Coloradan, a coalition of of Texas disabled groups met in San Antonio and voted to ask transit systems in Texas to withdraw from APTA unless it goes on record supporting accessibility. The Colorado chapter of ADAPT was planning to introduce a similar resolution to Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD). APTA's position is that accessibility should be left to the discretion of the local transit provider, Although the Carter administration mandated accessibility in public transit, APTA was successful in getting that ruling thrown out in a l98l court battle. ADAPT maintains that the disabled have a civil right to public transit. Jack Gilstrap, APTA's executive vice president, reiterated that position as wheelchair demonstrators seized buses in front of the White House and hurled their chairs at police lines outside the Washington Hilton and Washington Convention Center during APTA's late September meeting. Gilstrap said that the funds just weren't there to support a mandatory system, adding that the additional burden might jeopardize some transit systems. However, since the convention ADAPT has been approached by APTA's new president, Warren Franks, the director of the Syracuse, N.Y., transit system, who has requested a meeting in Denver with wheelchair activists. "The Syracuse ADAPT group has been pretty active," said ADAPT spokesperson Wade Blank. "Franks must be pretty worried about what might happen there if he wants to meet with us.“ ADAPT was organized in Denver one year ago by some of the same groups and individuals who had been involved in forcing RTD to adopt a pro-accessibility policy when purchasing new buses. That battle too was highlighted by militant demonstrations with wheelers chaining themselves to the doors of RTD headquarters. In contrast, demonstrators restricted themselves to orderly pickets when APTA held its national convention in Denver in 1983. But ADAPT only abandoned its plans for civil disobedience after APTA met its demands to address the entire convention on accessibility. APTA's national staff fought that request and allegedly threatened to pull the convention out of Denver at the last minute, but finally agreed to allow ADAPT to address the meeting after Denver Mayor Federico Pena intervened. There was no question that ADAPT would be offered the same treatment at the Washington convention. Although they didn't get a spot on the agenda Blank said his group made their point by capturing the attention of the capital's media. Even before the convention opened, ADAPT made its presence known by joining forces with local D.C. activists to seize seven Metrobuses and block the five blocks along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House during the afternoon rush hour. Demonstrators released the buses an hour later when D.C.’s Metro General Manager Carmen E. Turner agreed to meet with Washington disabled leaders to discuss their demands for a fully accessible system. No date has yet been set for that meeting, which ADAPT said marked an historic first in the Washington area. No arrests were made during that demonstration, although Washington police moved several demonstrators out of the street. But on the following Monday and Tuesday 28 demonstrators were arrested as they tried to block buses leaving the Washington Hilton for the convention center and again at the convention center itself. The police threw up lines as picketers arrived but were unable to halt the advance of the demonstrators, who wedged their chairs in the hall's doors or hurled their bodies onto the ground. Mike Auberger, one of those arrested, said the police "were abusive -- there's no doubt of that," but he added that this was probably pretty typical. “Let's face it," he said, "these guys probably have to deal with demonstrators all the time." They don't mess around when they get started. Auberger said he was grabbed by the hair and pulled back so that his chair was resting on its back wheels. Two other demonstrators were thrown from their chairs and taken to local hospitals where they were released after being treated for minor injuries. Police had to bring in special vans with wheelchair lifts in order to cart demonstrators off to jail, where they were fingerprinted and rushed into court. "Only the doorway between the holding cells and the courtroom was too narrow to get our chairs through," Auberger said, "so they had to take us in the back way." Some of the disabled picketers were surprised that the police reacted with such force, according to Auberger. "l think it opened a few eyes," he said. ADAPT filmed the demonstration, and a 20-minute edited version is being shown as part of a fundraiser to pay the bails of those arrested, about half of whom were from Denver. Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-Denver) has agreed tn help raise money, but because of previous campaign commitments said she would be unable to participate until after the first of the year.
ADAPT (172)
Washington Post 10/2/84 PHOTO (Associated Press photo): Up in the air, Mike Auberger, long hair and a beard, in a wheelchair yells in passion from a van lift. Below him the police who are loading him into the van look at each other with a startled expression. Caption reads: Protester in wheelchair is lifted into a van after his arrest at convention center. [Headline] Dole Praises Plan For 39.5-Mile Metro As ‘Positive Step’ By Stephen J. Lynton Washington Post Staff Writer Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Hanford Dole yesterday praised Metro's new plan for completing 89.5 miles of the proposed rail system, calling it a “highly positive step." Nevertheless, in her first comment on the transit agency's proposal, Dole stopped short of saying whether the Reagan administration would approve the plan. The administration has limited federal construction funds to 76.4 miles of the proposed 101-mile Metro system. The new Metro plan calls for using federal funds previously authorized by Congress to complete 89.5 miles, including a long-delayed Green Line branch connecting Fort Totten with Greenbelt in Prince George's County and a Yellow Line spur to a proposed Van Dorn Street station in Alexandria. Metro officials have said they will eventually seek an additional congressional authorization of more than $1 billion to complete the rest of the planned 101-mile system. Dole cited the new Metro plan in a speech to the American Public Transit Association, which opened its annual meeting at the Convention Center here yesterday. The association, which represents the nation's transit systems, is holding its three-day conference in Washington for the first time in recent years. About 8,000 officials are expected to attend the sessions. Shortly after Dole spoke, 14 handicapped demonstrators, including several in wheelchairs, were arrested outside the Convention Center, according to D.C. police. The protesters were charged with blocking entrances to a public building and disorderly conduct. Since last week, members of a Denver-based group called ADAPT, an acronym for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, have staged demonstrations here to demand improved access to buses and trains for handicapped patrons in transit systems throughout the nation. The group contends that all buses should be equipped with special lifts for wheelchairs. ln her speech, Dole expressed "deep concern for the plight of the handicapped" and argued that proposed regulations now under review by federal officials would provide "adequate access" to transit services for disabled riders. The federal proposals are less stringent than those sought by ADAPT, but they appear largely acceptable to the transit association. Several years ago, the association sued federal officials to block stricter requirements. Jack R. Gilstrap, the association's executive vice president, said the new proposals would provide flexibility for local governments. "We support the local option concept," Gilstrap said. Dole described the 89.5-mile Metro plan as evidence that "there can be progress" in state and local efforts to devise new methods to finance transit projects. The Metro plan still must be ratified by county and city governments, in the Washington area. and Dole indicated the administration would withhold a decision on the plan until local governments act. Federal financing of the nation's transit systems is expected to be a focus of debate at the convention. Dole indicated no shift in policies, and she reiterated the administration's reluctance to subsidize operating costs, a controversial issue. "The most crucial issue facing public transit today is funding." Metro General Manager Carmen E. Turner told the conference. Twelve of the handicapped demonstrators were arraigned before a U.S. commissioner and released pending further hearings. Two protesters forfeited collateral of $l0 each. Police said one policeman suffered several broken fingers after being rammed by a protester's wheelchair. Staff writer Alfred E. Lewis contributed to this story.