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Home / Albums / Tag ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act 5
- ADAPT (1773)
the Beacon Review May 3, 1991 [This contains the text from ADAPT 1773 and 1772 for easier reading.] Title: Local activists making an impact on our daily lives Drawing of the heads of three people: Beth Gallegos, Sam Lusky and Wade Blank. Their names are printed beside their heads. Title: Striving to make a difference by Kerri S. Smlth According to a recently released national survey, most Americans are moral bankrupt, and many live in an existential waste. We're a nation of liars and cheaters, according to the survey results. Twenty five percent of the survey respondents even said they'd abandon families for $10 million. But there are still people who spend their time fighting for what they believe ls right and just. The Beacon took a quick head count this week, and came up with dozens of local activists trying to make a difference. Three are profiled below. WADE Blank Last week hundreds of demonstrators led by Denverite Wade Blank, a 50 year old minister who's made a career out of civil disobedience. invaded the Baltimore headquarters of the federal Health Care Finance Administration, waving signs, shouting demands; and honking horns. Most of the demonstrators, who belong to Denver based American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), rode wheelchairs into battle with the federal government . Blank is founder and co director of ADAPT. Their aim: to up divert aid dollars to a national home care program, so that disabled and elderly people can remain at home instead of in a nursing home. It's a controversial, but then Blank ls no stranger controversy. He marched with civil rights leader Martin Luther King, demonstrated against the Vietnam War and saw the birth of the feminist movement at Kent State before moving to Colorado in 1971. "I call myself a person who teaches empowerment," Blank explained. "As an able boded‘ man, l set the pace and target issues, and then hand the power over to others." The process apparently works. Before July of 1978, Denver, like most cities, lacked wheelchair accessible public transit. ADAPT activists commandeered two buses and shut down the Colfax Broadway intersection long enough to get the job done. "We slept in the streets for two nights while supporters sent over sandwiches," Blank recalled. Today, wheelchair accessible public transit is the law of the land, and Japan and other countries are following the American example. Blank's metamorphosis from minister to leader of the disabled people's civil rights movement occurred when he worked at a Lakewood nursing home ln the early 70s.‘ "I moved here to lick my wounds after the shootings at Kent State," Blank said, [missing text] ...ing my Volkswagen behind a U Haul. My family thought I'd gone berserk, because, I had, a master's degree in theology and was working as a nursing home orderly." He didn't like what he saw there. ‘I tried to make life bearable by reforming the system, but by 1974 I gave up and tried moving residents into ' apartments,” Blank said. A Legal Aid lawyer helped Blank and disabled residents sue the facility, along with the federal and state governments, Thirteen years later, in 1987, the disabled plaintiffs won a class action suit and collected $26 million. While the lawsuit dragged on, Blank founded “The Atlantis Community,” a home health care company currently serving around l50 disabled and elderly Coloradans; The company also runs a home health aide certification “training program. ADAPT activists also influenced the l988 national nursing home reform bill (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) that protects residents‘ rights, among other things. And last summer President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, another ADAPT driven initiative. The bill requires all restaurants to be wheelchair accessible by January 1992. In the meantime, Blank said he and other ADAPT activists will “keep hitting the streets until the government changes national policies towards disabled and elderly people. - ADAPT (1761)
This is a continuation of PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE the article on 1766 and is included there for easier reading. - ADAPT (327)
PHOTO by Tom Olin?: A woman [Beverly Furnice] lying in her motorized wheelchair, her legs fully extended, leads a long line of ADAPT marchers down a broad city street in front of the Hyatt Regency. Behind her, with a very determined look on her face, is a small woman [Cathy Thomas] in a power chair, legs also extended. Behind her is a man in a scooter [Mark McTimmus?] with several signs in his basket on the front of his scooter. Behind him is another man [Sam ____]. In the line you can make out Babs Johnson in an orange shirt, she is riding on the back of Mike Auberger's chair and talking to her daughter Tisha Auberger. Many people have signs over their legs or laps, a few are holding posters on sticks. - ADAPT (135)
The Denver Post 7/8/90 [This article continues in ADAPT 138, but the entire story has been included here for easier reading] Perspective Access for the disabled: Cost vs. benefit Photo by RTD staff: A smiling African American man in a manual wheelchair, wearing a beret and with a sports coat over his lap is being helped to board a city bus by the driver, who is behind him. In front of the lift a woman stands waiting to board. Caption reads: A LIFT: The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities was given a demonstration of an RTD lift during its 1987 convention which was held in Denver. By Al Knight Denver Post Perspective Editor Now, while the Americans with Disabilities Act is awaiting President Bush’s signature, would be a good time to reflect on what has been learned by this city's experience in attempting to provide full wheelchair access to public transportation. Assuming the president signs the bill as he says he will, public transit systems all over America will have to begin purchasing new buses equipped with wheelchair lifts, as well instituting a variety of other steps designed to enlarge employment opportunities for the disabled, improve services in state and local government, enlarge public accommodations, and create a national telecommunication relay service to aid the blind and deaf. Critics of the bill have argued that the nation is embarking upon a program without the vaguest clue of what its ultimate cost will be. In many ways, the dispute is a duplication of what took place in Denver in the early 1980s as the Regional Transportation District developed its policy on how rapidly to expand wheelchair access. There were a number of protests in which disabled residents in wheelchairs disrupted RTD service and were arrested. The protests were particularly disturbing for all concerned — RTD, the drivers and the police. The sight of an abled-bodied police officer toting away a wheelchair-bound citizen is not the stuff for law enforcement scrapbooks, nor is it the kind of publicity designed to attract bus riders generally. In 1982, the RTD board, which then was an appointed body, voted against equipping 89 new buses with special lifts capable of handling wheelchair passengers. That vote set off the protests. An elected board took over in 1983 and one of its first acts was to reverse that vote and authorize the purchase of the lifts at a cost of well over $1 million. At the same time RTD struggled with the issue of whether to retrofit existing buses with lifts, and in 1985 resolved it with a resolution that it would buy lifts for all new buses, but not pursue a retrofitting program. There had been a history of mechanical problems with some of the lifts, and on more than one occasion a lift would fail, dumping the wheelchair passenger in the process. In 1982, then Gov. Dick Lamm refused to go along with a proposal by the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, which was demanding wheelchair access to “all U.S. public buses." Lamm suggested in a speech to the American Public Transit Association that such a policy might result in rides costing $600 each: “If America can't say no to a system that costs $600 per ride, we don't deserve to continue as a great nation.“ But as they say, that was then, this is now. Just last fall, RTD was awarded a special citation for having "the finest accessible bus service in the nation." The award came from the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. Indeed. it is beyond dispute that RTD has in some respects led the nation. Its experience in developing its current fleet of buses was the prime example used by congressional supporters of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, it is a fact that RTD was the first agency to order its over-the-road buses equipped with lifts. Until RTD's first order, these larger vehicles had been built without lifts. The RTD program hasn’t been accomplished without significant expense. It has cost about $8 million for the lift equipment and millions more for parts, maintenance and training. But the latest figures show per-ride costs are far below the $600 figure mentioned by Lamm. The lifts cost about $13,000 a copy. Because the life of a bus normally is calculated at 12 years, this works out to a little more than $1,000 a bus per year. To this must be added the maintenance cost, which has been dropping each year. As recently as 1985 the cost of maintaining an individual lift was $1,798. This year the average is just over $500. Even without the retrofitting program rejected by the board in 1985, RTD has managed to increase greatly its percentage of lift-equipped buses. In 1985, only 54 percent of buses were so equipped. This year 81 percent are. In recent years, disabled ridership has gone up sharply. In 1982 it was just over 9,000 wheelchair boardings, but last year it reached an estimated 45,000. According to RTD figures, the per-ride cost may have reached $80 in 1984, but with the increase in ridership and the drop in maintenance cost, the cost per ride now has dropped to about $19 a ride, according to the latest calculations. What is not known is how many of Denver’s disabled community actually are served by the lifts. In the mid-1980s, it was estimated that only a few hundred wheelchair-bound residents were regular bus riders. Even as RTD has fitted new buses with the lifts, demands for its HandyRide service have continued to increase. This door-to-door service is available to both the elderly and the handicapped. Some of its wheelchair passengers could be served by regular buses, but many others are unable to get to the bus stop and therefore require the HandyRide service. Precise calculations aren’t available, but it is estimated the cost per ride for using the van service is about $50. Lamm, contacted this week, said he basically hasn’t changed his position on the issue. He said the $600 figure he used in 1982 was based on the experience of the St. Louis bus company. “To govern is to choose," he said, "and I don't believe this nation should make every bus wheelchair-accessible. Should the handicapped be provided transportation? Of course, but it should be provided in the most cost-effective way possible.” Lamm mentioned the expensive elevator system that is a part of the Washington, D.C., subway system as an example of a method that isn't cost-effective. The Denver experience does indicate that the costs of accommodating the wheelchair-bound citizen may not be an endlessly upward spiral. But the key indicator that needs watching is the number of passengers using the service. The taxpayers, the RTD board and staff members clearly have done their part. The wheelchair service is now available on nearly every bus, yet ridership has flattened out. The estimate of 45,000 wheelchair passengers for 1989 is just a few hundred higher than the 1986 level. More persons must be encouraged to use the service. Now that maintenance costs are down, the only way to decrease the still-considerate per-ride cost is to increase the number of passengers using the lifts. The most compelling case the disabled community can make for greater access is to demonstrate an even higher usage of the existing facilities. Highlighted Text: Even without the retrofitting program rejected by the board in 1985, RTD has managed to increase greatly its percentage of lift-equipped buses. In 1985, only 54 percent of buses were so equipped. This year 81 percent are. Photo by The Denver Post/Duane Howell: A slight woman in a wheelchair is being escorted out by two uniformed and one plainclothes police. She is telling one of the officers something and they are all listening with slight smiles on their faces. Behind this group a man in a wheelchair is following, escorted by another police officer and behind them three other policemen stand guard. Caption reads: PROTEST: An unidentified demonstrator at the Regional Transportation District office was escorted out during a 1982 protest over the purchase of new buses. - ADAPT (483)
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE COURT DECISION The following is a summary and explanation of the court's decision by Timothy M. Cook, the attorney who argued the case on behalf of ADAPT. The court: l. Struck down, as contrary to federal disability civil rights law, “local option,” the DOT policy that allows transit systems the option of providing transit to persons with disabilities only if we make advance reservations, sometimes several days in advance, and then only in segregated settings. 2. Required that every bus newly purchased with federal assistance must be accessible. No retrofitting is required; the ruling only applies to future purchases. The court said that because transit systems may phase in accessible buses, the ruling would not lead to any undue financial burdens for transit systems. 3. Required that transit systems provide both accessible mainline transportation for those who can use accessible buses, and adequate paratransit to serve those who cannot. 4. Struck down the 3 percent cost cap under which DOT deemed transit systems to be in compliance with federal disability civil rights laws once they spent 3 percent of their operating expenses on disability access. As important as the holdings in the case are the language and rationale used by the court in reaching its conclusions. The 73-page, decision is laced with integration-oriented statements and phrases derived from the corpus of race and gender discrimination cases. Thus, the case sets forth a new charter for interpreting laws like Section 504, stating that Congress’ plain intent was to eliminate the segregation of persons with disabilities. It’s good cause for celebrating. But neither too long nor too loudly, for the war is not yet won. We must press forward on two important fronts before that day comes: l. First and foremost, DOT has 90 days from the date of this decision to decide whether to seek an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. This decision will be made by DOT and the Department of Justice, but the White House will also be involved. It is important that we mobilize quickly and inundate DOT, Justice, and the White House with letters from all of us, urging them to embrace the Court of Appeals Decision. Remind President Bush of his campaign promises to integrate persons with disabilities into all aspects of American life. Without access to public transit, as we all know, that is impossible. And just last week President Bush, in his speech to the joint session of Congress, reiterated his commitment to bring persons with disabilities into "the economic mainstream." Letters should go to: William Skinner Secretary of Transportation 7th & Maryland Ave., SW Washington; D.C. Dick Thornburg Attorney General Dept. of Justice 9th & Penna. Ave. NW Washington, D.C. C. Boyden Gray Counsel to the President 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C. And, of course, to President Bush at the White House. 2. We must move forward in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), using the court decision as additional impetus. The ADA, which will be reintroduced in the Congress soon, will require that all new buses and transit facilities be accessible. Urge your Senators and Congressperson to climb onto the bandwagon and be a co-sponsor of the ADA when it is reintroduced. If we can get the ADA enacted, there will be no need for any additional court fights.