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Inicio / Álbums / Etiqueta Denver RTD 26
Data do envío
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 The federal regulations were rescinded last year, but RTD agreed to meet its earlier commitment, anyway.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 (107)
August 1982 Early Surveys Show a Positive Response to RTD Accessibility EARLY INDICATIONS are proving that accessible bus routes will attract many disabled riders. According to unofficial count along the major Denver routes there is a 78 percent increase in the number of riders who previously has been forced to shun public transit. “The response is encouraging,” said Wade Blank, director of the Atlantis Community and a longtime proponent for RTD modification. “But it will take a bit more time for the word to spread to some 16,000 Denver residents who use wheelchairs.” At the HAIL, Inc. office, co-proponents in the long squabble to convince RTD officials of the practical aspects of accessible routes, incoming mail and phone calls are revealing gratification and relief from many sectors of the handicapped community. In one of the letters, Molly Henderson writes: “As the mother of a disabled daughter who uses a wheelchair, I would like to thank the members of the disabled community who fought so hard and won the right to ride the bus whenever and wherever my daughter wishes.” Mark Johnson, Independent Living Coordinator, HAIL, Inc., for several disabled residents at the Halcyon House, reflects, “It’s obvious this RTD decision was need and appropriate. Many other similar decisions can also have a significant impact on the quality of life for persons with disabilities.” A disabled bus rider states, “The service is absolutely wonderful. It is more convenient a less time consuming to have busses with lifts. It helps me do my job more efficiently. And, so far, the attitude of drivers and the public is excellent.” Theresa Preda, HAIL’s executive director, says, “We still have a long way to go. I think it is an achievement the disabled community can rightly be proud of. Now, hopefully, this advancement may help indicate to others that there are still many areas that are still inaccessible, needing revision to meet the RTD initiative.”
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Handicapped reach accord RTD Wheelchair-bound demonstrators and the Regional Transportation District reached an “understanding” Friday in a conflict that led the bus company to seek a restraining order against the demonstrators a week ago. Both sides “agreed to agree,” according to RTD spokeswoman Kathy Joyce, who said they would work out the details of the agreement before the issue comes before Denver District Judge Daniel Sparr on Feb. 2 During that time, Sparr will make no decision on RTD’s request for the temporary restraining order. If a formal agreement is reached by Feb. 2, Joyce said the request would be dropped. The demonstrators began staging a sit-in at RTD’s headquarters Jan. 4 over the company’s decision not to place wheelchair lifts on 89 new buses scheduled for delivery next year. The wheelchair-bound activists were from the Atlantis Community and Holistic Approaches to Independent Living Inc. Several of the demonstrators chained themselves to stairwells in the main lobby of the building at 1600 Blake St., and others blocked the front entrance during the demonstration. Their anger was directed at RTD Executive Director L.A. Kimball, whom they blame for the decision to omit the lifts from the new buses. During the sit-in, the building’s elevators were shut off, making it impossible for the demonstrators to reach Kimball’s office. The demonstrators weren’t arrested, but they were escorted from the premises by police and paramedics. RTD requested the temporary restraining order against the demonstrators after the third day of protest, claiming the demonstration caused “disruption, obstruction and interference.” John Holland, an attorney representing the demonstrators, said the issues that led to the demonstrations are still alive, but that both sides will work out their differences in the next two and a half weeks in a climate of more open communication. He said that during that tie his clients will not be “disruptive.”
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Rocky Mountain News 8/5/83 RTD proposes bus changes for disabled By Tony Pugh, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer The Regional Transportation District, in an open forum with handicapped citizens Thursday, introduced changes designed to make buses more accessible for disabled riders. Mike Smith, director of transit operations, outlined the proposed improvements, which include a new material to improve traction on bus wheelchair lifts and a metal “kickplate,” designed to minimize wear on lifts from hitting curbs. A new rotary control panel, said to be easier for drivers to operate, and a new lift wiring system also were introduced. Although many people in the attendance voiced displeasure with bus driver insensitivity and mechanical failure of the lifts, others expressed gratitude to RTD for its efforts in accommodating handicapped riders. Bill West, chairman of RTD’s handicapped advisory council, said he is reasonably pleased with RTD officials’ commitment to the disabled community. “I think they’re committed to making the best of what they’ve been mandated to do, but I believe they have a tendency to focus more on the lifts rather than better driver training,” West said. Larry Ruiz, 29, typified the problems encountered by handicapped riders. Earlier this week, he was passed up by four buses as he waited at a stop outside Colorado General Hospital, said Ruiz, who is confined to a wheelchair. The first bus had no lift, the next two buses had lifts, but the drivers did not know how to operate them. After waiting more than two hours, the driver of the fourth bus called a HandyRide disabled vehicle which took Ruiz home. But that lift malfunctioned, Ruiz said. He had to be removed manually. This gathering was a forerunner to a meeting in late October between the American Public Transit Association and the newly formed American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. A spokesman for the access group, Wade Blank, said it will made three demands to the association: * “Wheelchair accessibility by all public transit systems in the nation.” * “To serve notice to all bus manufacturers that only wheelchair accessible buses will be purchased by its members.” * “For the federal government to stand behind this moral position and develop laws and regulations supporting total access for the wheelchair bound public on public transit.”
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Accent on Living Summer 1983 Transportation Denver Busing Its Disabled Highlighted text: A failure in many cities, Denver has made accessible mass transportation work as an increasing number of disabled use it everyday. The Rapid Transportation District (RTD) in Denver is one of the most accessible transit systems in the nation – and the disabled community will take credit for it. For the last ten years, since 1973 when the RTD initiated “Handy-Ride,” a door-to-door subscription service, accessible buses have been a real issue. To date, disabled advocates have been the winners. “It has been a political victory for us,” says Wade Blank, co-director of the Atlantis Community, a highly active disabled group in Denver. He explains that they did not rely on 504 but instead used a successful strategy. Blank said that in 1973 when HandyRide was implemented, the disabled took the same stance the Blacks took during the civil right movement. “Separate in not equal. We agree that this type of service was fine, but what we really wanted was to have the entire bus system accessible. HandyRide would just be an extra.” Disabled people began demonstrating for accessibility on public buses – and in 1978 RTD agreed to develop mass transit accessibility. By June, 1982, it had met its commitment of having fifty percent of the buses accessible (two hundred twenty buses were retrofitted with lifts and one hundred twenty-seven new buses purchased in 1981 had lifts). In the meantime, however, Blank said the RTD reneged on its commitment of total accessibility because it announced in November, 1981, that eighty-nine buses to be delivered in late 1983 would not be lift equipped. These new buses are articulated buses, twice as long as regular buses. Wheelchair Ridership Graph - Shows ridership by month in 1981, 1982, and part of 1983 (up to April. ) Ridership pretty much rises except in fall and winter there is a downturn, and July of 1982 a sharp drop to a low point of about 300. Highest mark is almost 1300 in October 1982. Caption reads: There was a sharp drop in wheelchair ridership in July, 1982, because there were no accessible buses running.
ADAPT (129)
Rocky Mountain News RTD pleases disabled, reports wheelchair lifts on buses to be fixed By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer A Regional Transportation District committee voted unanimously Tuesday to fix the wheelchair lifts on 127 buses, ending a week of heated showdowns that led to the arrest of three disabled protesters. Amid cheers from the demonstrators who twice last week blockaded downtown buses, the transit directors reaffirmed RTD's policy that much of its regular service be handicapped-accessible. “lt was all emotional," RTD chairman William Rourke said of the events preceding the compromise. “Everyone kept reinforcing perceptions and speculation, rather than getting down to cases." The confrontations started last Thursday when three members of the militant handicapped-rights group ADAPT were arrested by Denver police for rolling their wheelchairs in front of buses along 17th Street and East Colfax Avenue. Mike Auberger, George Roberts and Renate Rabe face fines of $250 apiece or brief jail terms if convicted in Denver District Court next month for causing traffic hazards and disrupting a government agency. They were among 20 handicapped demonstrators protesting a Feb. 12 decision by RTD’s planning committee to delay fixing the balky electrical systems on 303 buses. RTD officials said the repairs would cost $753,059. With lifts on about half of its 750-bus fleet, RTD is one of the nations most accessible public transit systems. This winter, however, electrical and mechanical problems have made the lifts so unreliable that disabled passengers said they frequently suffered frostbite while waiting for an accessible bus. Handicapped protesters originally wanted all 303 broken lifts fixed. They relented Tuesday when RTD officials explained 176 of the buses with broken lifts would be retired next year. Fixing those lifts would be a waste, officials said. “If we had our druthers, we would like to see all of the lifts rewired," ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank said. “But those 127 (that will be fixed) are going to be around for 12 years, so we accepted in the interest of compromise.” Blank said the protests were sparked by rumors that some RTD officials wanted to scrap all of the wheelchair lifts and replace them with door-to-door vans. ADAPT members consider such “dial-a-ride” service“ to be unconstitutional because it would be separate from regular bus service. Rourke said two of the five bus manufacturers bidding to replace the 176 buses heading for retirement would include wheelchair lifts. RTD is required to accept the lowest bid. Rourke declined to comment on what RTD would do if the low bid does not include wheelchair lifts.
ADAPT (132)
Rocky Mountain News Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1983, Denver, Colo. New RTD board Oks lifts for 90 buses By Burt Hubbard News Staff The news Regional Transportation District board, to the applause and cheers of wheelchair-bound onlookers, voted Monday night to spend $1.3 million to equip almost 90 new buses with lifts for the handicapped. The decision, by a 13-1 voted, reversed a yearlong policy against the lifts by the old board. It was the newly seated board’s first official decision and was made despite a recommendation by the agency executive director L.A. Kimball not to buy the equipment. “It’s not a question of money,” said RTD board member Byron Johnson. “It’s a question of federal, state and local government recognizing that the handicapped person has been ignored.” About 30 disabled people at the meeting cheered and applauded the decision after the roll was called. Only RTD board member Ann Walton voted against the lifts. The 15th member, Mary Duty, was in the hospital. Kimball who opposed buying the lifts, said the decision would mean delivery of the buses will be delayed up to four months. The buses had been scheduled to begin arriving in August. The lifts will cost $1.3 million with federal funds paying 80 percent. In other action, Kimball reported that through 1983, the district has spent more than $9.3 million studying light rail and acquiring land for rights-of-way. In addition, six staff members will spend all year working on light-rail activities, he said. The old RTD board has proposed a 77-mile system that would cost at least $5.8 billion by the time it would be finished in 2002. But several members of the new board have said they want to consider alternatives to light rail. Boxed Text: New RTD board elects chief Retired banker William Johnson on Monday night narrowly was elected chairman of the new Regional Transportation District board after more than two hours of voting and 10 ballots. Johnson, board member from Jefferson County, won by an 8-6 vote over former state Rep. Jack McCroskey, board member from Central Denver. The decision came after three other candidates dropped out of the balloting. Other candidates who withdrew during the balloting were Bill Rourke, Don Feland and Ann Walton.
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PHOTO: A group of about 20 people in wheelchairs and a couple of folks not in wheelchairs sit in a circle facing mostly toward the center. In the middle of the room, at the center of the people is an unattended L-shaped desk with a typewriter and other materials on it. Two people in wheelchairs sit at either end. Others are mostly up against the walls forming an informal circle. The group appears to be occupying a lobby-reception area.
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Rocky Mountain News Sat., 11/9/91 PHOTO by Glenn Asakawa, Rocky Mountain News: A man in a wheelchair [Bob Conrad] sits on a lift in the raised position. A man in a dark suit stands beside the lift. The lift comes out of the center of the driver's side of the large over-the-road-bus. The bus fills most of the frame, and you can see another behind it. TheRide is printed on the side. Caption reads: Dean Shaklee, an RTD maintenance instructor, demonstrates the wheelchair lift on a new intercity bus to Bob Conrad of Denver. RTD unveils 21 intercity buses New coaches to serve routes linking Denver to outlying suburbs By Leroy Williams Jr., Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Commuters who ride buses between Denver and its outlying suburbs will soon be traveling in new comfort and style when $4.9 million worth of new buses hit the streets. Twenty-one intercity coaches were unveiled yesterday by the Regional Transportation District for use on the agency’s regional route network. They are expected to be in service by next week. The buses, similar to those used by Greyhound Lines Inc., will be used on routes that link Denver with such cities as Boulder, Longmont, Brighton, Evergreen, Conifer and Parker. “These are the first intercity buses we’ve bought since 1987,” said Dick Reynolds, RTD’s bus operation chief. RTD ordered the coaches, built by Motor Coach Industries of Pembina, N.D., for $235,000 each as part of a 150-bus order by the Dallas-area transit agency, RTD officials said. They carry 49 passengers and are equipped with side-mounted wheelchair lifts and space to tie down two wheelchairs. The practice of tacking smaller vehicle orders onto larger purchases made by another city saves money and delivery time. The new buses will replace several MC-5 intercity buses built in the mid-1960s, Reynolds said.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS 10-17-83 PHOTO, STAFF PHOTO BY STEVE GROER: A short white man (Mark Ball) with a big afro and tinted, round glasses stands almost hidden, behind a podium with a large RTD on the front. Behind him are rows of other people, (all men), some in suits and ties, some with long hair. Caption reads: Mark Hall [sic] of Atlantis Community addresses RTD board at public hearing on agency's budget. [Headline] Handicapped complain to RTD More than 1,000 handicapped Denver bus riders cannot visit the Boulder Mall and other distant destinations by public transportation because the buses used by the Regional Transportation District on those routes cannot accommodate their wheelchairs, representatives for the handicapped told RTD on Tuesday. "It's a very touchy subject with disabled persons who feel trapped within the metropolitan area," Mark Ball told RTD directors during a public budget hearing. The hearing was the public's chance to discuss the agency's budget before it is adopted by the directors. Only a handful of people attended the 30-minute hearing. 'You’re going to have to come up with an over-the-road bus with a (wheelchair) lift," he said. “Boulder isn't very far for you, but I wouldn't want to do it in an electric wheelchair. Half asked the board to require that all new vehicles be equipped with lifts and other features for handicapped riders. In the past year, RTD mechanics have worked to improve the design of wheelchair lifts fitted to some buses used on busy Denver routes, officials said. But RTD assistant general manager Mike Smith said "there is not a high-degree of interest" on the part of bus manufacturers to mass-produce an over-the-road vehicle with lifts, extra-wide aisles and low ground clearance suitable for handicapped riders. The sensitive subject of handicapped access to public transportation will be raised again next week when representatives of ADAPT, a handicapped-rights group, will address the national convention of the American Public Transit Association at the Denver Hilton.
ADAPT (1789)
The Handicapped Coloradan / Page 15 & 16 [This article continues in ADAPT 1786, but has been completely included here for easier reading.] Title: "If heaven isn't accessible God had better Watch out!" Photo: Waist up picture of Wade Blank with his below shoulder length blonde hair and round tinted glasses. He is smiling and wearing a vest. Caption reads: Wade Blank ADAPT founder dies in Mexico. Wade Blank went down to Baja, California, in February and drowned there trying to save his eight year old son Lincoln. He was there vacationing with his family. The money for the trip came from Wade’s share of a legal settlement in San Francisco when bad guys violated the civil rights of ADAPT demonstrators. He couldn't afford that kind of trip on his own. He never made more than $16,000 in his life. Lincoln was in the water swimming. An undertow got him and Wade went in after him. He had to know there was very little chance either one would survive. Some fisherman from a nearby village fished Wade’ s body from the water. His wife Molly brought his body home and they covered the coffin with an American flag. Only the stars on this flag formed a wheelchair. Lincoln’s body was never recovered. A few days before he left on that vacation, I told him to skip Baja and its treacherous waters for the calmer seas off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Wade said he’d think about it but we both knew he wouldn’t alter his plans. Wade Blank liked to be where the action was. Many of the 1100 people who filled the ballroom at the Radisson Hotel on Sunday, Feb. 21, to say goodbye to their fallen comrade had accompanied him into battle. “If heaven isn’t accessible,” one of them warned, “God better watch out!” Wade founded the Atlantis Community in 1975 when he helped several disabled people move out of a nursing home and into their own apartments. Then he went on to help organize protests against RTD for not having wheelchairs lifts on its buses, a move that later led to the creation of ADAPT, which then stood for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (“The hard part is getting the acronym right,” he told me at the time.) I asked Tom Olin who was going to replace Wade. “No one,” he said. “Wade was into empowering disabled people. It’s a tribute to him that we’ll just keep on going.” Maybe. But it won’t be the same. People like Wade Blank don't come along very often. A writer for Westward once called Wade the nearest thing to a saint he had ever met. But Wade wasn’t perfect. After all, he was a Cleveland Browns’ fan. He had it so bad that on game day he’d call home to his folks in Ohio and have them put the phone next to the radio. He was president of the Cleveland Browns Fans in Exile Club. A small part of him died when Elway found Jackson in the end zone in the 1987 AFC Championship game. He was a devoted father who had a vasectomy reversed after he married Molly. He called me soon after the operation and bitched about having to lie still to prevent the tubes from severing again. It was the only time I knew him to stay still. The time spent was worth it. He loved Lincoln and Caitlan just as he loved Heather, his adopted daughter. He instilled in them special values. A neighbor recalled a time when she came home and observed Lincoln in front of his house directing some other kids. They weren't playing cowboy and Indian or war or any of the usual childhood games. They were playing rally. “All right,” Lincoln said. “United we stand, never apart.” Wade was a Presbyterian minister whose language would make a coal miner blush. I quoted him a lot on these pages over the past ten years or so but I never quoted him accurately. He used four letter words the way other people use punctuation. Someone made a TV movie about the events at Heritage Nursing Home and Wade said it was close to the truth. But the actor who played Wade didn’t quite capture his style. Wade wore his hair long and looked a little like a construction worker who took a wrong tum back in the 1960s. He once asked me if I wore ties. “I own one,” I said. “It keeps my sleeping bag rolled up.” He liked that. He hated ties. At the memorial service, those few men who showed up wearing ties were asked to remove them—out of respect. By then I owned a real tie. You can‘t go to a funeral in my small hometown without one. I left it at home for Wade. He didn’t have the eloquence of a Martin Luther King. He didn't need it. He wasn’t interested in grabbing the spotlight for himself. He taught his friends that their wheelchairs were a weapon and if they used them right, the whole world would take notice. RTD took notice. Denver became one of the first cities in the U.S. to adopt accessible public transit. Wade helped carry that message to countless other cities. He showed people how they could make a statement by going to jail and then he went out and raised the bail money. Eventually, in a parking lot in Atlanta, the feds gave in. Accessible public transit would be the law of the land. Wade wasn’t about to rest on his laurels. He turned his attention to an earlier cause. ADAPT changed the acronym to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today and took on the nursing home industry. Wade knew that the disabled warriors who took on the federal government over accessible transit and got themselves arrested scores of times were strong enough to live in their own homes. He vowed to force the federal government to take money away from the nursing homes and make that dream a reality. That battle goes on. His friends at ADAPT are planning a memorial service in his honor in Washington, D.C. this May. At the same time, they’re going to make sure Bill Clinton honors his promises to provide funds for such attendant care. It's a fitting memorial but you can find plenty of monuments to Wade Blank in this country. There one at every street comer where there’s a curb cut and one on every bus equipped with a lift. And every time someone who is exploited because of a physical disability raises a fist in defiance and fights for his or her freedom and humanity, you’ll see Wade’s image in their eyes and his dream in their hearts. So long, Wade. If it’s really heaven, there won’t be a dress code. Written by Tom Schantz
ADAPT (205)
[Headline] NAT HENTOFF:“No Wonder God Punished Her by Making Her Blind!” Village Voice, March 18, 1986, page unknown. PHOTO in center of page. Photo credit, DAVID STONE/MAINSTREAM: MAGAZINE OF THE ABLE-DISABLED: A group of police officers in dark short sleeved uniforms standing and looking at one another. On the floor at their feet, a man in white clothes (Chris Hronis) lies on his side arms behind his back, apparently handcuffed. Through the legs of the officers you can see someone else (Edith Harris) sitting on the floor also apparently handcuffed. At the edges of the frame you can see a couple of people's faces and at the bottom, the back of someone's head. Above the picture is a text box that reads: "I am tired of being closed away." Photo Caption reads: Disabled activists commit civil disobedience in Las Angeles to make public transit accessible: “We will ride." [Italicized] New vocabulary must be developed. Racism and sexism are words known to every schoolchild, but there is no word to describe bigotry against persons with disabilities. [End italicized] – Lisa Blumberg, Hartford Courant, June 24, I985 [Italicized]... it is absolutely essential to understand that the pain and "tragedy" of living with a disability in our culture, such as it is, derives primarily from the pain and humiliation of discrimination, oppression, and anti-disability attitudes, not from the disability itself. [End italicized] — Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch, Carasa News, Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse, June/July 1984 [Italicized] Public transportation is a tax-supported system. The handicapped pay taxes. It's as simple as that. How would the average taxpayer feel if he was denied access to a facility he paid for? [End italicized] – Wade Blank, a founder of and organizer for ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation), Denver Post, October 6, 1985 In the spring of 1982, a woman in a wheelchair went into a clothing store in the Bronx and was told by the guard that he was required by store policy to turn away people with wheelchairs. Shs wrote a letter of complaint to the head of the chain and received an apology, along with a $50 gift certificate. Off she went to cash in the certificate, and guess what happened? That's right. A guard turned her away from the store. The woman sued; the store settled the case by giving her a check for $10,300. I had been about to write that a disabled lawyer had handled her case, but he — Kipp Elliott Watson—corrected me. “I am a lawyer with a disability," he said. In Jim Johnson's "Shop 'Talk" column in the February 22, 1986, Editor & Publisher, there is a guide for copy editors and reporters concerning accuracy of language in stories about those with disabilities. It was put together by more than 50 national disability organizations. One illustration: “Perhaps the most offensive term to disabled people is ‘wheelchair-bound' or ‘confined to a wheelchair.’ Disabled people don't sleep in their wheelchairs, they sleep in bed. Call them 'wheelchair users.'" Also, "labeling of groups should be avoided. Say ‘people who are deaf' or 'people with arthritis’ rather than ‘the deaf' or ‘the arthritic.’ . . . One of the problems with eliminating insensitive terms is the, lack of a clear policy that reporters and editors can follow. A reporter cannot change a paper's policy by himself. The first time a reporter writes 'person who is arthritic,’ a copy editor is sure to change it to ‘an arthritic’ to save words.” And I would particularly recommend the next correction to the vast majority of the reporters and editorial writers who have covered Baby Doe cases: “Afflicted [unintelligible] a negative term that suggests hopelessness. Use disabled. Also to be avoided are deformed and invalid." The guide is especially useful because more and more of those with disabilities are going to be making news-in–lawsuits, individual acts of resistance against discrimination, and in collective demonstrations. For instance, in Los Angeles last October, during a nonviolent direct-action protest against the American Public Transit Association (which is resisting making all its buses accessible to the handicapped), there was this report by George Stein in the October 7 Los Angeles-Times: “During the procession, 131 wheelchairs, stretching more than a block, carried people with disabilities ranging from spina bifida, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy to snapped spinal cords, congenital defects and post-polio paralysis. “Many had the withered limbs and lack of body control that the more fortunate usually try not to stare at. “But not Sunday. Motorists slowed to watch the sight. Some honked in support. One of the demonstrators was Bob Kafka, a spokesman for ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) "This is beautiful,” Kafka said as he wheeled along “I am tired of being closed away." Carolyn Earl, who uses a wheelchair, tried to make a reservation at the Harrison Hotel in Oakland, California. The clerk wouldn't take an advance deposit. Suppose there's a fire, he said. The hotel would be liable. But call back, he said. She did. Ain't that a shame, there are no rooms with baths, and she'd asked for a room with a bath. Okay, the woman said, I’ll take a room without a bath. The clerk said that for her, there were no rooms, period. Just like it used to be with blacks and Jews. It happens, however, that according to Section 54.1 of California's Civil Code, it is as unlawful to discriminate in public accommodations against people with disabilities as it is to exclude racial and ethnic minorities. Carolyn Earl went to court. In December 1984, the hotel agreed to pay her damages and to sign an agreement pledging never again to refuse lodging to anyone who is disabled. In Louisville last fall, Steve and Nadine Jacobson, who are blind, were on trial. The charge: disorderly conduct. On July 7, they had been sitting in exit-row seats on United Airlines Flight 869 to Minneapolis, where they live. Airline personnel and security employees from Standford airport ordered the Jacobsons to get out of those seats. In the event of an emergency, the Jacobsons were told, they, being blind, could jeopardize their own safety and that of others. The rationale for the policy, it came out at the trial, was a “test” some time back during which – now get this – sighted people were blindfolded two hours before a mock evacuation and it turned out that these “blind” people had trouble opening emergency exit doors as well as dealing with other evacuation procedures. On the basis of a test that used fake blind people to find out how real blind people might act, the Federal Aviation Administration—long known for its stunning brilliance—issued an advisory circular suggesting to airlines that they keep blind folks out of those emergency exit rows. As they were trying to get the Jacobsons to move, United Airlines personnel kept insisting that a "Federal regulation" said they had to get out of those seats. The Jacobsons, however, had just come from a convention at which that very advisory circular had been discussed. They knew there was no rule. And so they sat. And sat. Irritated passengers offered to trade seats with them. Another yelled that the Jacobsons were holding everybody else up. "How can you be so selfish?" And another, speaking from the heart, pointed to Nadine Jacobson, and said to a neighbor: “No wonder God punished her by making her blind!" Eventually, the Jacobsons were removed from the plane and charged with disorderly conduct—not with violating the alleged “Federal regulation." At the trial, Steve Jacobson told the jury: “All through my life, there were things I was told I couldn't do because I was blind. In college, they said I couldn't take math." (Mr. Jacobson is a computer analyst for 3M.) He went on to say that he kept ignoring all the advice about all the things he couldn't do because he was blind. “I just had to go on," he said. Where he works, he was told not to use the escalator. He could get hurt. He uses the escalator. That day at the airport, “To move from my seat would reinforce all that I've worked not to have happen. To move would say to the other people on the plane that I am less capable than any sighted person to open that emergency door. And that isn't. the case. It just isn't.” As for Nadine Jacobson: “I was scared. I had never been arrested before. I felt really bad that people were angry and upset, and that the plane was being delayed." But still she wouldn't move. “Many times people make assumptions about what we [blind people] can do and can't do. I knew that if I moved from that seat, everyone would think that anyone else was more competent than me. It's an issue of self-respect. I'm a citizen of this country, and a blind person, and I feel I have a right to travel in this country, and if I get assigned a seat, I have a right to sit there." Would the jury have been convinced solely by what the Jacobsons said? I don't know. But I expect they listened with much interest to testimony by Mark D. Warriner of Frontier Airlines, who said his company had stopped discriminating against blind people as a result of a March 1985 evacuation drill by World Airways, which showed that blind people—real blind people—got out during an emergency faster than sighted passengers. The Jacobsons were acquitted. The verdict, said Nadine Jacobson, was “a step forward for blind people all over the country." Footnote: None of the police officers or the security personnel involved in arresting the Jacobsons would give them their names. Without the names, the Jacobsons could never identify them, ho-ho. But an attorney sitting in front of the Jacobsons on the plane handed them a piece of paper with one of the names, and that led to others being revealed. The stories about the Jacobsona and the woman trying to get a hotel room originally appeared in The Disability Rag in somewhat different form. There is nothing like that paper in the whole country. It covers the whole disability rights spectrum—from what‘s happening in the courts to the directions being taken by groups of nonviolent resisters. It publishes memoirs, jeremiads, parodies, and material for which there is no category. It is the liveliest publication I know. It has grace and beauty and fury. It costs $9 a year, from The Disability Rag, Box 145, Louisville, Kentucky 40201. You have a choice of print, cassette tape, or large-print edition. We shall be getting back to public transit, along with education, jobs, and stereotypes of people with disabilities in movies and television as well as in print. The importance of access to buses and other forms of transit has been distilled by Wade Blank of ADAPT: “Jobs and education don't mean much if you can't get a bus to take you there. Accessibility to public transportation—moving from one place to another—should be a right, not just a consumer service." Recently, Wade Blank was telling me how, because of ADAPT and the pressure it keeps putting on, 78 per cent of the buses in Denver, where ADAPT is based, are now accessible. Soon, with 200 new buses on order, all of them with lifts, people with disabilities will be able to ride 90 per cent of the Denver buses. Already, Blank said, this access means a lot. “I know a man with cerebral palsy," Blank continued. “He has no use of his legs or arms. He can't speak. But now, with the buses accessible, he can ride around and see the sights and come to our offices. He can move where and when he wants to in the Denver community." He's no longer closed away. In Dallas, Kataryn Thomas, 57, was arrested last month during an ADAPT demonstration against the recalcitrant Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority. She was born with spina bifida, uses a wheelchair, has worked as a receptionist, and when she was busted, a bright orange flag connected to the back of her chair fluttered in the breeze. The words on it were: “Free Spirit." “l don't have to climb any mountains," Kataryn Thomas told the Dallas Times Herald. “I just want to ride the public transit.”
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Denver Post, Issues, 10/6/85, no page number [Headline] Transit leaders to face protests from disabled By Jack Farrar Special to the Denver Post The American Public Transit Association will run into some political street theater when it rolls into Los Angeles today for its annual meeting. Waiting for the group will be a militant cast of handicapped individuals, including members of a Denver organization called Atlantis, who want full accessibility to the nation's public transportation system. As APTA delegates convene at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, more than 100 people in wheelchairs – members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit – will be “marching” single-file from MacArthur Park, more than a mile away, to begin a week-long series of demonstrations. They won't have a parade permit. They haven't asked for one. Through such acts of civil disobedience, the demonstrators hope to force the APTA, public officials and the news media to think about what they consider to be the most pressing issue facing the handicapped: access to public transportation. One contingent of protesters will be led by Wade Blank, a 44-year-old Denverite who cut his activist teeth in the 1960s, marching with blacks in Alabama and peaceniks in Ohio. Access 'a right'[boldface] Blank is the founder and executive director of Atlantis, one of ADAPT's most militant member organizations. “Jobs and education don't mean much,” Blank argues, “if you can't take a bus to get there. Accessibility to public transportation – moving from one place to the other – should be a right, not just a consumer service.” For the past three years, ADAPT, largely under Blank's leadership, has demanded that APTA adopt total accessibility for the handicapped as an official policy rather than as an objective. Transit association officials have responded by citing numerous improvements made in service for the handicapped – improvements that the handicapped have applauded – and contends that total accessibility is financially impractical. “We have not ignored the handicapped,” says APTA Deputy Executive Director Albert Engelken. “Accessibility is a compelling issue. But total accessibility is an enormous undertaking, and with federal dollars shrinking, our resources are limited. In any case, it is not the role of an association like ours to establish policy.” Disabled activists, however, believe the costs of accessibility are distorted by the transportation industry. Moreover, they argue, the issue is civil rights, not economics. “Public transportation is a tax-supported system,” Blank says. “The handicapped pay taxes. It's as simple as that. How would the average taxpayer feel if he was denied access to a facility he paid for?” Long regarded as a quiet minority, disabled individual recently have added a more confrontational approach to their struggle for equality, and the man frequently in the front lines of that movement is Blank, whose long blond hair and granny glasses evoke the image of the 1960s activist. He encourages the handicapped to take to the streets when they feel their demands are being taken less than seriously. Members of Atlantis have made headlines locally and nationally with their tactics in Denver – chaining themselves to seats of fast food restaurants, occupying intersections that don't accommodate wheelchairs, and blocking the entrances to buildings with architectural barriers. Rules watered down [boldface] Progress in making public transportation available to the handicapped can be traced to the Urban Mass Transit Administration's adoption of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in 1979. [sic] Section 504 generally made it illegal to exclude any individual, by reason of handicap, from any program receiving federal dollars. UMTA's regulations stated that all new buses purchased with federal money must include wheelchair lifts and aimed for 50 percent of peak-hour accessibility on regular bus routes. RTD standards strict [boldface] The Regional Transportation District in metropolitan Denver has adopted accessibility standards that are more stringent than required. Even after Section 504 regulations were softened in 1981, RTD's board chose to maintain its commitment to provide 50 percent peak-hour accessibility on all routes, and 100 percent off-peak accessibility. And RTD will soon become the first public transit system in the United States to introduce wheelchair lifts on its larger, regional commuter buses. Despite such advances, Blank will not be satisfied until disabled individuals throughout the United States can board and ride a bus whenever and wherever the able-bodied do the same. “We simply want APTA, as the association which speaks for the public transportation industry, to declare its intention to make the system accessible. We know it will take time. But isn't this the country that put a man on the moon?”
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January / February 1987 METRO Magazine [Headline] Handicapped Rights and APTA Highlighted text: A seeming fixture at APTA conventions is a demonstration by the handicapped. In this exclusive interview with METRO Magazine,Rev. Wade Blank describes the movement’s goals and objectives. Shortly before the APTA Annual Meeting in Detroit last October, the General Assembly of the Denver Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church unanimously passed a resolution favoring 100% accessibility to all publicly funded transit buses. The resolution calls upon the" U.S. DOT “to mandate that all public buses bought with federal monies be accessible to all people, specifically including those persons who use wheelchairs for mobility." The resolution declares that equal access to public transportation is a basic human right. It urges the American Public Transit Association to support total accessibility, and calls on all public transit systems to work toward the goal as well. According to sponsors of the resolution, 14% of U.S. citizens are disabled and thus denied full access. The resolution also recommends to all churches and church agencies to consider adding equal access facilities to all their church buses and vans. Wade Blank, a Presbyterian minister and leader in the disability rights movement for 11 years, said the resolution is the latest effort in the struggle to enable disabled Americans to integrate into their communities. According to Blank, disability rights is a civil rights movement similar to the black political movement of the 1950's and 60's. Blank is a leader of ADAPT, the Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, an organization which has demonstrated on behalf of disability rights at several APTA conventions in recent years. Blank said his organization has about 800 people who actively support it, though he believes many thousands more wheelchair-bound people would do so if they could. What follows is an interview with Rev. Blank conducted in Detroit during the APTA Annual Meeting there during which 18 disabled individuals were arrested for demonstrating at the city hall. METRO: Mr. Blank, what is your organization trying to accomplish at this APTA meeting? Blank: First of all, in 1983 we introduced a resolution before APTA in Denver, Colorado, in which we said that we wanted APTA to vote in favor of having public transportation accessible to people in wheelchairs. That resolution said three things. First, that APTA should inform all its members that it will now endorse accessibility; second, that they should take a public vote member by member (about the issue); and third, that they should inform the transportation industry that accessibility is their position. They have refused since 1983 to act on the resolution, so we assume that that means they don't favor accessible public transit. Now as to what we are doing here. Whenever APTA goes into a community (to hold a convention) we do two things: we demonstrate against APTA, and we use the occasion to illustrate to the public that their local transit system is not wheelchair accessible, in other words, every bus being wheelchair accessible. METRO: Over the years your organization has demonstrated at a number of APTA meetings and very often the demonstrations have been very disruptive. Do you think that your activities have paid off? Blank: They've paid off in the sense that first they are directed to other people with disabilities in order to raise their consciousness about their rights. Our group has grown three times over the last few years. Secondly, it tells the able-bodied public that people in wheelchairs cannot board transit, which most people never even think about. And thirdly, it teaches the community at large that our political movement is in fact a civil rights movement. METRO: Your organization demonstrates against APTA. But isn't it true that you're also hoping for action on the local level wherever you mount a demonstration? Blank: Yes. In effect, APTA does our organizing for us by picking the cities it goes into. We follow and go in and raise consciousness for our cause. I don’t think anyone can understand how alienating it is (to be disabled). My daughter is in a wheelchair. If she goes to a bus stop and the doors open and shut and the bus drives off without her, there's no way of expressing to people how alienated, how shut out that makes her feel. Of course, the transit people want to make it an economic argument...but that didn't cut it with the black movement and it's not going to cut it with the disabled movement either. METRO: How is ADAPT funded? And what is your annual budget? Blank: Mainly from the Roman Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans and the United Church of Christ. ADAPT itself doesn't have a budget per se. A trip like this (to Detroit) will run us approximately $15,000 for all the logistics involved, hotels, food, attendant care, just the logistics of moving that large number of disabled. METRO: How big is your staff? Blank: We don't have a staff, we don't have bylaws, we don't even have officers. It's just a consensus group. For example, in Denver, the disabled groups each do their own thing, and there's a lot of individuals who have joined ADAPT by simply saying, I want to be part of it. That's all it takes. We have a list of names of who those people are. METRO: You mentioned the logistics of moving the disabled. Do you bring people along with you to do the demonstrating, or do you seek to have local disabled join in? How does this work? Blank: In July we flew here with some disabled and met with the local disabled. They basically said they'd recently filed suit and were trying to get access to the buses, but that they didn't believe they could support any demonstrations because they'd be afraid to lose what they have now. That's almost to the letter the situation in every community we go into. The disabled are very afraid to lose what little they have. Plus, a disabled person in a wheelchair is by definition passive about the way they see themselves. But before we leave Detroit we will have a few people who will dare. By seeing the press, they'll see it's pretty amazing and they want to be a part of this. It changes the way they view themselves. That's how we recruit members. METRO: Tell me how the organization started? Blank: It started in Denver in 1975 when we announced we were going to make the transit system there accessible. Everybody laughed at us. We had about 20 members. We filed suit and lost. On July 5, 1978, the day after the suit was lost, we went down and blocked the first two buses in the whole movement. We held those buses for two days, sleeping on the streets. The battle in Denver went on in spurts. We started in 1978. In 1979 (Denver RTD) announced they'd make their transit buses accessible, but in 1980 when Reagan took office they went to a posture of inaccessibility. We hit the streets again and they reverted back to accessibility. In 1982, they finally signed an agreement with us that they would be totally accessible. So then other groups asked us: how did you do that? we'd like you to teach us how. Rather than just sit in Denver and enjoy our system, we decided to export what we'd won there using the same tactics on a national basis. METRO: You said earlier that the economic argument against accessibility doesn't fly. Yet to APTA and the transit industry the economic argument is very real. After all, the funds to pay for accessibility come out of their budgets. They can cite some very dramatic statistics of how much subsidy each handicapped ride costs. So how can you say the economic argument doesn't carry weight? Blank: Because those figures are not true. Denver, for example, bought 160 buses. The lowest bidders (for that contract) bid accessible buses. Neoplan undercut everybody else’s bid and they bid accessible. So you can't go just by the lifts themselves, you go by the total cost of the bus. METRO: But you also have to consider the maintenance costs and personnel costs too. In San Francisco. for example, one of the agencies there has two maintenance workers who do nothing but service the lifts, that's all those individuals do. Blank: That's true. But they have people who work on the motors, and people who work on the brakes, and people who work on every aspect of the buses that service the able bodied. The figures out of Seattle and Denver on maintenance per lift is under $400 a year, if they do preventive maintenance. Now that's a lot lower than APTA's figures of $2,500 per lift (per year). That figure is correct if you don't ever fix the lifts. In other words if you drive around and they break down and they're all gummed up, then you have to put new hydraulics in because you haven’t changed the oil. Then you're going to top out at $2,500 the same way if you don't keep your car up. METRO: During his remarks to APTA, CBS correspondent Ed Bradley charged your organization had mounted a mailgram campaign against his coming. He went on to give a presentation about apartheid in South Africa Your comments? Blank: The disabled community in the United States is suffering from a form of apartheid. The disabled live in section 8 housing, high-rise housing which is for disabled and elderly, They live in nursing homes. They go to workshops like Goodwill where they're segregated, and they are paid under 10 cents an hour in the average workshop in the United States. That's what the salary is. The disabled can't ride public transportation, so you have a form of apartheid. METRO: Thank you.
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THE HANDICAPPED COLORADAN Vol. 9, No. 2, Boulder, Colorado, September 1986 PHOTO: Head and shoulders of a man (Wade Blank) with long straight hair parted in the middle, and wire-rimmed round dark glasses. He is wearing a vest over a button down shirt and undershirt and he is smiling. Caption reads: Wade Blank. Some say he wants another Kent State. Title: Rosa Parks leads Detroit protest march Famous black activist ignores plea from Coleman Young to stay out The faces and forms in the column of marchers behind her were a little different today from those she led 30 years ago, but the woman at the head of the march hasn't changed much. Rosa Parks is 74 now and slowing down a little, but she still radiates the same spirit that helped ignite the black civil rights movement in 1956 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of a Montgomery, Ala., bus. The police put her behind bars that day but within hours a local Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, ]r., orchestrated a bus boycott that was to be the first act of organized protest that would bring an end to segregation in less than 10 years. On Sunday, Oct. 5, 1986, the issue was once again segregation and public buses, but this time there were only a handful of black faces among the marchers who took to the streets of Detroit. Yet it was just as easy today as it was in 1956 to identify what made these protestors different from other people. They were in wheelchairs. Rolling under the banner of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), they had come to Detroit to picket their old nemesis, the American Public Transit Association (APTA), which was holding its annual national convention ln Detroit. APTA represents most of the nation's public transit systems and has steadfastly refused to support—or even to-vote on—a proposal to require transit systems to add wheelchair lifts to buses. The state of Michigan requires that all transit companies receiving state funds be wheelchair accessible, but the city of Detroit has avoided that requirement by refusing to accept any financial assistance. Buses in the largely white suburbs have lifts, but a wheelchair passenger who wants to continue a trip into Detroit is out of luck. Detroit mayor Colernan Young, himself a black who played a prominent role in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, does not support accessibility for disabled persons and was scheduled to address the APTA convention along with Ed Bradley, also a black and a CBS newsman and regular on "60 Minutes.” Both Young and Bradley reportedly pleaded with Parks not to participate in the march on the APTA convention, but after a late night meeting with staff and advisors, Parks said she would not renege on her commitment. As The Handicapped Coloradan " was going to press, it was reported that Young was going to ask the Detroit city council to rescind ADAPT's parade permit. An ADAPT spokesperson said he expected some 150 ADAPT members from across the country to be joined by at least another 100 protestors in making the march on the Westin Hotel Renaissance Center. "l think we're on the brink of breaking this thing wide open,” said Wade Blank of Denver, who helped form ADAPT. Blank said he was hoping Parks‘ participation would help people to understand that disabled people look upon accessibility as a civil right. APTA, on the other hand, says it's a question of practicality and finances and so should be left to the discretion of the local transit provider. Geographical conditions have to be taken into consideration because lifts are difficult to operate in snow and on curved roads; according to Albert Engeiken, APTA's deputy executive director. Blank scoffs at that position and suggests that lift technology has reached a point where they can be operated in all kinds of climatic extremes, if the transit provider is truly committed to accessibliity. Many transit systems did order lift-equipped buses in the late 1970s when the Carter administration's Department of Transportation mandated accessibility. APTA, which acts as a lobbying and policy-making group for some 300 separate transit districts, filed a lawsuit that eventually led to a reversal of that decision. In Denver, the Regional Transportation District (RTD) announced that it was scrapping its plans for providing mainline accessible service on the basis of that ruling and quickly found itself battling wheelchair protestors in the streets. In falling snow and freezing temperatures, protestors blocked buses and chained themselves to railings outside the RTD offices untll the courts interceded. RTD was ordered to provide some accessible service, but the board of directors continued to resist the Idea. However, ln 1983 the appointed RTD board was replaced by an elected body and quickly voted to commit Denver to accessibility. That same year, APTA brought its national convention to Denver. Disabled individuals and groups who had fought for lifts in the streets of Denver united under the ADAPT banner and, with the support of Mayor Federico Pena, threw up pickets around the convention hotel and arranged to present its demand for accessibility to the convention. No vote was taken and the issue was not brought before national conventions held ln Washington, D.C., in 1984 or in Los Angeles in 1985. ln both cities ADAPT members defied police and blocked buses. A handful were arrested in Washington and a couple of dozen in Los Angeles. ADAPT didn't limit itself to picketing just APTA’s national convention but dogged the organization across the country, sending pickets to various regional conventions, including San Antonio and Cincinnati (see related story). Buses were blocked and more demonstrators went to jail. In some cases, confrontations with local police turned ugly. That has led some disabled groups to break away from ADAPT and Blank’s leadership. Denver's Holistic Approaches to Independent Living (HAIL, Inc.) and its executive director Theresa Preda went to Detroit but refused to participate in some of ADAPT’s actions. "They told me they were afraid I wasn't going to be satisfied until there was blood in the street, until someone in a wheelchair got killed,” Blank said. “They told me I was trying for another Kent State." Blank, who founded the Atlantis Community which, like HAIL, fosters independent living, was a campus minister at Kent State University when national guardsmen fired on student demonstrators during a Vietnam war protest. Four students were killed. Blank denied that he had any such intention, but added that ADAPT has no intention of giving up civil disobedience. “It’s the most effective weapon we've got," he said. Blank said, ADAPT would probably stop buses in Detroit. "They just received 100 new buses," he said. "Without lifts, of course." Blank said he would not be surprised if protestors were to be arrested. Ironically, on the eve of the march the Wayne County jail was filled to capacity (1700) and prisoners were being turned away.