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Home / Albums / Keywords Lillibeth Navarro
+ APTA - American Public Transit Association 4
ADAPT (350)
San Francisco Bay Guardian 9/23/87 Disabled to march for transit access By: Cheryl Davis When members of the American Public Transit Association gather in San Francisco during the last week of September, they will be met by disabled people from across the country who plan to demonstrate against a national transit policy they say is unfair because it separates them from other transit users. Specifically, disabled activists intend to protest the widespread use of special vans to transport disabled riders door-to-door, a system commonly referred to as “paratransit.” That system, they say, is a form of segregation. In its place, they argue, all buses and trains should be equipped to accommodate people in wheelchairs as part of as overall policy fully integrating the disabled into society. “Full accessibility,” they argue, is a right that should not be denied because of cost. Paratransit is impractical as well as offensive, disabled transit riders say. Burr Overstreet, a Santa Rosa man who uses a wheelchair, called paratransit “a paternalistic system that screws people over, costs a fortune and it’s the first thing cut during economic downturns.” Paratransit users “are made to feel like helpless hospital patients,” Les Treece-Sinclair, a wheelchair user and staff person at the September Alliance for Accessible Transportation, a Northern California coalition, told the Bay Guardian. Most Bay Area transit districts, including the San Francisco Municipal Railway, use a combination of buses with lifts and paratransit vans for disabled and elderly patrons, and California law requires that all new buses be equipped with lifts. Local transit agencies have a good reputation nationally for working closely with disabled and elderly patrons. But, even so, there are problems. “Supposedly we [in Marin] have one of the better systems,” Overstreet said. “The combination of fixed-route and paratransit should in theory be fairly effective, but it’s not. The paratransit only runs Monday through Friday, 9 am to 3 pm. Disabled riders have to reserve in advance and disabled people who work cannot use such a paratransit system either to work or to socialize.” “Paratransit doesn’t come close to meeting the transport need of elderly and handicapped people,” said Treece-Sinclair. “At the moment, on many bus lines only every third or fourth bus will be accessible.” Jose Rodriguez, a public information officer for the Metropolitan Transit Commission, told the Bay Guardian Bay Area transit districts “are working hard to meet a basic level of service but we are aware of the need for improvement. As always, this is contingent on securing needed funds.” The debate between disabled people and much of the public transit industry centers around interpretations of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which states that persons with handicaps cannot be discriminated against under any program receiving federal funds. Since mass transit relies heavily on federal funds, Section 504 serves as a rallying point for disabled activists who argue for making all public transit wheelchair-accessible. The U.S. Department of Transportation in 1979 issued regulations that required full wheelchair access on newly ordered buses and called for retrofitting existing buses and modifying portions of existing rail systems to accommodate disabled users. Disable activists applauded the regulations, but APTA lobbied Congress vigorously, claiming the regulations were costly, unworkable and designed to reach only a small percentage of the disabled population. A 1979 Congressional Budget Office report supported APTA’s claims and called instead for paratransit systems. APTA sued to overturn DOT’s regulations and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in 1981 that the regulations exceeded the scope of the Rehabilitation Act. DOT interim regulations gave local communities the option of determining levels of accessibility and many transit districts opted for paratransit. Paratransit advocates argue that outfitting buses with lifts and other special equipment is too expensive, given the number of disabled riders. Santa Clara County Supervisor Tom Legan, for example, said at a January board meeting, “We’re spending $3.5 million per year [maintaining] lifts for what amounts to 57 boardings per year.” But disabled activists say the official estimates of disabled ridership are too low. Palo Alto resident Brian Bolitho, who uses a wheelchair, told the Bay Guardian his commute to work alone account for more than 200 boardings per year on Santa Clara buses. Dennis Cannon, a transportation, specialist the federal Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, told the Bay Guardian, “The actual use of accessible buses could be five times higher, or more, than transit agency estimates. The driver often simply guesses the number of obviously disabled passengers.” Much of the expense of repairing lifts, Cannon added, could be avoided by improved maintenance and better training of bus operators. Some APTA members, Canon said, are reappraising the adequacy of paratransit. James Lee, accessibility coordinator for Alameda County Transit, agreed. “Since 1976, study after study has documented the inadequacy of paratransit. It is not cost-effective, nor is it demand responsive,” he told the Bay Guardian.
ADAPT (434)
Title: arrested after chaining wheelchairs to hotel doors PHOTO 1 by Allan R Leishman/Daily News: Over a half dozen policemen walk in a row, escorting and pushing Lillibeth Navarro, Jennifer Keelan and another partially obscured ADAPT protester's wheelchairs, as well as Cyndy Keelan down a low hallway. Lillibeth is chanting and Jennifer is looking at her. Caption reads: Young crusader: Even though she's only Seven, Jennifer Keelan, In wheelchair on right, didn't escape a police roundup of disabled protesters yesterday. PHOTO 2 by Allan R Leishman/Daily News: Seven year old Jennifer Keelan and her mom Cyndy Keelan sitting in a bus holding hands and chanting. Caption reads: Cute criminal: Jennifer In paddy wagon. Title/Sidebar: 'Brave' 7-year-old caught in police round-up by Mike Gavin Montreal Daily News A BIG-CITY police round-up is no place for a pretty seven-year-old girl, but then, Jennifer KeeIan is no ordinary little kid. A victim of congenital cerebral palsy, Jennifer will have to fight for everything in a society that still doesn't respect the rights of the disabled, says her mother, Cynthia. And that will probably mean more demonstrations like the one that led to her "arrest" by police last night. "She's a very, very brave little girl and I'm proud of her," Cynthia Keelan said, as Jennifer looked up at burly policemen surrounding her small group. There had been a lot of excitement as the beefy cops first moved in. But the drama waned as everyone awaited special transportation to police headquarters, and Jennifer's little blonde head kept sinking to her chest. Station 25 director Edouard Sarrazin was quick to point out that the little girl hadn't been arrested. [Subheading] Paddy wagon ride "It's her mother who has been arrested." Still, Jennifer had to watch about 40 policemen surround her and her mother and other members of the group. American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. And it meant a ride to police head-quarters in a converted wheelchair bus being used as a paddy wagon. The Keelans, of Scottsdale, Ariz., are in Montreal to protest with other ADAPT members at the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association (APTA), which is meeting at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Later, at police headquarters, police decided to release the mother and daughter without pressing charges, saving Jennifer and her mother the trauma of being separated overnight. [Subheading] Make things better "I hope they don't separate us," Cynthia Keelan had told the Daily News just a few minutes before. "You don't think they will, do you?" Though in perfect health herself, she decided to get involved in ADAPT "so that things will be better for the disabled when my daughter grows up than they are now." ADAPT's specific beef with APTA concerns the 3,000-member group's refusal to endorse a policy requiring all urban transit buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts. Cynthia Keelan didn't miss the irony of her daughter, wheelchair-bound since infancy, being lifted aboard the police bus with the kind of lift ADAPT would like to see as standard equipment on all buses. "Access to transportation is essential if people in wheelchairs, people like Jennifer, are to have a fair chance," said the young mother. "It's too bad the authorities don't always make these kinds of buses available."
ADAPT (435)
Title: Disabled.. protesters at the Queen E. ‘We Shall Overcome’ by Ron Charles Montreal Daily News Inserted in the top center of the page is an image of yesterday's Daily News front page [ADAPT 386 & 385] with the headline A wheelchair army goes to way! and photos of that protest. Captioned: “Yesterday’s Daily News.” Title: The Siege Day 2 TEN disabled protesters were arrested last night for chaining their wheelchairs to doors at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, while 10 others were being arraigned in municipal court. Singing "Access is a civil right," and "We shall overcome," the protesters demanded to see American Public Transit Association (APTA) vice-president Jack Gilstrap. Gilstrap refused to face them. APTA is holding its annual conference at the Queen Elizabeth. The protesters, members of American Disabled for Access to Public Transit, want APTA to endorse wheelchair lifts on all new buses across North America. Police officials said nine of 10 would be arraigned in municipal court sometime last night or early this morning. Cynthia Keelan and her seven-year-old daughter Jennifer were released soon after the wheelchair bus carrying the arrested demonstrators arrived at police headquarters. Police began processing the 10 protesters last night just as the arraignments of 10 others arrested earlier in the day were being completed. The 10 arraigned at 7:30 last night were arrested for blocking the Camillien-Houde parkway atop Mount Royal —to impede the return of APTA conference-goers from a luncheon at Chalet Mont Royal. All 10 pleaded guilty to charges of mischief and obstruction of justice. Municipal court Judge Louis-Jacques Leger sentenced five of the 10 — all of whom refused to pay $50 in fines — to three days in jail. The judge also slapped probation orders on the protesters, forbidding them from taking part in demonstrations on the Island of Montreal for six months. Léger also forbade them from being within 100 metres of an ADAPT demonstration and from being in areas where the arrests were made until the APTA conference ends to-morrow. [Subheading] Waived conditions The judge waived the last two conditions for Marie Barile, the sole Montrealer arrested atop the mountain. Barile protested conditions which said she should not be within the boundaries of Cote des Neiges Boulevard, Pine Avenue, Mount Royal Avenue and Parc Avenue. "But I work on Cote des Neiges near Victoria," she said, leaning forward in her wheel-chair so Léger could hear her. Rev. Wade Blank, one of the five who refused to pay his fine, told the judge that he would go to jail to protest the incarceration of the wheelchair-bound demonstrators. "I'm protesting the punishment of people, who are already punished enough by society," said Blank, who isn't disabled. MUC police moved in after the group of 50 blocked access to the chalet for an hour. "All the APTA people got up to their fancy luncheon, but they couldn't get down," said Molly Blank, Wade's wife. Meanwhile, 20 ADAPT members are expected to be released from prison this morning after serving half of their three-day sentences for invading and refusing to leave the Sheraton Centre, where some APTA members are staying. While 28 were arrested in the Sheraton protest, eight paid their $50 fines after pleading guilty to mischief and obstructing justice in a 2:30 a.m. municipal court session yesterday. The rest refused to pay fines or could not. The 20 — 16 men who were sent to Bordeaux jail and four women sent to Tanguay — went on hunger strikes to protest the probation orders Léger imposed. "Basically, the judge told them not to go into a demilitarized zone encompassing the major hotels where APTA members are staying," said Stewart Russell, the group's Montreal lawyer. [Subheading] Don't have right Russell called the restrictions on their movements unconstitutional because, he said, they didn't allow those convicted freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Again at last night's session, he told Léger the orders were unconstitutional. "These people have not the right to demonstrate anywhere in the city of Montreal for six months, and they can't go see the mountain like other tourists visiting the city," Russell told the court at the arraignment of the mountain demonstrators. Léger said the probation order didn't hinder their rights enough to be considered unconstitutional, and he said, "I think they had an opportunity to see the mountain today." Sidebar: Access is a civil right, they say Singing “Access is a civil right,” and “We shall overcome,” disabled protesters at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel demanded to see American Public Transit Association (APTA) vice-president Jack Gilstrap yesterday. The protesters, members of American Disabled for Access to Public Transit, want APTA to endorse wheelchair lifts on all new buses across North America. Photo by Allan Leishman/Daily News: A group of ADAPTers are sitting in their wheelchairs together (left to right: Bobby Simpson, Terri Fowler, Katie Hoffman, Debbie _______ and in front Lillibeth Navarro. Behind them half a dozen police cars and the "Special" paddy wagon/school bus are parked. About a dozen police officers are standing around the cars; one appears to be chatting with Larry Ruiz and another ADAPT person. Caption reads: “Protest: Demonstrators demand to see the American Public Transit Association vice-president.”
ADAPT (421)
[This article continues in ADAPT 422 but the entire text of the article is included here for easier reading.] Title: MUC police arrest 20 on Day 2 of protests by wheelchair activists By: Susan Semenak, of The Gazette 10/4/88 Large contingents of Montreal Urban Community police were mobilized yesterday for the second day in a row to deal with wheelchair protesters who were demonstrating for better public transit facilities for handicapped people. Twenty protesters were arrested, 10 in a demonstration atop Mount Royal and 10 who chained themselves to the doors of the under-parking garage at Place Ville Marie, across the street from the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where the American Public Transit Association — the protesters' target — is holding its convention. Most of the demonstrators were members of ADAPT — American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. In the demonstration on the mountain, 35 protesters tied up 100 specially trained police for about four hours yesterday afternoon. [Subheading] Refusing to clear road Ten were arrested after refusing to clear the road leading to the Mount Royal chalet, where the transit association had organized a lunch. After pleading guilty in municipal court last night to charges of mischief and obstructing police, five demonstrators paid fines of $50 while five others refused, to pay and were sent to jail for three days. A mother and her 12-year-old daughter were released after the Place Ville Marie protest. The eight other activist pleaded guilty to charges of mischief and obstructing police. All eight chose to go to jail for three days rather than pay $50 fines. [Subheading] Placed on probation All those who pleaded guilty yesterday were placed on probation until the convention ends Thursday. Judge Louis Jacques Leger barred them from the island of Montreal and from demonstrating and banned them from the mountain and from a wide downtown area around the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Police said last night that of the 48 activists arrested yesterday and Sunday, only one was a Quebecer. Protest organizer Rev. Wade Blank of Colorado told Leger. "I am personally grieved and saddened that this court has chosen to punish people who have already been greatly punished by society." Const. Normand Tremblay said the Montreal Urban Community police were out in full force yesterday to prevent the wheelchair protesters from repeating the disturbance they had caused Sunday, when they chained themselves to railings at the Sheraton Centre hotel and blocked traffic on Dorchester Blvd. for nearly two hours. Twenty-eight of the handicapped activists were arrested Sunday. After pleading guilty to mischief charges, five paid $25 fines and were released, while 23 others opted to serve three-day jail terms at Bordeaux and Tanguay jails. "We are joining our friends in jail and it's worth it," said Lillibeth Novaro, one of those arrested on the mountain yesterday, as a policeman wheeled her to a school bus hired to take the protesters to police headquarters and municipal court. "There are millions of people in wheelchairs who need to take the bus to go to work and be equal members of society," she said. Novaro ended up paying her $50 fine and didn't go to jail. 'We want equal access' "We pay taxes like everybody else and we want equal access to mass transit," said Molly Blank, who drove four days from Colorado with her husband and 18-year-old handicapped daughter to join the protest. Police blocked roads leading to the chalet and the lookout atop the mountain with barricades and patrol cars to prevent the protesters from confronting the luncheon guests. The police force's tactical squad had been tracking the demonstrators' movements since morning. Urgences Sante doctors were on hand to verify that none of the protesters had been injured during the arrests. "We know these people are here to cause problems and we are here to prevent that," Tremblay told reporters as a helicopter the MUC had rented for the day from provincial police hovered overhead. "We are allowing them to protest and express themselves, but we cannot allow them to make trouble. And we want to take all the necessary precautions to ensure that nobody is injured”. The special police team assembled to deal with the protesters took a day-long course last week to learn how to "handle" the handicapped — from identifying disabilities and deactivating wheelchairs to carrying the disabled without injuring them. Tremblay said police consulted their counterparts in six U.S. cities where the group has staged previous demonstrations. Phyllis Young, a transit official from Duluth, Minn., who attended the luncheon on Mount Royal, said the wheelchair protesters have been turning up at public transit conventions for the past five years. "This is nothing. In San Francisco they chained themselves to trolleys and ran over one policeman in their wheelchairs and gave him a concussion," Young said. "Another year they all laid down on the street and blocked traffic for a whole day." Tremblay said police could not stop the protesters from coming to Montreal because they have no criminal record — the only laws they had broken are municipal bylaws. Instead, MUC police smiled and chatted as they wheeled the protesters away. But some had donned kneepads under their uniforms in case the protesters became aggressive. Maria Barila, a Montrealer arrested on the mountain, said officials at the Office des personnes handicapes du Quebec — the government agency that oversees services to the disabled — discouraged local disabled people from turning out at the demonstrations. "Some people were told they could lose their welfare cheques," said Barila. "Others were told that things could get violent." Francois Gagnon, also of Montreal, said specialized buses for the handicapped provided by the Montreal Urban Community Transit Corp. are "a joke." He said the disabled would prefer to ride the same buses and Metros as everyone else. “They call It door-to-door service, but sometimes it takes two hours for a disabled person to get from home to work in those mini-vans they provide," said Gagnon, winding his way up the mountain in his wheelchair. Meanwhile, Murielle Lariviere-Lebret, president of the Adapted Transport Users Association, said her group morally supports ADAPT protesters demanding accessible transport for all. But her group, which speaks on transit for 18 associations of the handicapped here, would not join demonstrations or urge members to do so. Instead, it prefers to concentrate on getting more and better minibuses and taxis to serve handicapped commuters in the MUC. Over the longer term, it favors adapting the regular bus and Metro service so it is accessible to the handicapped. [Subheading] Position denounced This position was denounced by Jean-Francois Gagnon, a member of the Quebec Association of Handicapped Consumers, who said the handicapped had to become more radical to get what they want from the MUC and Quebec. But MUCTC managing director Louise Roy said the transit corporation has no intention of adapting buses or Metro stations to accommodate the handicapped. "Our intention was never to make the Metro system completely accessible she said. "We are working on improving our adapted door-to-door service, and I think that's much more realistic." Adding wheelchair-lift platforms on regular buses would cost $15,000 per bus, which Roy said is too expensive. Instead, the MUCTC will spend $16,000 on improving adapted transit services next year. "Each year our ridership on adapted transit increases by 30 per cent. Last year we served 500,000 people," she said. Service is offered through adapted mini-buses and taxis. Riders pay the same price they would to ride a bus and the rest of the cost is absorbed by the MUCTC, Roy said.