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Degemer / Rummadoù / Merkerioù ADAPT - American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit
+ lifts on buses 7
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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
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The Phoenix Gazette, Saturday, April 4, 1987 Picture top left by Rick Giase of The Phoenix Gazette: Two police barricades cover most of the view of a city street. Between them a motorcycle police officer sits on his cycle in front of a building. Caption: A Phoenix police officer watchers over barricades that were set up Friday at the Hyatt Regency. Title: Police prepare for wheelchair demonstration By Scott Luck and Scott Craven Phoenix police have set up a command post at the downtown Hyatt Regency to monitor actions of a group of wheelchair activists that plans to protest a convention this weekend. Although the American Public Transit Association convention is not scheduled to begin until Sunday, 20 officers Friday blockaded Monroe Street by the Hyatt. In addition to the officers, two police buses were at the scene, which police spokesman Ken Johnson said would be used, if needed, to take protesters to jail. The protesting group, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, plans to picket the convention to demand installation of wheelchair lifts in every bus and transit system that receives federal transportation funds. The group says efforts by the APTA to install equipment for the disabled have been unacceptable. The group has held similar protests in other cities across the country. Members have chained themselves to buses, obstructed bus routes, thrown themselves on to the steps of buses without lifts and generally raised havoc. The conference is scheduled to run until Wednesday. ADAPT organizer Michael Auberger said he is trying to draw 150 people together to participate in demonstrations throughout the week. “I can’t imagine why the police would be there today (Friday), especially in that location,” Auberger said. “I met with the police chief, and I didn’t tell him anything that would lead him to believe we were going to demonstrate today.” Johnson said police chief Ruben Ortega met with Auberger to help minimize any problems that might arise but said Auberger did not outline any plans for his groups protest. “We understand they (ADAPT) have a right to demonstrate just as anybody else would, but were going to make sure the demonstration is done lawfully and peacefully Johnson said.” Past ADAPT demonstrations have led to numerous arrests. “We would rather not make any arrests, but we will if we're forced to,” Johnson said. “This is something between them (ADAPT) and the transit people and we don’t want to be caught in the middle. We must, however, be prepared for the worst.” Picture to the left by Nancy Engebreston of The Phoenix Gazette: A quadriplegic man (Mike Auberger) in a motorized wheelchair sits with his arms hanging by his sides. His hair is pulled tightly back and he has a neat beard. He is wearing an ADAPT T-shirt that is partially obscured by a chest strap on his wheelchair. Caption reads: Wheelchair activist Michael Auberger. The end
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Arizona Republic Saturday, April 11, 1987 Title: Wheelchair Activists are Released from Jail By J.F. Torrey The Arizona Republic Sixteen wheelchair activists who had blocked city buses and picketed a transportation convention earlier this week were released Friday after three days in jail. The 16 pleaded no contest to a variety of misdemeanor charges, including trespassing and obstructing a public thoroughfare. Phoenix Municipal Judge Michael Lester sentenced the defendants, all members of the Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, to three days in jail. They were credited with the three days they had served and released. Phoenix police made 73 arrests this week of people in wheelchairs who had blocked buses and disrupted meals and meetings held in conjunction with the Western meeting of the American Public transit Association. The 16 released Friday had been arrested Tuesday after they rolled their wheelchairs in front of buses at the downtown Phoenix Transit System terminal and several other bus stops. The group wants all mass-transit buses equipped with lifts for handicapped passengers. A number of those jailed Wednesday had been arrested at the earlier demonstrations, and it is common for people arrested a second time on misdemeanor counts to be jailed, said Sgt. Brad Thiss, a Phoenix police spokesman. The hearing for 14 of the defendants was held in a room at Maricopa County Durango Jail because of the difficulty of transporting the defendants to the Madison Street Jail, where hearings usually are held. Two protesters held at Madison Street were released Friday night. Joe Rossano, a spokesman for the county Sheriff’s Office, said that inmates usually are held at Madison Street but that the group of 14 protesters was brought to Durango so they could be kept together and have more exercise room. “We wanted to keep them all in one spot,” he said. “This is a nice, low stress jail. It’s nice and airy. They had access to a patio, outside. If you have to go to jail, go to Durango.” However one of the defendants, Robert Kafka, 41, said near the end of the hearing that the protesters had filed nine grievances against Durango, alleging improper medical care. “It’s an abomination that this jail accepted handicapped people when they were not able to take care of them,” Kafka said. Earlier in the day, Rossano said that the handicapped inmates had received double mattresses and that those with bedsores had been given sheepskin covers. Kafka said no sheepskin covers were handed out. When the hearing bean, Lester ordered it closed to everyone but court personnel, attorneys and defendants because of the small size of the room. After reporters covering the hearing protested and Lester consulted with M. Louis Levin, the presiding judge of Phoenix Municipal Court, he allowed the press to attend the hearing but barred supporters of the defendants. Ken Skiff, a court-appointed attorney for the defendants, said, ‘I had them all read the police reports and they agreed that they were accurate , and I felt that the sentence would be appropriate because there would be no fine and no probation.” Tom Timmer, a deputy city attorney who prosecuted the case, said he agreed to the plea agreements because “this is the best resolution for all concerned.” Police on Sunday night arrested 29 people in wheelchairs who were blocking entrances to Rustler’s Rooste restaurant at the Pointe at South Mountain. Conventioneers were attending a steak fry at the restaurant. On Monday, five protesters were arrested outside the downtown Hyatt Regency hotel for continually blowing their wheelchairs’ horns. On Tuesday, 39 more arrests were made of protesters who blocked buses at the downtown terminal, at First and Washington streets, and at several other sites, including bus stops at the Capitol and Central Avenue and Van Buren Street.
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The Phoenix Gazette Thurs., April 9, 1987 Title: Disabled group ends four days of protests By Scott Craven The Phoenix Gazette Members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit ended four days of protest with a show of unity in front of a downtown Phoenix hotel while expressing concern for 29 colleagues still in jail. Members proceeded single file for several blocks chanting “access now” before assembling in front of the Hyatt Regency Wednesday night. ADAPT wants to see wheelchair lifts installed on all buses and is in Phoenix to protest during the convention of the American Public Transportation Association. The conventioneers are staying at the Hyatt. Organizers said the protests, which resulted in more than 60 arrests since Sunday, were successful in bringing the transportation problems of the disabled to the forefront. But with ADAPT members scheduled to leave today, many worried about the fate of the 29 who remained in jail Wednesday night. “We came here, accomplished what we set out to do and now we want to go home,” said Mike Landwehr, an ADAPT member from Chicago. “But not all of us are being allowed to do that.” Landwehr said that in the past protests, city officials had allowed those in jail to be released on their own recognizance once the demonstrations were over. He said he expected the same thing to happen today “although you can never be sure.” Country sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Joe Rossano said most of the 29 in jail were being held in lieu of $150 bonds after they were arrested Tuesday for investigation of trespassing. Police spokesman Sgt. Brad Thiss said seven of the 29 were being held on $1,300 bond for disobeying a court order and criminal trespassing.
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San Francisco Examiner 9/28/87 Still waiting for the bus Photo by Examiner/Kurt Rogers: A row of policemen in dark uniforms facing away from the camera make most of the photo black. At their sides you can see night sticks and their hands on their hips. Between them you can see a very young (about 6 years old) Jennifer Keelan mouth open in a loud chant and behind her, barely visible is her mother Cindy. To the right Diane Coleman is framed by two other policemen, and between them mostly hidden by the officer's legs, is Bob Kafka. Caption reads: A contingent of disabled and elderly protesters roll up Post Street in S.F. after holding Union Square rally. Headline: Disabled protest transit group’s policies By Ken O'Toole of the Examiner staff Disabled people from across the nation took to the streets of San Francisco Sunday to demand better access to public transportation, rolling through downtown streets in a wheelchair caravan that stretched from Union Square to the downtown Hilton Hotel. Chanting, “We want access” and "We will ride," the crowd of several hundred disabled and their supporters rolled with police escorts to the hotel, where the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association was taking place. The protesters were halted at the hotel's doors by a line of police, and after a brief rally moved on to City Hall, where they confronted transit association members going to a cocktail party. Police arrested 20 people, including 16 in wheelchairs, for blocking the sidewalk and failing to disperse. They were cited and released. One demonstrator. who was not wheelchair-bound, was booked for felony assault after he kicked a police officer in the chest. Police estimated that there were 500 demonstrators. The march, spirited but orderly, did not seriously disrupt traffic as scores of wheelchair-bound protesters voiced their displeasure with the associations policies and called for restoration of a national transit policy that would require wheelchair lifts on all public buses and trolleys. Both protesters and officials of the Municipal Railway noted the irony of the demonstration taking place in a city that has one of the best disabled-accessibility programs in the United States. California and Michigan are the only states that require all new buses to have wheelchair lifts. However, outside California, most disabled people are "segregated from public transit, and are often regulated to lengthy waiting lists for door-to-door van service" or no service at all, said a spokeswoman for the September Alliance for Accessible Transit. The group, in conjunction with American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, plans more demonstrations as the transit association meets here through Thursday. Transit association Executive Vice President Jack Gilstrap said, “it's not a disagreement over whether we serve the disabled; it's how its to be done. Our position, and we're consistent with federal law and the courts, is for each community to decide how the service (to the handicapped) should be supplied." He said that lifts can cost $10,000 to $15,000 and that individual communities should be able to decide whether the money might be better spent on other transit woes. "lt's a very emotional issue," Gilstrap said, "but (public-transit agencies) have short resources. You're doing a good job here in the Bay Area, but with an extraordinary level of taxes." Muni spokeswoman Annette Wire said a total of 280 buses In the system have lifts, and 16 Muni lines are totally accessible to the handicapped. At a Union Square rally before the march, Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy called for full access to public transportation. Saying laws that guarantee rights to all people have been undermined, McCarthy said disabled people have a right to access to school and work through public transportation. "Transportation means independence," McCarthy said, “and independence means opportunity." The Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church called on the disabled to take America to a new task... You may be called to set what's wrong right." A wheelchair-bound San Franciscan named Gill rolled into the crowd of demonstrators at Union Square and said he liked what he saw. But he said, “San Francisco is moving in the right direction. I travel sometimes miles a day (in the electric wheelchair) and I usually don‘! have any problems. except with the occasional inexperienced bus driver." Joe Carley, of Dallas, Texas, said since he was restricted to a wheelchair several years ago, at age 38, I realized: ‘This can happen to at anybody. Transportation is the A-Number 1 concern for anyone who's disabled. Federal and state governments don't really see transportation as a right. We want to live, not just survive." Photo by Examiner/Kurt Rogers: A really large group of people, many in wheelchairs head down a street. Caption reads: Demonstrators protest American Public Transit Association's policies on disabled accessibility.
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The Gazette, Montreal, Saturday, October 1, 1988MUC [Montreal Urban Community] police officers practice the proper way to arrest a handicapped person. Title: Police on guard as disabled plan protest at transit meet By LYNN MOORE of The Gazette Montreal Urban Community police are bracing for trouble from a militant group of disabled Americans with a beef against the American Public Transit Association. The association is holding its convention in Montreal, and about 150 members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) and 20 handicapped Canadians will engage in "confrontational" lobbying at the convention site and elsewhere in the city. The group wants mechanical lifts on all buses in the U.S. It claims between 300 and 500 members. [Subheading] Meet starts tomorrow The Montreal Urban Community Transit Corp., a founding member of the transit association, is host of the four-day meet. It starts tomorrow at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and is expected to draw about 3,000 people. MUC police are taking the protesters seriously, after speaking with U.S. police and watching videos of demonstrations in the U.S. The MUC department says the protesters — many of whom will be in wheelchairs — are capable of creating traffic chaos, halting buses and closing bridges. While the disabled group won't reveal its targets, a spokesman told The Gazette that its members will chain themselves and their wheelchairs to buses and buildings. "We are not violent. We are confrontational and aggressive," Stephanie Thomas said. She and her husband have come from Austin, Tex., to protest. ADAPT has hounded transit association conventions for five years. Thomas says she has been arrested at least 10 times but has never spent more than two days in jail. "I personally would rather not go around making enemies in every town," she said. "I would just like to ride the public transit." Some Montrealers who had planned to protest with ADAPT have backed out after a newspaper reported that many of its members were Vietnam veterans and violence was expected, said Francois Gagnon, vice-president of the Movement of Handicapped Consumers of Quebec. But Thomas said her husband will be the only Vietnam vet involved in the Montreal protests. To deal with the anticipated protests, about 100 MUC police officers have been put through a day-long training session, division director Marcel Auger told a news conference yesterday. Part of the session was conducted by two handicapped Montrealers: Restraining straps instead of handcuffs will be used on demonstrators who are arrested. Medical staff will examine protesters, Auger said. Municipal court and Quebec Court judges will be available around the clock to avoid keeping the protesters in custody. ADAPT members usually plead guilty to charges, however, and opt for jail terms rather than pay fines. Space in the two city jails has been set aside for the protesters. [Subheading] Service inadequate Local disabled groups aren't happy with MUCTC services; Gagnon called the MUCTC's door-to-door minibus operation, coupled with a small taxi service, simply inadequate. He was particularly incensed over the MUCTC's refusal to provide the elderly and handicapped with easy access to the new Metro stations that opened last winter. The Regroupement des Usagers du Transport Adapte is "not at all pleased" with the level of service provided to the disabled by the MUCTC but will not protest with ADAPT, spokesman Yvon Desgro-seilliers said. Disabled find city an obstacle course. The End 
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St. Louis Post Dispatch (May 18, 1988) PHOTO by Ted Dargan/Post Dispatch: About a dozen people in wheelchairs surround a bus in the middle of a street. A man in a white short sleeved button down shirt and dark pants stands to one side with his hands on his hips, looking at the ground. The photo is grainy so it is hard to tell who the protesters are, but several wear ADAPT shirts and several have large posters taped across their legs. George Florum sits by the bus' left front wheel. Caption: The driver of a Greyhound bus leaving his vehicle Tuesday after it was surrounded by protesters on Sixth Street near the Greyhound Terminal. The protesters are members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. Title: Disabled People Block Buses, 37 Arrested By Mark Schlinkmann, Regional Political Correspondent Thirty-seven protesters, almost all of them in wheelchairs, were arrested Tuesday afternoon as they blocked buses from entering and leaving the Greyhound Lines terminal downtown. Police also arrested a man from Ohio after he became Involved in a scuffle with two protesters. Police said the man, who was later released without being charged, might have been irritated at the delay in a bus departure caused by the demonstration. The incident, which shut down traffic at the terminal on and off for almost three hours, took place on the third day in a row of protests by disabled people seeking the installation of wheelchair lifts on all buses in the United States. The group, called the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, or ADAPT, is in St. Louis because the American Public Transit Association is meeting at the Omni International Hotel. But after two days of protesting at the hotel, the target shifted Tuesday to the Greyhound terminal, at 801 North Broadway. "We demand that they serve all the public, including us," said Bill Bolte of Los Angeles as he and others blocked a bus on Sixth Street from entering the terminal. "We're going to stop their buses everywhere until they stop treating us as less than greyhounds." Boite and others complained that Greyhound allowed disabled people with wheelchairs to travel only if were accompanied by a companion. George Gravley, public relations director or the bus line, defended the company's policies in a telephone interview from his office, in Dallas. While the company lacks mechanical lifts, he said, it for years has had a program that provides a free ticket to a companion of any disabled traveler. The protesters began arriving at the terminal around noon. First, a few people began blocking two entrances to a parking lot on the east side of the terminal along Broadway. Then, when a bus without passengers drove toward the west-side entrance, on Sixth, several protesters wheeled up to block its path. Carrying placards and chanting slogans, the group grew in number to about 20. Police, meanwhile, blocked off Sixth between Convention Plaza and Cole Street to traffic. Other incoming buses were forced to bide their time elsewhere. About 1:30 p.m., Police Capt. Clarence Harmon informed the protesters that they were breaking the law and would be arrested if they refused to move. While that was being mulled over, police said, a man identified as Donald Keiper, 63, of Ridgeville, Ohio, walked from the terminal area and grabbed a wheelchair in which Barbara Guthrie, 48, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was sitting. Keiper started to move Guthrie's wheelchair, but another protester in a wheelchair, Ernest Taylor of Denver, intervened, and a brief scuffle ensued, Police then arrested Keiper. He was released later: warrants were :_aken under advisement. Police said no injuries had resulted. Police later arrested Guthrie, Taylor and the other protesters, some for blocking buses inside the terminal area. The process was slow because the wheelchairs had to be lifted mechanically onto Bi-State buses and vans, which hauled them to the City Workhouse. The episode was over about 3 p.m. The circuit attorney's office said Tuesday night that the protesters had been released on their promise to appear in court after being charged with general peace disturbance, a misdemeanor. Late Tuesday afternoon, Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr. denied a request from Jerome Schlichter, an attorney from St Louis who is representing ADAPT, for a court order regarding blood tests. Schlichter's request was denied after the city stated that it was not requiring the people arrested to undergo mandatory testing and that only those who agreed to the practice voluntarily were being tested. But Schlichter said ADAPT continued to allege that blood tests were taken without consent Sunday night at the Workhouse from a group of 41 protesters arrested that day in front of the Omni. Bill Bryan and William C. Lhotka of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed information for this story.