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Akceptejo / Fotaroj / Etikedoj Mike Auberger
+ accessible transit + ADA 3
ADAPT (509)
This story in its entirety is on ADAPT 496.
ADAPT (561)
Thur., March 15, 1990 Rocky Mountain News GREATER DENVER & THE WEST * 19 Denver disabled keep pressure on at U.S. Capitol By John Brinkley News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — A Denver-based group of disabled people continued its pressure on the U.S. Capitol yesterday, converging on the office of a congressman whom the demonstrators said was opposed to their agenda. The congressman, Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., was not in. An aide refused to tell them where he was and said he would not be back in his office yesterday or today. Some of the disabled people vowed to camp out there until he returned. Michael Auberger, a 35-year-old quadriplegic from Denver, who co-founded American Disabled for Accessible Transportation, said Shuster had introduced legislation to exempt cities with fewer than 200,000 residents from having to equip mass transit buses with wheelchair lifts. If the exemption were enacted, “you're really screwed if you live in a city of 199,999,” Auberger said. Shuster also sponsored legislation to exempt cities that have “inclement weather," such as Denver, he said. “The transportation system in Denver could say, ‘we're not going to provide any m'ore lift-equipped transportation. We don't have to,’ ” Auberger said. “That's a major issue, because not everybody lives in the Sun Belt." Shuster’s administrative assistant, Ann Eppard, said she could neither confirm nor deny that Shuster had sponsored such legislation, and said the aide who would know was not in, either. The “visit” to Shuster’s office continued a week of often-militant protest by hundreds of ADAPT members, most of them in wheelchairs, from across the country. Their main purpose has been to push for quick passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which would extend a broad range of civil rights protections to disabled people. The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bill, 40-3, on Tuesday as 104 of the disabled people were being arrested and jailed for unlawful entry and demonstrating in the capitol. The Senate passed its version of the bill last year. The arrestees, including Auberger, were released later with orders to appear in Court today. Auberger said his group was also concerned about the Bush administration's position that disabled people should not be entitled to punitive damages when filing discrimination suits against businesses that fail to accommodate them. Legislation is pending that would afford them that right, and Attorney General Dick Thornburgh has told Congress that the administration opposes it. “I think it's unfortunate that this administration doesn't want to see disabled rights equal with other minority rights,” Auberger said. Without the threat of punitive damages, “there's no incentive for a business to end discrimination.”
ADAPT (569)
Disabled occupy House offices; 59 are arrested By Frank Wolfe and Sonsyrea Tate The Washington Times 3/15/90 About 300 disabled demonstrators from 40 states occupied two congressional offices and the House Judiciary Committee room in the Rayburn House Office Building for about five hours yesterday before Capitol Police began making arrests. The participants at times discarded wheelchairs and dropped to the floor in one representative's office as part of their demonstration for passage — without weakening amendments — of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Last night, 59 persons were arrested for unlawful entry when they refused to leave the building after the House ended its session about 8 p.m., Capitol Police said. The rest of the demonstrators left peacefully. Police, some wearing optional rubber gloves, carried the demonstrators out. The protest began about 3:15 p.m. when the activists, including 101 arrested Monday in the Capitol Rotunda, occupied the offices of Reps. Hamilton Fish Jr., New York Republican, and Bud Shuster, Pennsylvania Republican. Members of the group also occupied the meeting room of the Judiciary Committee, which is slated to consider the bill. It has passed the Energy and Commerce Committee by a 40-3 vote. But one of the amendments would make flexible the requirement that mass-transit authorities provide lift-equipped transportation for disabled people. Authorities could choose instead to provide “paratransit" services such as minivans. Protest leaders are concerned that such flexibility would lead to “segregated busing" in many states, said Mike Auberger, co-founder of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation and one of the protest organizers. Mr. Shuster was in a meeting of the House Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday afternoon and belatedly learned of the protest. Mr. Fish, ranking minority member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, offered his support for the bill with no weakening amendments and said he would use all measures available to him to defeat any such amendments, according to Ed Tessier, a quadriplegic who helped to organize the protest. Those assembled in Mr. Fish’s office then left. Later in the afternoon, demonstrators occupied Mr. Shuster‘s office, demanding to see the congressman and hoping to make it difficult for staff employees to leave. Mr. Shuster, a member of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, acknowledged the demonstrators’ grievances and said the proposed transportation budget is severely lacking in money allotted for mass transit. “My heart goes out to them," the congressman told The Washington Times in a telephone interview. “I'm in a unique position. My mother was a double amputee in a wheelchair. I have more intimate experiences with the plight and problems of the disabled than perhaps any other member of Congress." The bill is slated for two other House committees, the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation — committees the two congressmen sit on - before reaching the floor of the House. Mr. Shuster said that 100 percent federal mandate" wheelchairs would add 10 percent to the cost of buses and would provide “zero accessibility" for the thousands of disabled who need more comprehensive para-transit services, such as the minivan to transport them to bus stops. "This is a feel-good bill," he said. “There is no money accompanying the bill to pay for the costs it is proposing." He cited New York City, where he said there is, on average, one wheelchair rider per 19 buses, as an example of the need for a mix of lift—equipped buses and paratransit services. If there is a federal mandate on lift-equipped buses, he said, there would be a reduction in services for handicapped riders and for the general public.