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Degemer / Rummadoù / Merkerioù protest
+ ADA + Bob Kafka 4
US_Capitol_Rotunda_part_2_cap
This is part 2 of the ADAPT Capitol Rotunda protest in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. This shows the group preparing for civil disobedience to pressure swift passage of the bill. Over 100 people were arrested at this protest, which gets less attention than the Crawl but was equally intense. The film is open captioned (as are all videos on this museum site).
Rotunda part 1
This is part 1 of the story of the ADAPT protest in the Capitol Rotunda to call for passage of the ADA with no weakening amendments. The ADA had become bogged down in the House and there was concern the bill would not pass. The day after the Wheels of Justice March and the Capitol Crawl, ADAPT took over the Rotunda of the United States Capitol building and over 100 people were arrested protesting for our civil rights. This is almost raw footage and gives a real sense of the event as it unfolded. Part 2 of this action is included in the next video Capitol Rotunda part 2.
ADAPT (537)
The Handicapped Coloradan Small Text Box: If you feel like spending a few days In Washington, D.C. this March, give Wade Blank or Mike Auberger a ring at (303) 936-1110. They've got a tour of the Capitol Building that most travel agencies don't offer. PHOTO (by Tom Olin): Joe Carle, Diane Coleman, Bob Kafka and Mark Johnson, all in wheelchairs and dressed in revolutionary garb lead a march under the leafy trees of Philadelphia's historic district. They have tri-cornered hats, jackets with fancy buttons, ruffled shirts, a fife and drum. Behind the front of the line Ann ___ is visible, as well as other marchers. Diane carries the ADAPT flag and Joe has another dark flag on a tall pole. Caption: Militants could seize capitol rotunda -- Dressed In Revolutionary War garb, several ADAPT members rolled toward the Liberty Bell while the U.S. Court of Appeals was ruling that disabled people have a right to public transit. Many of these same activists are heading for Washington, D.C. on Mar. 10, in an attempt to get Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1989. Protesters intend to leave their wheelchairs and crawl up the steps of the Capitol Building while Congress is in session. Article begins: ADAPT sets roll on D.C. To prod ADA passage Still a mile high following their victory in Atlanta last fall, disabled activists from across the country are planning on rolling on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., to demand that lawmakers pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1989. The act, which grants sweeping civil rights to disabled people (much as the 1965 Civil Rights Act aided blacks), has passed the Senate but is currently bogged down in four House committees, and no one expects a vote earlier than Feb. 28 by the full House membership. Disabled militants, mostly members of the Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), are planning on arriving in Washington on March 10. "If the bill is still in committee at that time, we're going to treat it as if the bill is in trouble," said ADAPT founder Wade Blank, co-director of the Atlantis Community, a Denver independent living health care provider. Blank said that disabled lobbyists in Washington have warned ADAPT to avoid the confrontational politics that it has used in other cities while battling its arch-nemesis, the American Public Transit Association (APTA). The professional lobbyists said it is not advisable to upset Congress, according to Blank. That's too bad, Blank said, because "we're telling them right here and now that we're going in and kicking ass.” Blank expects several hundred will participate in the march on the capitol, with about 125 of the protesters prepared to leave their chairs and crawl upon the capitol steps while other militants sneak in and seize the rotunda itself. If all that works out, it could be ADAPT’s biggest action so far in its seven-year struggle to force transit companies to put a lift on every bus in the country. The federal government unofficially agreed to support that goal in a deal hammered out between representatives of ADAPT and President Bush in Atlanta last October. Part of that deal called upon the President to push for disabled rights in his State of the Union address, which he did, much to the satisfaction of ADAPT, which Blank described as being “very pleased” with Bush. “Now we're going to smoke out a few Democrats," he said. When the agreement was reached in Atlanta, two cities had already started the process of purchasing non-lift equipped buses. Since then Pittsburgh has reversed its position and agreed to buy only accessible buses, while Albuquerque refused to consider altering its plans. “They’ll go down in history as the last city in America to buy lift-less buses," Blank said. In the months since Atlanta, ADAPT has switched its attention to pushing for lifts on intercity coaches. To that end some 45 wheelchair demonstrators were in Dallas Jan. 21-24 to picket a joint meeting of the American Bus Association (ABA) and the United Bus Owners of America (UBOA). Greyhound, the largest intercity bus company, is headquartered in Dallas. Most of those demonstrators were participating in their first action, which Blank said proves that ADAPT is continuing to grow in strength and power. On the first day, pickets blocked the entrance to the conference hotel with relatively little fireworks. But on Monday, Jan. 22, the protesters hit the Greyhound depot where some 29 demonstrators were arrested for blocking buses. Twenty of those were first-time arrestees. Trial has been set for Feb. 12. On the third day, protesters stormed in the exposition hall and interrupted a trade show demonstrating the latest advances in bus design. Most of that design had nothing to do with helping wheelchair riders get on board, Blank said. UBOA president Wayne Smith, who has published articles in the New York Times arguing against the transit provisions of the ADA, decided not to call in the police, and for three hours militant wheelchair protesters engaged in debate with professional transit providers. “It was a very successful happening,” Blank said. He said he hoped that spirit would hold true for the Washington, D.C., action, where he expects to see more first-time protesters. A seminar on ADAPT’S history and tactics is set for Mar. 10 at the Comfort Inn on H Street in northwestern Washington, where neophyte activists are urged to go even if they are planning to stay elsewhere during the action. Although the ADA covers all disabilities, this action, called the “Wheels of Justice," will center on the rights of the mobility-impaired. Blank said he tried to coordinate his action with other groups, including the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), but was rebuffed. “They don't think of themselves as disabled,” he said. “And that’s fine.” (For more on this topic see Homer Page’s column on page 2, “The ADA and the Blind.”) Some blind advocacy groups, including the NFB, have argued that they don't want adaptive devices, such as special buttons on street corners, written into the bill. “We don't need them," said Page, who is vice president of the Colorado NFB chapter. Those people wishing to participate in ADAPT‘s “Wheels of Justice" should contact Blank or Mike Auberger at (303) 936-1110. PHOTO: Medium close up of Wade Blank from the waist up. He is smiling, wearing dark sun glasses and a vest. His below shoulder length blondish hair is parted in the middle. This text covers the article that appears in 537 and 538.
ADAPT (500)
ON THE MOVE [Headline] Disabled Win Partial Victory in Sit-In Over Bus Access By Alma E. Hill Staff Writer The second day of protests by disabled persons — who blocked the main entrances and elevators of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building — ended Tuesday afternoon when an agreement was reached between officials of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) and leaders of the demonstration. American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) protested a lack of access for the handicapped to public buses and demanded an immediate order from the federal government that all new buses be equipped with wheelchair lifts. In an impromptu meeting on the front steps of the building with protest leaders, Steven A Diaz, chief counsel for UMTA, said it was not within U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner's authority to issue such an order. However, he agreed to ask Transportation Department officials to meet with the protesters to establish a process to identify public transit authorities that are deliberately speeding up purchase of new buses to circumvent a bill pending in Congress mandating that such buses have wheelchair lifts. The Americans With Disabilities Act would require new buses purchased with federal dollars to be equipped with lifts. The equipment would add about $12,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new bus and an additional $2,000 per year to maintain, according to John A Cline, associate administrator of UMTA. Without the lift, a bus costs about $155,000. UMTA also agreed to relay to Mr. Skinner ADAPT‘s concerns about the slow implementation of the Air Carriers Access Act of 1986, which stipulates that airports be accessible to the handicapped. The agreement fell short of demands protesters had made at the start of the demonstration, but ADAPT leaders said ... DISABLED Continued on B5 [we do not have second part of this article] PHOTO 1 (by Andy Sharp/Staff): A wiry grey haired man in an ADAPT T-shirt, raises himself in his motorized wheelchair, using his arms and legs to push out of the seat, mouth open yelling. Behind him a young woman with an ADAPT headband around her forehead looks at him and yells. Someone's hand is grabbing the armrest of his wheelchair. The two are trying to hold an elevator door open to block the elevator. Behind them a policeman in a hat with a tattoo on his arm tries to push them out and close the door. Caption: Police try to stop Arthur Campbell of Louisville, Ky., from blocking an elevator in the Federal Building Tuesday; at right is protester Rhonda Lester. PHOTO 2 (by Marvin Hill, JR/Staff): A woman, yelling, presses her motorized wheelchair up by the glass doors. There is a "Do Not Enter" sticker above her head. Beside her a man sits in his wheelchair with his back to the door, blocking it. Behind them several other protesters are visible through the reflections on the glass of the door. PHOTO 3 (by Andy Sharp/Staff): A disabled man lies on the floor on his side by a wheelchair while another young man with a backpack stands beside him holding a sports chair over his head as if ready to carry it over the man on the ground. Behind them a man stands on one side and on another a woman stands with her arms akimbo as if trying to balance. A small crowd is visible through the confusion. caption for photos 2 & 3: Christine Coughlin of Phoenix, Ariz. (above) joins in Tuesday's protest; Bob Kafka (right) lies on the floor to help block access to the building's elevator.