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Leathaineach abhaile / Albums / Tags protest + blocking 4
- ADAPT (158)
Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo Saturday, May 12, 1984 PHOTO (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF PHOTOS BY BRYAN MOSS): In front of a McDonald's, two people in wheelchairs (Mike Auberger and a woman) talk with a man in a suit and tie. The arches appear over his head as someone holds up a sign behind him. A man stands beside Mike looking down at his hands, which are out of sight. Caption reads: Dennis Morris, McDonald's Denver operations manager; talks with people protesting lack of accessibility to the handicapped. A large quote beside the picture reads: "This McDonald's (at East Colfax Avenue and Pennsylvania Street) is one of the most inaccessible." Bob Conrad, protest leader Handicapped demand break from McDonald's By JERILYNN BLUM, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Waving protest signs and shouting “We want access," 35 handicapped people in wheelchairs Friday blocked the entrances to a McDonald’s restaurant on East Colfax Avenue. The demonstration was the second this week at a Denver McDonald's restaurant, both of them launched by ACCESS, a group concerned with building access for the handicapped. ACCESS claims the McDonald’s chain doesn’t provide wheelchair ramps or other fixtures needed for handicapped access. The demonstration Friday was joined by handicapped people from five states, who are training in the ACCESS Institute in Denver for activities to expand privileges of the disabled. The conflict between ACCESS and McDonald’s began Tuesday, when members of the group picketed the restaurant at 200 16th St. Spokesman Bob Conrad of Denver said the group had targeted McDonald’s because the chain is not responsive to the needs of wheelchair bound people. “This McDonald’s," he said, referring to the restaurant at East Colfax Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, “is one of the most inaccessible because you have to step up to get on the sidewalk and then it's impossible to get in the bathroom in a wheelchair." Members of the demonstration carried signs that read "Ronald McDonald, stop clowning around and make your stores accessible," and “We deserve a ramp today at McDonald’s." Conrad said members of the group decided to go ahead with the protest, even though they had been negotiating with McDonald‘s Denver operations manager Dennis Morris, because McDonald‘s management was “stonewalling." Conrad said ACCESS requested a meeting with McDonald's officials and a letter authorizing Morris to make decisions for the restaurant. The letter didn't arrive by Friday. Morris confirmed he offered to give ACCESS a letter but said he was “shocked” when the members insisted on having the letter before the Monday meeting. “They have been changing the rules of the game the last two days," said Morris. “I was under the understanding everything was set for Monday." Many lunch patrons at the East Colfax McDonald's Friday were sympathetic but disgruntled by having to step over the protesters. “I'm sure they have a legal gripe but I don’t think they have the right to block the doors," said Ray Cook, a Denver businessman. Morris said that ACCESS wanted a meeting Wednesday, which he explained was impossible. He said ACCESS members then chose Friday but eventually agreed to Monday. “We are looking forward to meeting to clarify the facts of what McDonald's has been doing all along to meet accessibility needs of the handicapped," said Morris. Morris and Bob Keiser, media relations spokesman at the McDonald's corporate offices in Oakbrook, Ill., said McDonald's has been complying with building codes that allow for accessibility for the handicapped. - ADAPT (166)
El Paso Herald-Post PHOTO (Herald-Post photo by John Hopper): Of an angry looking protester, Jim Parker, sitting in a manual wheelchair. He has shoulder length hair, a bandana headband, a goatee and moustache, black leather gloves with no fingers, and a black biker t-shirt. He is chained with a white link chain, to the doors of a business and has a sign in his lap, but it's not readable. Caption reads: Jim Parker. a handicapped El Pasoan, readies his placard after chaining himself to a restaurant door Friday. [Headline] Handicapped criticize lack of support By Robert Palomares, El Paso Herald-Post A group of protesters chained their wheelchairs to the doors of the McDonald's restaurant on Piedras Street and I-10 to protest the chain's “lack of commitment” to handicapped people. Before his wheelchair was locked to door handles Friday, El Pasoan Jim Parker said that although McDonald’s provides funding for disabled people, the commitment doesn't include making the restaurants accessible to the handicapped. "McDonald's has raised money for disabled people, but they don't make their restaurants accessible to us” Parker said. “It's like saying, ‘We will give you this money, but you can't eat in our restaurants.”’ he said. “This doesn’t mean they are exempt from providing us accessibility." said Mike Auberger of Denver. Robert Keyser, a spokesman for McDonald's Corp. also was in El Paso for the protest. Keyser said the protesters are not accurate when they say that the restaurants do not provide accessibility for handicapped people. “Since 1979. McDonald’s standard building designs provide accessibility to the handicapped, even though local codes do not necessarily call for it.” Keyser said. "In new construction table heights are considered" Keyser said. “We're not saying the restaurants should be modified overnight," said Bob Conrad, another protester from Denver. “But certainly new construction should have handicapped accessibility plans.” Auberger, Conrad and others have traveled from city to city, protesting at McDonald’s restaurants. The protesters say the height of the tables in the restaurant make it necessary for those in wheelchairs to sit in the restaurant's aisles. “So far, these people have not made an attempt to talk to us,” Keyser said. “These people are using McDonald's to make a political statement. We don't do business as a result of threats,” he said. The atmosphere inside the restaurant remained calm during the protest although customers did not know what was going on. The protesters said they believed the action was successful and after about an hour unlocked themselves and left the restaurant. Keyser said that McDonald's provides accessibility, “and will continue to work on ways to make our restaurants even more accessible, including improvements such as tables that are more convenient for our disabled customers,” he said. - ADAPT (175)
Colorado Springs Sun PHOTO (Sun / Mary Kelley): A high level quadriplegic (John Folks) in a motorized wheelchair is tipped back onto his rear wheels by two uniformed officers. His mouth control for driving his chair is in his mouth, his long black hair is held in a headband, and a suitcase-type box is strapped to his lapboard. Another uniformed officer and a plain clothes officer look on from a short distance. Behind them a group of protesters sit in a parking lot. Most are in wheelchairs but Brook Ball sits on a cement block. Caption reads: Police arrest John Folks during a protest by a group of disabled people at the McDonald's Restaurant on North Wahsatch Avenue Friday afternoon. [Headline] 11 Arrested in Protest By Ken Western Eleven protesters – 10 of them confined to wheelchairs – where arrested Friday by Colorado Springs police after they blocked the entrances to a downtown McDonald’s Restaurant. The arrests were the second in two days for some members of the Denver-based Access Institute, which contends that McDonald’s discriminates against the disables by failing to provide complete access to all of its restaurants, tables and restrooms. Denver police arrested seven protesters Thursday in a similar demonstration by the group outside another McDonald’s Restaurant. A spokesman for McDonald’s defended the company’s efforts Friday to provide access to the disabled, particularly in restaurants build since the late 1906s and in the remodeling of older buildings. The nearly two-dozen protesters, who arrived in vans from Denver, began blocking entrances to the restaurant’s parking lot, 207 N. Wahsatch Ave, at 12:15 pm. Four entrances and the drive-through lane were closed for about an hour, with most vehicles exiting through the alley behind the restaurant and, in one instance, driving off a curb. Each entrance was blocked by two to three wheelchair-bound protesters, some holding signs that read “Discrimination Hurts Everyone!!!” and “How Can I Enjoy An Egg McMuffin When I Can’t Get To The Tables?” Leaflets also were passed out urging patrons to boycott the restaurant “to show that you want us to have the right to each with you.” Police began arresting protesters after they blocked the east alley in the 200 block of North Wahsatch Avenue, charging 11 people with obstructing or interfering with traffic. Under an agreement with the Access Institute, police arrested those protesters who wanted to be bookeds in an apparently symbolic protest. Picture caption: Police arrest John Folks during a protest by a Restaurant on North Wahsatch Avenue Friday group of disabled people at the McDonald’s afternoon. - ADAPT (482)
Rocky Mountain News [ Headline] 30 disabled activists arrested Protest at Radisson aimed at transit group gathering By LEROY WILLIAMS JR. Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Police yesterday arrested about 30 disabled activists who disrupted a national transportation conference at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Denver by blocking the hotel's front doors with wheelchairs. The midmorning protest by members of ADAPT, American Disabled tor Access to Public Transit, came on the opening day of a symposium sponsored by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration. Protesters chanted, sang and cheered as a half-dozen Denver police officers carried off the protesters, about 27 of them in wheelchairs, in specially equipped vans. The job was made more difficult for police by protesters who wheeled in front of the vans to block them. And officers used wire cutters to free three protesters who chained themselves to railings. Police Capt. Roger Kaspers said the arrested were cited for obstruction of access to a business and a public sidewalk. He said they were not jailed. ADAPT’s national strategy of blocking bus companies and public transit operations that lack equipment for the handicapped is not new. But members said it was the first time they had protested against UMTA. At issue is an appeal by the U.S. Department of Transportation, of which UMTA is a part, of a federal court ruling requiring all public transit agencies to equip their buses with wheelchair lifts. The order was theresult of a lawsuit brought by ADAPT. "We view that (appeal) as a hostile action" said ADAPT activist Maureen O'Rourke, who said the process would be delayed by four or five years. "We are tired of winning lawsuits and never getting them implemented." In an interview later yesterday, outgoing UMTA administrator Alfred A. DelliBovi defended the appeal, saying the agency prefers to leave transit agencies’ decisions on equipment for the handicapped to local agencies. DelliBovi lauded Denver's Regional Transportation‘ District, which has so far awarded $40 million in bus operations contracts, as a pace-setter in that area. He also said one of his last acts — or his successor's first -- will be to sign over about $65 million to help pay for construction of a busway along Interstate 25 north of Denver. DeliiBovi, who is soon to become undersecretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, repeated the theme of his keynote address and of the symposium: Dwindling federal resources means local transit agencies must figure out ways to save money by involving the private sector. The symposium ends today.