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الرئيسية / الألبومات / كلمة دلائلية protest 84
تاريخ الإضافة
- ADAPT (268)
Cincinnati Post May 1986 PHOTO by Lawrence A. Lambert/The Cincinnati Post: ADAPTers come off a bridge and march down a street. Most are in single file, a couple of people are off to the side. Most are wearing the light colored ADAPT shirts with the ADAPT "no steps" logo, others have on other ADAPT shirts. Their mouths are open, chanting. In the front (left to right) are Kathy Vincent, Terri Fowler, and a man doing a wheelie in his manual wheelchair. Behind him is a woman in a chair with someone pushing her. Jim Parker is just visible beside them and Tisha Auberger is on his right and Frank Lozano is on his left. The picture quality is not too great so the faces after that are hard to see. Caption reads: Handicapped protest: Some of the 85 visiting members of ADAPT, a national group protesting inaccessibility of city buses to the handicapped, wheel their way to the Westin Hotel Sunday to demonstrate at the start of a convention of the American Public Transit Association. There were no arrests Sunday, but some protesters have vowed to disrupt Queen City Metro service this week by chaining themselves to buses. Story on Page 18. - ADAPT (277)
Unattributed quote "It seems to me that this group of yelling protesting handicappers is to the handicapper rights movement what the freedom riders were to more conservative members of the civil rights movement. They are righteous hellions whose goals are shared by other handicappers, even though their extreme tactics are sometimes rejected." PHOTO: A large round man in a manual wheelchair (Jerry Eubanks) is being escorted by three uniformed police officers. Jerry, a double amputee, holds his arms up from the wheels and two of the policemen are trying to hold onto his arms, while the third pushes him forward. Jerry looks slightly surprised and amused. - ADAPT (284)
PHOTO: A young woman in a motorized chair sits with a very determined yet innocent look on her face. Behind her stand three police officers in dark uniforms and elaborate hats. Beside them and behind and to the side of the woman sits an older man with CP in a manual wheelchair. He may be in line behind the woman. Behind him and the officers is a room divider, and a fourth policeman peers out from behind the divider. Title: They got me thinking I don't spend a lot of time thinking about handicappers. Maybe I should, but I don't. I have, however, spent a considerable amount of time riding the bus up Woodward. And on those trips I have on occasion seen people in wheelchairs crawl up the steps of the bus either because the lift didn't work or there was no lift. I remember marveling at one young man with massive arms and a barrel chest who hurled his chair onto the bus like a shot-putter and then hoisted himself up the stairs and into a front seat. - ADAPT (294)
PHOTO by News photo / Gary Porter: Large group of ADAPT protesters behind barricades that sandwich them up against the wall of the front of the Westin Hotel. In the crowd you can see, among others, on far left Bernard Baker, facing backwards Frank McComb, next to Frank Lori and husband from Chicago, Caption reads: [Headline] Disabled protesters Members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) demonstrate in front of the Westin Hotel on Sunday. ADAPT members are demanding improved access tor the disabled on buses and other public transportation. They attempted to disrupt the meetings of the American Public Transit Association which convened in Detroit last weekend. Story / 3B. - ADAPT (298)
Title: Arresting Theater By JIM FINKELSTEIN, Free Press Staff Writer An estimated 25 handicapped protesters were arrested Tuesday as they charged police guarding the McNamara Federal Building Tuesday in a third day of what one protester called "theater" over public transit's limited use of lift-equipped vehicles. Wave after wave of the estimated 100 protesters — many in wheelchairs and paralyzed, missing limbs, or suffering nerve disorders — were hauled away in lift-equipped vans while police photographers recorded the scene to ensure the protesters were properly arrested. Michael Auberger, a spokesman for the 100-member American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, vowed Tuesday that "we're going to escalate" the protest today and Thursday as the convention of the American Public Transit Association concludes at the Westin Hotel. “Everyone's willing to go" to jail. he added, hinting that the protest may move to the Westin today. Seventeen ADAPT members were arrested Monday as they tried to crawl aboard city buses to protest the lack of wheelchair equipment on 80 of 100 buses recently purchased by the city. THE DEMONSTRATORS want lift equipment on all new buses and trains purchased by U.S. public transit systems. The transit association won a court case to prevent more extensive federal regulations requiring lift equipment. Tuesday, the protesters began chanting slogans in front of the McNamara Federal Building just before 1 p.m. ADAPT spokespersons said the group wanted to present a position paper to Sen. Donald Riegle, D-Mich., whose offices are in the building. They refused a police offer to let two representatives meet with Riegle's aides, saying they wanted to send no fewer than nine. Police blocked the entrance and then began arresting protesters who blocked the entrance — both wheelchair users and non-handicapped ADAPT aides. Deputy Police Chief James Ingram said "a couple of hundred" police officers were given special training in arresting people who use wheelchairs. PHOTOS: Photo #1 Free Press Photo by GEORGE WALDMAN: A group of about 10 protesters chant out on the sidewalk in front of a large building. In front Bernard Baker and Stephanie Thomas, next row Kristen? (sitting alone), Fred (standing) & unknown, Renata Conrad (in manual) Marcos Quesada in wheelchairs. And Cathy Thomas and others in the background. Caption reads: Wheelchair-bound protesters chant outside the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit. Photo #2: Free Press Photo by MANNY CRISOSTOMO Two uniformed police officers stand behind a man in a wheelchair (George Cooper) holding his push handles. The police are looking off into the distance and George holds a poster in his teeth that says "...With Liberty and Justice for All?" Caption reads: Detroit police officers carry George Cooper, of Irving, Tex., away from the scene. Photo #3: Free Press Photo by MANNY CRISOSTOMO A woman in a wheelchair (Paulette Patterson) holding the Holy Bible to her chest and with a pained and tearful cry, is being loaded onto a a lift equipped vehicle. Caption reads: An unidentified protester clutches her Bible as she's arrested. Photo #4 Free Press Photo by MANNY CRISOSTOMO A uniformed officer stands jauntily leaning on a barricade, on the other side of which are two ADAPT protesters in wheelchairs (Rick James and an unidentified woman.) Rick has a very intense expression on his face. Caption reads: Rick James, of Utah, left, watches Lt. Greg George, a federal policeman, at a barricade at the McNamara Federal Building. - ADAPT (299)
Detroit Free Press 10/6/86 PHOTOs by JONN COLLIER, Free Press PHOTO 1: A large group of posters in a line that almost looks like a pile, are behind a woman in a manual wheelchair being pushed up a curb or slope. Two people are helping her up. One holds a poster which reads "Stop the war against the disabled! [something] Congress". In the crowd behind are other large signs, some unreadable, and a very large one in the middle is partially readable and says "...for the disabled not for war!..." PHOTO 2: People in wheelchairs appear to be fanning out in an intersection with large city buildings in the far background. Between the three people in wheelchairs in the front you can see a line of other folks in wheelchairs across the intersection. Caption reads: Disabled demonstrators move through downtown Detroit, carrying signs and chanting “We will wide," in protest of the lack of wheelchair lifts on the nation's buses and trains. Title: Handicappers protest at transit convention By BOB CAMPBELL, Free Press Staff Writer About 150 militant disabled people, chanting "We will ride" and carrying signs in a procession from Tiger Stadium to the Renaissance Center, Sunday protested the lack of wheelchair lifts on the nation's buses and trains. At least 40 Detroit police officers in scout cars and on motorcycles kept the demonstrators — most of whom were in wheelchairs — on sidewalks along the two-mile route. After a request from Detroit Police Chief William Hart, who cited illegal actions of the protesters in other cities, Detroit's City Council last week withdrew a permit that would have allowed the demonstrators to parade through the streets. At one point, police insisted the protesters go through a puddle instead of using the street. At the Renaissance Center, the end of the procession, about 2,300 conferees were gathering for this week's American Public Transit Association national convention The demonstrators, who are at odds with the association on the accessibility issue, were kept away from the entrance to the Westin Hotel. See DiSABLED, Page 15A Title for part 2: Militant handicappers decry poor bus access Text box insert: Members of the group have been arrested at demonstrations at other transit meetings. DISABLED, from Page 1A HOTEL SECURITY was tight, and visitors had to identity themselves to guards before being admitted. The protesters — members of Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation — say public buses and trains should be equipped with mechanical wheelchair lifts. Members of the group have been arrested at demonstrations at other transit association meetings after chaining themselves to buses and stopping traffic. "In the ’50s, a lot of blacks were on the back of the bus." said Michael Parker of Peoria, ILL. “We still can't get on the bus." Several members of the group told reporters there would be other protests against transit association members. Wheelchair lifts were required on buses briefly in the late l970s. But a transit association lawsuit led to a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a federal requirement for lifts on all buses overstepped the intent of equal access legislation. said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice-president of the association. Most local transit agencies provide transportation to handicapped persons using mini-buses in services such as Dial-A-Ride. Gilstrap said. "The vast majority of people in wheelchairs prefer Dial-A-Ride or demand service," he said. “it runs 10-, 15-, 20-1 over lifts on every bus." Gilstrap said it is cheaper to offer special transportation service for wheelchair users than to adapt all public systems to wheelchairs. The subway authority in Washington D.C. spent between $50 million and $60 million to build elevators to allow wheelchair access tor "35 to 40 people a day," he said. MEMBERS OF the handicapper group complain of disparate quality of Dial-A-Ride systems among various cities. and they cite a requirement that rides must be arranged 24 hours in advance. Bill Bolte, 55, of Los Angeles, said: "l was a law-abiding citizen before l realized how oppressive society was getting toward handicapped people. The problem ls. we depress people because of the way we look. They don't want us around." Long-time civil rights activist Rosa Parks canceled her plans to join the ADAPT members, citing tactics that would "embarrass the city‘s guests and cripple the city's present transportation system." said to her assistant, Elaine Steele. Leo Caner, chairman of the 21 member Michigan Commission on Handicapper Concerns, said: "The general public has to be sensitized to handicappers. But getting the people sensitized by getting run over by a bus is not the way to do it." Free Pres: Special Writer Margaret Trimmer contributed In this report. - ADAPT (300)
Southwest Economist Newspapers Sunday, October 5, 1986 page 9 [Headline] Disabled will protest transit system barriers By J. Carole Buckner, staff reporter Chicago – Southwest sider Dennis Schreiber left for Detroit Friday knowing he faced a fair chance of being arrested there for civil disobedience. He was looking forward to it. In the rain-soaked parking lot of Our Lady of the Snows School, 48th St. and Leamington Ave., Schreiber said he told his wife Jackie that the trip is "a dream come true." Schreiber, who is blind, almost completely deaf and partially paralyzed, left with about 30 other handicapped persons, some coming as far away as Denver, Colorado, to protest at the American Public Transit Association's annual convention. For the past three months, Schreiber's group, Disabled Americans for Equality (DARE), has raised money to fund a delegation of protesters to go to Detroit, where they planned to hold a legal march to protest mobility barriers on buses and subways. The Reverend Wade Blank, leader of a contingent of protesters from Denver, called American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), said the group's parade permit was revoked this week by Detroit Mayor Coleman Young. Despite the lack of a parade permit and potential for arrests, the disabled group plans to go ahead with it's march, aware of the publicity value to be gained with photos of police dragging wheelchairs into paddy wagons. The groups position, said Schreiber, is "that we want equal access to public transportation and all public facilities" Specifically, the protesters want transportation systems throughout the U.S., especially in cities such as Chicago, to be equipped with lifts for wheelchair users. Mark Mactemes, 37, said he is going on the six day journey and demonstration because he needs to use regularly scheduled public transportation to work. The Oak Forest resident has multiple sclerosis. "I graduated college in 1985 and cannot find a job because I can't drive to work and must rely on public transportation." The CTA offers bus service for the handicapped called Dial-A-Ride, "but you must call eight hours in advance and buses (minivans) only run until 10 PM," Jackie Schreiber said. The CTA subcontracts the service to four companies. In the past, CTA officials have refused to install wheelchair lifts on buses, saying the cost is prohibitive. Blank, said similar reasons were given in Denver, but after sustained efforts by handicapped groups, all the cities buses were equipped with lifts. The result has been an increase in handicapped ridership, from a few hundred to 2000 riders per month, he said. Blank said famed 1960s civil rights protester Rosa Parks is scheduled to March with the group on Sunday. In all, more than 300 handicapped persons, mostly in wheelchairs, or expected to demonstrate in Detroit, Blank said. - ADAPT (307)
SMITH BY JEFF SMITH Title: ROLL MODELS Civil disobedience tends to be a cyclical form of political expression. It only comes into flower every few years, even decades, and during the intermissions of its popularity, the great masses in the political middle tend to forget what an important tool it is. Indeed, civil disobedience is the only legitimate means of effecting change on behalf of minority needs. Mull it over: • A minority with a valid and pressing need to see some public policy created or changed has the option of going to the polls along with everyone else . . . and losing. because it is, after all, a minority. Or: • Its members could arm themselves and turn their minority cause into a guerilla war, which the majority would agree is hardly a legitimate solution. Or: • They could employ the classic, nonviolent, Gandhian stratagem of civil disobedience. Bingo. Which is why I endorse the protest staged recently by American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT). About 200 members of the Denver-based group, most of them in their primary means of transportation — wheelchairs— came here and raised hell a couple of weeks ago with the national convention of the American Public Transportation Association. It was a classic sit-in. Gimps are good at that. But it's been quite a while—a peaceful, soporific, almost brain-dead while—since the civil-rights movement and the Vietnam War era, when sit-ins, protest marches and similar styles of civil disobedience were at all common. And six years of Reagan, four of Carter and three of Ford have turned many of us into conservatives like Phoenix City Councilman Howard Adams, who sympathize the problems of certain minorities, but object to the only tactic they really can use to solve those problems. Adams doesn't think cripples ought to be blocking restaurant and hotel entrances, impeding the comings and goings of conventioneers and blockading buses in order to make their point that most public transit is inaccessible to people in wheelchairs and those rendered nearly immobile by the need for canes and crutches. Adams is not an unsympathetic man: He has both sympathy and empathy for the disabled. In case you didn't know it, Howard Adams is a gimp himself. He was crippled in a swimming accident twenty years ago. And in case you think my characterizations mark me as a churl, know that I'm a gimp, too, coming on six years in a wheelchair after a motorcycle crash. (I got to be churlish independent of paralysis.) So both Howard and I know something of the subject. I simply know more than he does on account of I'm smarter. So listen up: Neither Howard Adams nor Yr. Obdt. Svt. is a decent role model for anyone with ambitions of becoming disabled. I am far too pretty and talented; Howard Adams is too powerful and prosperous. It is way too easy for someone like Adams or me to say, Hey, why don't the rest of you gimps just get your own car or van, like me? Adams is a quadriplegic with a specially equipped van. It is his own rig, but he must get someone else to drive it for him. When he's on city business, or going to and from his Phoenix City Council office, the city provides the driver. I am a paraplegic, somewhat less handicapped than Adams, so I drive myself in a station wagon with hand controls. Now you might think owning a car is virtually within the reach of anyone. Even the poorest hovel might have a Caddy parked outside. And you might say that since Smith and Adams manage so commendably, anybody can work and support a family, and get around to do [missing text here] unaffordable. Sensible people of limited means may own one old beater which one spouse takes to work, while the other rides the bus. Consider that even for Homo erectus, hoofing to the bus stop on hind feet in Hush Puppies and making the necessary connections to get from home in Phoenix to work in Tempe can be a major pain in the ass and add several hours to the workday. Now try it from a wheelchair. Listen: I am about as adapted, chipper and successful a gimp as you're likely to meet, and I don't go to Circle K's anymore. How familiar the ritual: You're driving home and you get a lech for a cold one. You hang a quick right, don't even shut off the engine, you're in and out in a flash, and buzzing nicely on your second beer before you've hit the next stoplight. When you're in a wheelchair you don't do stuff like this anymore. It is simply too much bother. Even for a gimp like me, with great strong arms, catlike grace and his own automobile. I run wheelchair marathons, lift weights three times a week, have the cardiovascular system of a twelve-year-old, but I do not visit Circle K's. It takes too long, requires too much exertion, inflicts too much pain, and maybe there's no ramp. Screw it. If I had to call two days, or as much as a week in advance to arrange to have a special van pick me up—just to make a doctor's appointment or go buy - groceries—I don't know if I could cope. If Howard Adams had to plan his daily schedule around Phoenix bus schedules, which provide wheelchair service on only six of 54 bus routes, I wonder if he would be able to discharge his duties as a councilman. I suppose he would, being the Type A he is. "I haven't showcased my activities," Adams told me, "but I am interested in this issue." Indeed, Adams has just been appointed to President Reagan's Architecture and Transportation . Compliance Board, which oversees enforcement of federal access regulation. Adams said he thinks Phoenix is doing well on handicap access, but if he lived in, say, New York, he might be frustrated and angry. Then would he resort to civil disobedience? "Probably not," he said. "I'd work the [missing text here] That might work for Howard Adams, - but not for all of Jerry's kids. I've learned a lot of stuff about gimps since becoming one — stuff that contradicts most of what I thought I knew before. No two of us are alike. Being paralyzed doesn't mean blessed forgetfulness of the concerns of your formerly functional physiology. You can experience constant pain from the paralyzed parts. You can have involuntary muscles spasms that make it impossible to sit still, and even more difficult to haul around those parts that would be tough enough to move if they just lay there like deadwood. You can run out of popcorn and have to get rest before the day is half done. You can spend two hours getting bathed and dressed to go out in public, only to get just out the door and find you've pissed your pants and have to go back and start all over. Think about these things the next time you scoff at the demands of the disabled for better access to public transportation, for ramps at street corners, for rest rooms with doors wide enough for a wheelchair, for wider aisles in airplanes, elevators in two-story buildings. Think what it means when a six-inch curb is as impassable a barrier as a prison wall. Not figuratively. In fact. Think about these things and think about one thing further: Disability is a very Eighties fashion of affliction, tres chic you could say. With speed sports like sail-boarding, off-roading and even sidewalk surfing being so trendy, lots more of you hip, yuppie dudes and dudettes will be joining me on wheels in the very near future. Think of handicapped access as an investment in your own future. Think of all this the next time you find yourself staring at the convenience market — the one with the cold can of beer— from across a lane of oncoming traffic, and you decide it's just too inconvenient to make a left-hand turn. Believe thee me: You don't have a clue as to what inconvenience is. - ADAPT (318)
Photo by Nancy Engelbretson, The Phoenix Gazette Title: 37 arrested in wheelchair protest Two men in suits stand on either side of a skinny old man (Frank McColm) in a manual wheelchair. One has his back to the camera, the other is bending down doing something with Frank's breaks; you can just see part of his badge on his belt. Frank looks alarmed; he is being tipped back on his back wheels. His hands are on his armrests. His pants legs are up almost to his knees and his legs are crossed. Behind them is a large almost empty parking lot. Caption reads: Frank McColm of Denver jams on his wheelchair hand brake as Phoenix police officers attempt to remove him from the Phoenix bus depot Tuesday during another protest by members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. Police arrested 37 people, most of them for trespassing after they refused to leave until they could board a bus. ADAPT wants all buses equipped with wheelchair lifts. Sixty-nine arrests have been made since the group arrived Sunday to protest meetings of the American Public Transit Association. That convention ends today. April 8th, 1987 - ADAPT (319)
The Arizona Republic, Monday April 8, 1987 Title: Handicapped Hold Protest Photo by Pete Peters/Republic: People in wheelchairs in ADAPT T-shirts form a picket line in front of a hotel, the Regency Phoenix. They are holding posters. Behind them, in the shadows of the entrance-way to the hotel people are standing looking on. Caption reads: Members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit picket before the Hyatt Regency. The ADAPT demonstrators have targeted a meeting by the American Public Transit Association. Photo top right Photo by Pete Peters/Republic: A woman standing uses a sprayer to cool a woman in a wheelchair holding a large poster. caption reads: Carla Montez squirts Kelli Bates with cool water. They traveled to Phoenix from Denver to participate in an ADAPT protest. subtitle: Disrupt event; ask transit access By Chuck Hawley The Arizona Republic About 100 members of a militant group of wheelchair-bound activists blocked the roads and entrances to Rustler’s Roost on Sunday night in an attempt to stop those attending a steak fry for the American Public Transit Association’s convention. Chanting and carrying place cards members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit lined up across the two roads, a stairway leading form a lower parking lot and the doors including the handicapped entrance to the restaurant, which is at the Pointe at South Mountain. Police monitored the protest. The 450 people attending the weeklong convention arrived in six Phoenix buses. Some were forced to scramble up a steep gravel incline and enter through the kitchen. Others walked up the back driveway. “We plan to be here all week and to inconvenience you as much as we can,” called out one protestor, who was blocking the stairs. Earlier in the day, protestor had picketed at the Hyatt Regency, where the conventioneers are staying. The protestors at the restaurant carried placards that said, “Police wagons accessible; buses not,” and chanted, “What do we want? Access. When do we want it? Now.” The group, well-known for militant protests across the country, wants all public transit to be accessible to the wheelchair-bound. “I think they have a just cause, but I think they are carrying it to an extreme,” said Bob Hicken, general manager of the Phoenix Transit System, who walked up the hill from the lower parking lot. “We’d like to serve them all, but we can’t. If there were enough money in the world, we could do everything we wanted to.” - ADAPT (324)
Photo by Charles Krejcsi, Arizona Republic A man (Richard Guerra) in dark sunglasses and an ADAPT shirt with no sleeves and muscular arms in a manual wheelchair, and a woman (Diane Coleman) in a long skirt in a power chair, sit side by side in front of a bus at a bus stop. At the driver-side rear of the bus you can just see another wheelchair and someone standing. There is an empty power chair parked in front of the fronts steps of the bus.In the foreground a uniformed police office stands with his back to the camera looking at another uniformed officer. Both are wearing helmets. Between them you can see the legs of someone else in a wheelchair, and behind them, beside the bus stop a crowd of people are standing around. Caption: 35 arrested in bus protests Diane Coleman and Richard Guerra, both members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, block a city bus with their wheelchairs during a protest at the Phoenix Transit System terminal, First and Washington streets. Guerra, Coleman and 33 others were arrested Tuesday after staging protests at the terminal and other sites, including bus stops at the State Capitol and at Central and Van Buren. The group wants to see all the mass-transit buses equipped to accommodate handicapped passengers. - ADAPT (351)
PHOTO by Tom Olin: In the midst of a crowd, a tight shot of three people in wheelchairs (Bob Kafka, Clayton Jones, Maryann) sitting in a row right up against a metal barricade. Clayton and Maryann are holding onto the police barricade while several police hold on to the other side. Bob is sitting beside them, also blocked by the police. The three are looking ahead with intense expressions. - ADAPT (352)
Passenger Transport 4/3/98? At San Francisco Meeting Agreement Reached in Suit By Disabled over Access San Francisco, Calif.- A settlement agreement of a class action suit brought by two individuals with disabilities against the Hilton Hotels Corporation, APTA, and Executive Vice President Jack Gilstrap was reached recently. The February 1988 suit stemmed from a protest by persons with disabilities at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel during APTA’s 1987 Annual Meeting. “We are pleased that this litigation is being settled and that we can, hopefully, put it behind us and move forward,” said Mr. Gilstrap. He emphasized that the settlement agreement stipulates that APTA entered into this agreement without admitting any liability in connection with the incident. The plaintiffs who brought the suit in the California Superior Court claimed that their right of access to the San Francisco Hotel was violated during a Sept. 27, 1987, meeting and protest at the hotel. Persons with disabilities had been invited to attend a meeting with APTA that morning, but an accessible hotel entrance was temporarily closed. The protesters sued under California law that guarantees full access for individuals with disabilities. The Sept. 27 incident came during a week when disabled activists held a tumultuous demonstration at San Francisco city hall and also blocked operation of the city’s historic cable car system. The settlement, reached on March 3 and preliminary approved by the court, provides monetary damages to disabled individuals who feel they were denied access to the hotel. The preliminary court approval clears the way for announcement of the settlement in publications distributed throughout the disabled community. Individuals who were invited to the Sept. 27 meeting and were denied access through the temporarily closed entrance are entitled to a minimum of $1,250. Persons who sought access or would have sought access to the hotel but for the temporary closure will have an opportunity to identify themselves and file proofs of claim for damages of up to $250. The damages will be paid out of a settlement fund established by Hilton Hotels and APTA amounting to $100,000. A hearing will be held this June for a final determination by the court concerning the fairness of the settlement. - ADAPT (375)
San Francisco September 30,1987 S.F. Independent PHOTO (right middle of page) by Rick Gerharter: At least nine wheelchair users (among them, Rick James, Stephanie Thomas, Woody Carlson, Cathy Thomas or Julie Farrar and others) fill the front of the frame blocking a bus with a sign with the APTA logo and Hotels written on it. Most of the blockers are facing toward the bus, away from the camera. Police stand on either side of the bus. Two protesters have Proud and Disabled bumper stickers on the backs of their wheelchairs. Caption: Disabled protesters blocked a SamTrans bus Monday at the American Public Transit Association convention taking place this week at Moscone Center. [Headline] Bitter Protests at Transit Meet By: Carol Farron [This story continues on a second page we do not have at this time.] Disabled people from throughout the United States are angry and have gathered in San Francisco this week to protest the lack of accessibility on public transit systems throughout the nation. The protesters are hoping to force transit officials who are convening at the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association to change their thinking on transit accessibility for the disabled. APTA, public transit's biggest lobbying group, took the lead in the early 1980s in convincing Congress to overturn federal regulations allowing full transit accessibility for the disabled. What resulted from that decision was a "local option" plan. This allowed individual transit agencies to decide if they would provide accessibility for the disabled on fixed route service or an alternate van/taxi service. Many disabled `groups` are unhappy with that outcome, charging that the local option denies them their civil rights and impedes or prohibits their ability to attend school or hold down jobs because of a lack of transportation. Additionally, many disabled say that paratransit is a paternalistic system that segregates them from society, and users are made to feel helpless. APTA members contend that full accessibility is expensive and unworkable. They say that equipping buses and trains with lifts is too expensive given the number of disabled riders. The disabled, however, say that transit's estimates of disabled riders are low, and accessible transit can work as cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Denver have proven. More than 200 wheelchair bound men and women said last Saturday at a press conference that because the current regulations deny them their civil rights they came prepared to be arrested - and that they were. Thirty-four people, most in wheelchairs, were arrested at a City Hall protest last Sunday, and another 22 were arrested in for blocking a Samtrans bus at Moscone Center on Monday. Many more arrests are expected until the convention's conclusion this Thursday. "This is a militant bunch of protestors," said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of APTA. "These people terrified and roughed up some of our members at city hall. "Just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn't mean they're nice." Marilyn Golden of SAAT, the September Alliance for Accessible Transit, said her group is "far from militant." see Rides, page 2 - ADAPT (385)
[This is a continuation of the article in ADAPT 386. The entire text of the article is included there for easier reading.] Montreal Daily News Monday, October 3, 1988. Photo 1 by Allan Leichman/Daily News: Three uniformed police officers lift a protester (Bob Kafka) whose face is contorted in a yell of pain. One is bending over his legs while the other two have him by the arms. Behind and out of focus other officers and protesters are visible. In the foreground is the trunk of a car. Photo 2 missing picture id inset below the other picture: An officer pushes protester (Bob Kafka) away in his manual wheelchair. Two people stand in the foreground one watching. Caption: Police arrested some 25 wheelchair demonstrators after they forced their way into the lobby of the Sheraton Centre. They were protesting the American Public Transit Association's reluctance to endorse wheelchair lifts on new buses.