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.”

Created on

Friday 12 July 2013

Posted on

Friday 3 July 2015

Tags

accessible transit, ADA, ADAPT, Mike Auberger, Rep. Bud Shuster

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