The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday
■ OCTOBER 27, 1999

[Headline] Disability-rights group meeting here
[Subheading] The organization has staged numerous demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience in recent years.

By Steve Stephens Dispatch
Staff Reporter

A group of disability-rights activists, known for blocking buses and political offices across the country, will be in Columbus beginning this weekend for an event billed as the organization's "last national action of the millennium."

American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today will host about 500 activists for a six-day program beginning Saturday at the Hyatt on Capitol Square, said Mike Auberger, the group's organizer.

Auberger said it's likely that the group will stage acts of civil disobedience in Columbus.

"How far that goes depends on the response we get" from state and local officials, he said. "One of the things that you'll find with
ADAPT is that we try to hammer our point home with the folks who want to keep the status quo," Auberger said.

"Sometimes that includes demonstrations, sometimes meetings. There have been arrests in the past. No one comes with the goal of being arrested, but the issue is important enough that people feel their personal freedom is secondary to getting the message out."

Some of the issues that group members are fighting for include more Medicaid money for in-home health care and less for nursing homes. The organization also has protested problems with accessibility on commercial buses.

"We're in Columbus because Ohio is one of the 10 worst, states when it comes to providing community-based services — services that allow people with disabilities to continue living in their own homes," Auberger said.

The state "spends significantly more money to institutionalize people" than for home-based care, he said. "Somebody with a disability, young or old, should have the option to choose" between institutional and in-home care, he said.

Group members have staged, numerous acts of civil disobedience to Make their point, Auberger said.

In August, 33 protesters were arrested in St. Louis, during a meeting of the National Governors' Association after they handcuffed. them-selves to buses at the meeting site.

Protesters in the past year also have been arrested. in Memphis, Tenn., and Austin, Texas,. and have blocked the entrances to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building and Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Sgt. Earl Smith, Columbus Police spokes-man, said officers will assume that the activists will abide by the law, though police will be ready. "The fact that someone is handicapped or disabled doesn't preclude them from going to jail," Smith said.

He said that those who break the law to make a point "do a gross disservice to people who are trying to change things legitimately."

"But it's not unrealistic to expect a fringe element in any group," Smith said.

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