Wheelchair army got attention

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[Headline] Wheelchair army got attention

Monday, November 08, 1999

By T.C. BROWN
PLAIN DEALER BUREAU

COLUMBUS - A small but determined wheelchair army descended on the state capital last week, primed for confrontation and eager to draw attention to the plight of the disabled who need long-term care.

The national group known as ADAPT, American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, wants to see community-based care for the disabled expanded.

ADAPT claims Ohio spends 89 percent of its long-term Medicaid dollars to house the disabled in nursing homes and institutions for the mentally retarded or developmentally disabled. Only 11 percent of the funds are spent for home and community services, the group said, making Ohio one of the 10 worst states in the nation.

"Our long-term care system has a heavy institutional bias," said Mike Auberger, of Colorado, ADAPT's co-founder. "This state has been unwilling to shift spending from institutional care to the community."

ADAPT's numbers are correct to a point, but the group includes the aged in its figures for institutional care, skewing the results, said Mel Borkan, an assistant deputy director for the Ohio Department of Human Services. About 250,000 younger Ohioans with disabilities qualify for Medicaid coverage, and up to 19,000 of those are in institutions, she said.

Ohio spends about $1 billion of the $2.6 billion in Medicaid funds on such younger disabled people in institutional care, Borkan said.

ADAPT representatives did meet with officials from Ohio's human services department, although no issues were resolved. However, ADAPT's militant tactics attracted attention.

For three days, more than 300 activists - most in wheelchairs - blocked access to the Verne Riffe Center and Rhodes State Office Tower. The group Wheelchair army
stages similar actions twice a year across the country. In 1990, ADAPT shut down the U.S. Capitol for seven hours in an effort to jump-start stalled legislation that eventually created the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Unless they have a direct connection to a disability, the average person has no clue this is an issue," Auberger said "Our job is to create an opinion. If we put out enough of this stuff, I believe the public opinion will be extremely supportive of what we are doing."

Not in all circles. State Rep. George E. Terwilleger, a Lebanon-area Republican, is sponsoring legislation pending in an Ohio House committee to establish a uniform community-based personal assistant program for the disabled, a proposal favored by ADAPT.

But several lawmakers suggested last week that Terwilleger withdraw the bill.

"This has had a bad backlash," Terwilleger said. "They've said, "Why have hearings? We don't need this kind of disruptive process.' I don't blame them."

Nonetheless, Terwilleger said he hoped to carry the bill to the floor for a full House vote.

ADAPT caused more than $9,300 in damage to carpets, revolving-door locks and elevator walls, but because the group is actually a loose network of activists, it may be difficult to bill it, said Scott Milburn, Gov. Bob Taft's spokesman.

Milburn said Taft wanted to meet with the group's leaders, but not until ADAPT agreed to withdraw from Taft's reception area and the 14th and first floors of the Riffe Center.

"One of the conditions of the meeting was that they cease their illegal activity," Milburn said. "Once they did that, we could work out details."

But the activists refused to leave the building because Greg Moody, Taft's executive assistant for health and human services, would commit only to a "discussion" about setting up a meeting, not to an actual meeting. A 14-hour standoff ensued.

No one was jailed over the three days, but the State Highway Patrol arrested or cited 215 people for criminal trespassing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine. The patrol, which tallied more than $53,000 in overtime, got good marks for handling a potentially dicey and politically sensitive situation.

"With people in wheelchairs this way, logistically it is most challenging, because you do not want to hurt the people or their equipment," said the patrol's Lt. John Born. "But you have to use some level of force."

Besides drawing attention to the issue, the action aided the disabled in another way, said ADAPT's Auberger.

"We're breaking all the stereotypes that we're so fragile," Auberger said. "And this empowers people who don't have a whole lot of anything else going on. You may not have control of all of your life; but you have a level of control. And how you see yourself becomes completely different."

E-mail: tcbrown@plaind.com
Phone: (216) 999-4213
1999 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.

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