[Headline] Disabled rights act defended at rally downtown

Supreme Court case challenges constitutionality
By DARLA CARTER
The Courier-Journal

Chanting "Don't tread on the ADA!" about 40 people gathered in the pouring rain in downtown Louisville yesterday to show their support for keep-ing the Americans with Disabilities Act intact.

Their rally in front of the Mazzoli Federal Building near Sixth and Chestnut streets took place during a brief stop by the Rolling Freedom Express, a caravan of ADA supporters that began in Alabama and is heading to Washington for a march on Oct. 3.

The protesters are concerned about a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenges the constitutionality of the ADA, a 10-year-old federal law that provides for various public accommodations for disabled -people and prohibits job dis-crimination against them.

The case, University of Alabama vs. Patricia Garrett, was brought by a university employee who was demoted after taking time off for breast-cancer treatment.

After oral arguments Oct. 11, the Supreme Court will decide whether the 11th Amendment bars such suits against states in federal court.

Advocates for the disabled argue that the ADA is about civil rights, not states' rights, and should be left alone.

"It seems like it's being chipped away piece by piece, and we just need to let people know that it's an important piece of legislation and that people with disabilities really need it," said Alan Richardson of the Center for Accessible Living in Louisville, which helped publicize yesterday's event.

The center's director, Jan Day, agreed.

"Any kind of weakening amendments to the ADA would just be devastating," she said.

"I can't think of any other civil-rights legislation where we've gone back into it, saying it was too difficult to impose."

Sue Davis, an activist for the disabled who led yesterday's rally, said she worries that the case could set off a flurry of changes in the ADA that could set disabled people back by decades.

Furthermore, "it shows we can never really let up putting our shoulder to the wheel," said Davis, of the Kentucky chapter of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, known as ADAPT.

Yesterday's speakers included disabled residents as well as the city and state ADA coordinators, who voiced the sup-port of Mayor David Arm-strong and Gov. Paul Patton.

Sandra Williams, Louisville's ADA coordinator, said the city doesn't want to see any changes in the ADA.

And Pamela H. Wallace, the state's ADA coordinator, got the crowd fired up by saying: "There are a lot of efforts afoot to weaken the ADA to do away with it, and we're not going to allow that to happen, are we? We're going to support the ADA and keep our civil rights as American citizens."

The crowd remained steady despite weather that Williams joked was lovely for ducks, polar bears, and anything with fur or fins.

Rebecca Duncan, an ADAPT member who has cerebral palsy, said that braving such weather is warranted when the topic is "our rights."

Duncan, who uses a wheelchair, said that without ADA she'd be institutionalized and left out of society. Instead, she's able to live in an apartment and to get in and out of buildings because of accommodations, such as ramps, that the ADA brought about.

"It's very important to keep ADA," she said.

Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Neighborhood news B2
Kentucky and the Region B4
Weather B4
Briefs B4
Deaths B6

Ustvarjeno

četrtek 18 julij 2013

Objavljeno

petek 13 november 2020

Albumi

• The Rolling Freedom Express & Washington DC, fall 2000

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154

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brez ocene

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Canon

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Canon EOS 40D

DateTimeOriginal

2013:07:18 11:54:07

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f/11.0