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Home / Album / Tags curb ramps
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ADAPT (147)
The Handicapped Coloradan, December, 1983 [Headline] Access institute Has Grant to Train 12 Disabled Activists A new Denver based group received a grant to train disabled activists from across the country in the techniques needed to make their home cities accessible to persons with disabilities. The American Lutheran Church has given the Access Institute $8,000 to start a pilot program. Three disabled persons from each of four cities will be selected for the initial program. Grant applications are currently out to the Hunt Alternative Fund for $5,000 and to the Campaign for Human Development for $100,000. Institute founders hope eventually to create a network of advocacy groups across the country. Access Institute is in part an outgrowth of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), a group formed this past summer in Denver to lobby bus companies and the federal government to equip all public transit systems with wheelchair lifts. ADAPT attempted to assist similar groups in other cities to push for accessible transit systems but has so far met with disappointing results. ADAPT founder Wade Blank said leaders of the disabled community in Chicago were reluctant to involve themselves with "outside agitators" while another group in Salt Lake City "folded when two newspapers editorially attacked them." The two sponsoring organizations behind the Access Institute say they believe their training program will prevent such problems in the future. Formal training for the participants will be the responsibility of the Community Resource Center (CRC), while non-classroom fieldwork will be handled by the Atlantis Community. Atlantis and CRC have worked together in the past. Five staff organizers at Atlantis received their training from CRC, whose training techniques are based on grassroots procedures developed by community organizer Saul Alinsky. In its 10 year history Atlantis has attempted to move away from the traditional "individual advocacy" method of dealing with inequities where a single complainant's problem is handled while "the larger problem of an inherently inequitable and irrational system is never addressed," according to the grant proposal. The proposal says Atlantis' "direct action" has been successful in gaining improved conditions for Denver's disabled populations and that every week the group receives requests for advice from groups and individuals in other cities. The Atlantis approach often involves confrontational policies with more than a touch of the dramatic. Tired of what they termed endless meetings with local transit officials that failed to put a single lift on a bus, members of Atlantis climbed out of their wheelchairs and lay in front of buses parked at the city's busiest downtown intersection. The two day demonstration generated immense publicity for their cause and eventually led to a commitment on the part of the regional transportation district to a 100 percent accessible bus system. They took a similar approach to curb cuts. When the city failed to respond to their request for cuts near their office and local hospitals, Atlantis members rolled down to the curbs in their wheelchairs and used sledgehammers to create their own cuts. Today the city of Denver has an aggressive policy to expand the number of curb cuts. The Access Institute will also train participants in how to deal with local government officials and how to raise money to promote their programs. Some of the fieldwork will involve moving in with severely disabled clients of Atlantis' home health care agency along with visits to institutions which exploit and oppress people such as nursing homes and workshops. Participants must come from cities with a population of at least 150,000, with individuals or groups that have already demonstrated an interest in local issues dealing with the disabled. The participants must be physically disabled themselves, have leadership abilities, be versed in disability civil rights, and have the backing of an agency or concerned individuals willing to support organizing efforts. A mass mailing to potential candidates is now being prepared. The Institute hopes to begin operations by April 1984.