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Still Not Equal - Access is a Civil Right

Article By: Observer Reporter
Published: 1998-07-26
By: Joe Smydo and Stan Diamond

Article has been reformatted for archival purposes.

Mattel Inc. drew praise from the disability community last year when it introduced a doll in a wheelchair.

The smiles faded when "Share A Smile Becky," part of the Barbie line of toys, encountered what the Americans with Disabilities Act calls a barrier.

It turns out the elevator in the Barbie Dream House is not wheelchair-accessible.

Disability rights activists wish such problems existed only in the world of make-believe, but they say they encounter barriers of one sort or another almost daily.

"Accessibility is a big, big problem still across the United States," said Jim Glozier, a member of ADAPT and assistant director of Tri-County Patriots for Independent Living in Washington.

In January 1997, Bonnie Mathews of South Union Township, Fayette County, traveled to Washington, D.C., for a rally against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.

"I went to celebrate life, because when I went, I was just coming up on my 41st birthday," she said.

Mathews, who has multiple sclerosis, said the door to her hotel bathroom had to be removed so her wheelchair could fit inside.

That is the kind of indignity that makes disability rights activists nearly wild with anger. They are fighting to eliminate narrow doorways and other barriers so people with disabilities can get into public places.

The ADA requires hotels, restaurants and other public accommodations built before Jan. 26, 1993, to remove barriers when doing so is "readily achievable." Buildings constructed or altered after that date must meet ADA design standards.

The struggle for access revives memories of the black students who demanded service at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., in 1960. The sit-in movement spread throughout the South, and from lunch counters to theaters, supermarkets and department stores, dealing segregation a mortal blow.

During a seminar in Pittsburgh in April 1997, ADAPT members discussed possible locations for lunch the next day and selected Froggy's, a Downtown restaurant and bar owned by Steve "Froggy" Morris.

John Lorence Jr., an ADAPT member from Morgan Township, said one of the group called Froggy's to make reservations and was told that restaurant employees would have to lift wheelchairs over an 8-inch step in front of the doors.

Disability rights activists will not let strangers lift their wheelchairs over curbs or steps. They regard wheelchairs as part of their bodies; touching is out of bounds.

Instead of eating at Froggy's the next day, ADAPT members staged a 2 1/2-hour protest during the busy lunch period.

"We did some picketing," Lorence said. "We made some media contacts. We blocked some doors every once in a while. There were people that actually turned away from the restaurant because we were there, and even Froggy admitted on a radio show that we affected business that day."

The protesters carried signs that said, "We can't jump the bump" and "Shake a leg, Froggy, you're seven years too late" -- a reference to the ADA, then nearly 7 years old.

Morris was quoted as saying he would make the restaurant more accessible if the protesters put $10,000 in escrow and promised him $20,000 in business within a year. His comments drew a written rebuke from W.D. Chrisner III, president and executive director of Three Rivers Center for Independent Living, a disability rights organization in Pittsburgh.

"To us, this sounds remarkably similar to Lester Maddox standing in the doorway of his restaurant with an axe handle, refusing to admit persons of color," Chrisner wrote, referring to the man who later would become governor of Georgia.

"We hope that your comments regarding a guarantee of business and up-front escrow are not a 1990s version of an axe handle. Also, we hope that these comments are not indicative of your attitude toward people with disabilities. We are sure that you, as a good businessman, recognize that the more an establishment is seen by the general public to be a place of good will, hospitality and good service, the more profitable it will be."

Morris eventually agreed to provide a portable ramp without any financial commitment from the protesters.

ADAPT members tested the ramp on a return visit to Froggy's in August 1997 and found it unstable, like a see-saw, Lorence said. A restaurant employee came out and fixed the ramp, enabling the group to get inside, he said.

Morris later called ADAPT a "pretty aggressive bunch."

"Quite frankly, I didn't realize the hump was that big a deal," he said.

Describing himself as a "pretty reasonable person" who has helped raise money for a group of athletes in wheelchairs, Morris said he would have been happy to confer with ADAPT members about their concerns. He said it was unnecessary for them to hold a protest that impeded his right to conduct business.

"I felt it was offensive because it did precisely what they're bitching about: It violated people's civil rights," he said.

A few days after the protest at Froggy's, ADAPT members protested at the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association offices in Harrisburg for 2 1/2 hours. They demanded that the association remind its members of ADA requirements and take accessibility into account when rating restaurants.

Lorence has been active in his home county, too. He and other members of a disability rights group called the Greene Light Coalition have visited Greene County commissioners to urge that an elevator door be widened during a renovation of the county office building near the courthouse.

In April 1997, about a dozen protesters showed up at a commissioners' meeting, with signs, to draw attention to their demand.

While Lorence maintains that the 32-inch doorway is 4 inches narrower than the ADA standard, the commissioners say it would be impossible to change the width of the door without reconstructing the entire elevator at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Commissioner Farley Toothman, the county's ADA coordinator, said the ADA does not require that such extensive work to an elevator be included in the renovation project. He said the protesters have a different interpretation of the law.

Lorence filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, and the parties are now in arbitration.

Pennsylvania Protection and Advocacy Inc. and its subcontractors also are working to increase the accessibility of public buildings.

In 1994, Disabilities Law Project filed a federal lawsuit against the Mount Vernon Inn in Uniontown, claiming it violated the accessibility provisions of the ADA.

The suit was filed on behalf of a woman with a disability and her daughter, who claimed the inn canceled their reservations when they insisted on an accessible room. As a result, they missed a religious celebration, according to a report published by PP&A.

Under a settlement, the inn agreed to formulate and implement a "barrier removal plan," according to the report. The owner, Jesse Risha, did not return telephone calls seeking comment about the case.

In 1993, members of the disability community filed a complaint with the Justice Department, claiming Stowe Township supervisors violated the ADA by holding their meetings on the second floor of a building that lacked an elevator.

The department ruled that the supervisors must move their meetings to an accessible location only if a person with a disability gives advance notice of his desire to attend, said law project attorney Mark Murphy, who took over the case when the plaintiffs' private attorney moved out of town. The decision didn't please Murphy, who contends a person with a disability, like any other resident, should be able to attend a meeting on the spur of the moment.

Video equipment and audio equipment have been installed in the meeting room and on the first floor of the municipal building, so residents with disabilities can see and hear the supervisors conduct business and offer comments even when meetings aren't moved to another location, township solicitor Bonnie Brimmeier said. She said the township doesn't have money to make the second floor of the municipal building accessible.

Though owners sometimes complain about the cost of making their buildings accessible, disability rights advocates maintain that everyone should support the ADA because a nondisabled person can become disabled in a heartbeat. President Clinton found that out last year after injuring his knee during a visit to golfer Greg Norman's Florida estate.

"Although I used a wheelchair for only a short period after injuring my knee, I learned how small barriers, such as a step, a curb or a narrow doorway, can stand in the way of an opportunity," Clinton said on the ADA's seventh anniversary last July.

"It was an experience that taught me, as it has taught millions of others, that access benefits everyone. While my experience can never truly make me understand the discrimination people with disabilities face, I nonetheless gained a deeper appreciation for why the law is needed."

Just as civil rights activists received federal protection during the Freedom Rides in 1961 and during the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962, disability rights advocates get federal help in cracking some barriers.

In May 1997, the Justice Department announced it had reached an agreement with Friendly Ice Cream Corp. that is designed to make the chain's 704 restaurants more accessible to people with disabilities.

The agreement affects more restaurants that any other agreement since the inception of the ADA, the department said.

Investigators began looking at Friendly's in 1995 after receiving complaints about inaccessible restaurants. The department said its investigation found that "most Friendly's restaurants failed to satisfy the requirements of the ADA."

Under the agreement, Friendly's will undertake a six-year program to make its restaurants more accessible. The plan includes removing steps, widening doorways, making parking areas accessible, redesigning dining rooms and lowering counters so people in wheelchairs can use them.

The company also agreed to pay $50,000 to the federal government.

Friendly's spokeswoman Vivian Brooks said the company has been a supporter of the disability community, by helping the Easter Seals Society, for example. She said the chain believed it was in compliance with the ADA and found that others had a different interpretation of the law.

In September 1996, the department announced a settlement with Marriott International Inc. that included removal of barriers at one Courtyard by Marriott hotel and changes in the chain's reservations policy.

The department said it began its investigation after an Oklahoma resident complained that he and his wife had been promised an accessible room at the chain's hotel in Memphis, Tenn., but found narrow doorways, an inaccessible bathroom and other problems after check-in.

The settlement required Courtyard by Marriott to make the parking lot, public restrooms and two guest rooms at the Memphis hotel accessible.

The changes in the reservations policy affect all of the 200-plus hotels in the chain. Henceforth, the company may not rent accessible rooms to nondisabled customers unless all other rooms have been taken. The chain must guarantee an accessible room to a customer with a disability if one is available at the time the reservation is made, and it must provide its employees with training on ADA requirements.

Marriott also had to pay $7,500 to the federal government and $10,000 to the couple whose complaint triggered the investigation. Company spokesmen did not return phone calls seeking comment about the settlement.

Some places go out of their way to be accessible.

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania has a wheelchair repair shop stocked with spare belts, tires and batteries.

The school also has an attendant care program that operates around the clock and a van service that takes students with disabilities to class.

"It's as much to get through the snow as anything else. We're in the snow belt here," noted Dr. Bob McConnell, assistant director of the Office for Students with Disabilities.

In selecting a college, most students consider such factors as academic reputation, size, athletic opportunities and closeness to, or distance from, home. Students with disabilities, however, have one overriding concern.

Amy Shannon of Cecil Township found a list of schools noted for accessibility and worked from that.

She looked at Edinboro, but opted for Kent (Ohio) State University, which also operates an attendant care program and a van service. Although she described Kent State as her "best option," Shannon said she would have preferred a school that is smaller, more conservative and closer to home.

At least, Shannon said, all state-run schools like Edinboro should be models of accessibility.

As advocates fight for the integration of people with disabilities in society, progress also is being made in toyland.

Often criticized for making dolls that are anatomically perfect, Mattel spent "quite some time" planning how to introduce disability into Barbie's world, company spokeswoman Lisa McKendall said.

"Share A Smile Becky" fit through the front door of the dream house, which has been on the market since the 1960s, but she could not squeeze into the elevator.

"It's so sick, it's funny. There's Becky, segregated from her best friend's house," said Lorence, the ADAPT member from Greene County. He said some activists wanted to market home modification kits containing little saws and rolls of tape.

Two other Barbie houses are accessible to Becky, and future products will be accessible, too, McKendall said.

-- End of Part 2

Other Parts of the Story

• Part 1. Freedom Fighters:
  The disability rights movement is a struggle for independence, respect and equality. And that fight is far from over.
• Part 2. Access is a Civil Right:
  People with disabilities encounter barriers daily.
• Part 3. No Place Like Home:
  Disability rights advocates want to replace the hodgepodge of state programs with a national attendant care initiative.
• Part 4. Peers, not Classmates:
  Children with disabilities find themselves fighting for equal opportunities in the classroom.
• Part 5. 'We Will Ride':
  Transportation remains an acute problem, especially in rural areas.
• Part 6. Myths and stereotypes:
  People with disabilities are fighting attitudinal barriers, as well.
• Return to Main Article

Behind the Story

• Reporter Joe Smydo, 28, graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1991 with a degree in history. He was a staff writer at The Pittsburgh Press before joinging the O-R in June 1993. He covers county government and politics and has won Keystone and Golden Quill awards.
• Photographer Stan Diamond, 55, is a native of Burgettstown who began his career in 1966 in the Greene County Bureau in Waynesburg. He was a general assignment reporter and the bureau's primary photographer. In 1985, he transferred to the Washington office as a photographer. He has won several Keystone Press awards for his photography.

Copyright

Copyright © 1998 Observer Publishing Co. - Republished with permission