TRIPIL Web Article Archives
Still Not Equal
Article By: Observer Reporter
Published: 1998-07-26
By: Joe Smydo and
Stan Diamond
Article has been reformatted for archival purposes.
A woman in a wheelchair was eating breakfast in a Washington, D.C., hotel more than a year ago when an employee of the restaurant snapped at her. Her wheelchair was partially blocking the aisle, and he ordered her to move. The woman was a spirited activist who had come to the nation's capital to take on the U.S. Department of Transportation, House Speaker New Gingrich and others with the power to help or hurt the disability rights movement.
Would the employee have acted differently toward a nondisabled person, whose chair had lopped over into the aisle?
People with disabilities say they are still discriminated against and discounted. They say they still cannot get onto buses and into buildings. They say they are turned down for jobs they are qualified to hold.
The disability rights movement is a struggle for independence, respect and equality. And people from Southwestern Pennsylvania are leaders in the movement, perhaps because the area has a high percentage of residents with disabilities.
The Observer-Reporter studied disability rights activists for a year. Their story is now told.
- 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
