ADA Access Blog

Barriers common for people in wheelchairs

BY MEGHANA KESHAVAN • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • August 12, 2008

There was plenty of room for Erica Nader's wheelchair at the Woodward Avenue Salon in Ferndale: The doorways met regulation and were 32 inches wide, and there were support rails in the spacious bathroom.

But with a 6-inch step at the entrance, she couldn't get in.

Eighteen years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, barriers still exist in making businesses accessible to people with disabilities. The 1990 civil rights legislation prohibits discrimination in employment practices and public services.

"There are still plenty of problems out there," said William Milzarski, a rights representative for the Michigan Commission on Disability Concerns. "Whenever I come across a business that has a step or two to get in, the owner usually says, 'No one in a wheelchair ever shops here.'

"I think it's pretty obvious why they don't."

Nader, who was paralyzed in a 2001 car accident, led Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey on a wheelchair tour of the city last week in commemoration of the ADA's 18th anniversary. Assisted by caregivers, the two visited a number of small businesses on Woodward Avenue to assess how easily accessible they were.

Covey and Nader noted that while some businesses had gone above and beyond to accommodate people with disabilities, other places were almost completely unreachable for a person in a wheelchair.

"We can certainly use our zoning and city ordinances to help improve access, but many things need to be done voluntarily," Covey said. "What we're mainly doing here is raising the issue, and increasing visibility."

The Internal Revenue Service gives tax breaks to help small businesses comply with the ADA, offsetting about 50% of any renovation costs that will make places more accessible. Expanding doors, for instance, or providing signs in Braille, will allow up to $5,000 in credit toward tax returns.

Kim Urbanczyk, owner of the Woodward Avenue Salon, was receptive to the suggestion to upgrade her shop.

"Last week I had a lady come in riding a scooter, and I thought, it might be helpful to get a portable ramp," she said.

Nader runs a spinal cord injury rehabilitation center in Ferndale called Walk the Line to SCI Recovery, and is a member of the city's Disability Advisory Committee. Similar groups work with other Michigan cities, such as Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

The members of the Ferndale Disability Advisory Committee plan to distribute pamphlets to local businesses about the benefits of making their bars, restaurants and stores more accessible.

"The face of disability has changed a lot," Nader said. "Before, people would stay at home, out of sight. But now, we go to bars, get sushi with friends -- so we really want to increase awareness, in business owners specifically, about improving access for their customers with disabilities."

Contact MEGHANA KESHAVAN at mkeshavan@freepress.com.

Law doesn't ensure access for those in wheelchairs | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Commentary by Frederick A. Shotz

I am the grinch who stole the celebration of the Americans with Disability Act. While there are parties in cities around the country (celebrating the signing into law of the Americans with Disability Act July 26, 1990) I believe that we have nothing to celebrate. There are tens of thousands of cities in this country where nothing has been done to make the government buildings or the public right of way accessible. That work was supposed to have been completed in 1995.
There are thousands of courthouses in the United States that are not accessible in spite of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Tennessee v. Lane. We have nothing to celebrate!
There are millions of businesses that are open to the public (places of public accommodation) that are not accessible. The owners of all of these businesses were required to be accessible by this date in 1992. Most have done nothing. We have nothing to celebrate!
People who are deaf are ignored by businesses and governments every day. Try to use the drive-thru at a Wendy’s or go to the pharmacy counter in a Walgreens if you are deaf and see how much the ADA has helped. Physicians still refuse to pay for sign language interpreters for patients who are deaf. Concert promoters still refuse to pay for sign language interpreters for patrons who are deaf. We have nothing to celebrate!
Ask a person who is blind about how they cross the street. In spite of available technology far less than 1 percent of intersections that provide visual pedestrian crossing signals have audible signals for people who are blind. With about the only Braille signage being on restroom doors, and with almost no restaurants in the county providing menus in Braille why should people who are blind bother learning to read Braille? Just try to get a government document from a city, county or state in Braille. It is like asking the wall to do something for you. We have nothing to celebrate!
Ask a person who is blind how much he/she enjoys surfing the Internet. After you learn how inaccessible most Internet sites are, including many government Web sites, you will agree that we have nothing to celebrate.
Try going out for a day in a wheelchair and while out try using a restroom in a store or restaurant. In far more than 75 percent of the stores and restaurants across the country a wheelchair user cannot get into the restroom or if the door is wide enough will not be able to use the toilet due to lack of floor space to get to the toilet, lack of grab bars, too low toilet seats, etc. Wheelchair users often have to get to the edge of dehydration when going out because drinking fluids means needing to use a toilet and that is too often just not possible. We have nothing to celebrate!
People with disabilities due to intellectual impairments are treated rudely and without sensitivity, constantly. A 30-year-old woman who is intellectually impaired can’t even order her own hamburger in a Wendy’s because they won’t give her the time she needs to order. We have nothing to celebrate!
The Bush Administration has filled the federal courts with judges that do not support the rights of people with disabilities and who rule against us over and over, ignoring the intent of Congress. We have nothing to celebrate!
The Supreme Court has never been our friend but now it is worse. The Chief Justice was the lawyer who represented Toyota in the Toyota v. Williams case. That case, more than any other case, took ADA protection away from people, millions of people, who Congress intended to protect. We have nothing to celebrate!
The newest Supreme Court Justice has a substantial record of opposing civil rights in general. Even when he voted (as an appeals court judge) in favor of an issue in an ADA case, his vote on another issue in the same case took back more than he gave. His vote will easily take the 5-4 majority that we have had in some cases (such as Tennessee v. Williams) and reverse it to 4-5 so that we can lose every ADA case that goes to the Supreme Court. We have nothing to celebrate!
I will make the same suggestion to all of you that I made last year and the year before. Today, on the 17th anniversary of the ADA, file a lawsuit against a business or a local government for their continued violations of the ADA. If every person with a disability who has standing under the ADA filed just one lawsuit today we would get the attention of every TV station and every newspaper in the country and businesses and local governments might figure out the game of ignoring our rights is over.
If you don’t know how to enforce the ADA, if you can’t find a lawyer to represent you, if you don’t know how to file a pro se case in the absence of a lawyer, then join All Disabled Americans, Inc. (www.alldisabledamericans.org) We will help you figure out how to enforce the ADA.
Celebrate the 17th anniversary of the ADA by personally enforcing the ADA. That would be a real celebration!
Frederick A. Shotz is president of the nonprofit All Disabled Americans, Inc., (www.alldisabledamericans.org) and a consultant. He can be reached at fred.shotz@adaconsulting.com.

Commentary: Little to cheer about on ADA anniversary | nothing, celebrate, ada : Ahwatukee Foothills News

Playgrounds That Welcome Wheelchairs

Thomas McDonald for The New York Times

CHILD’S PLAY Lisa Vaccino with her 5-year-old son, Johnny, who is using a special shovel to dig in a sandbox at Hannah’s Dream, a playground in New Haven.

By JENNIFER V. HUGHES

Published: July 6, 2008

THE first time Lisa Vaccino took her children to Hannah’s Dream, a playground in New Haven designed for disabled children, she immediately noticed a difference in her son, Johnny, 5, who has cerebral palsy.

Alan Zale for The New York Times

At Miracle Field in Hartsdale, N.Y., Tanis Annicchiarico, far right, gives Joey Lombardi a hand running to first base.

“When we got back into the car that day I didn’t even have to ask him. He said, ‘That was fun!’ ” said Mrs. Vaccino, who also has a daughter, Emma, 2, who is not disabled. “That was a lot coming from him. That was huge.”

But it takes them a half-hour to drive to the park from Milford, Conn., their hometown. After that visit, in October, Mrs. Vaccino formed a nonprofit group and started a fund-raising drive for an accessible playground in Milford.

With the summer in full swing, playgrounds are a daily part of life for most families with small children. But for many disabled children, they remain tantalizingly out of reach. That is starting to change in many towns around the region, where handicapped accessible playgrounds and ball fields are being built or planned.

Mrs. Vaccino said that a location for the park in Milford has not been chosen, but that it will be named Bodie’s Place, for her son’s nickname. It even has a mascot, a spunky-looking firefly flitting out of a jar, and a motto: “Get Out and Play!”

Ms. Vaccino and other Milford parents are working with Boundless Playgrounds, a nonprofit group that has helped create 129 accessible playgrounds in 24 states since 1997. It was founded by Peter and Amy Jaffe Barzach of West Hartford, Conn., whose son Jonathan had spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative neuromuscular disease, and died at the age of 9 months. There are 11 accessible playgrounds in the metropolitan region, and three more in the works, said Glandina Morris, a spokeswoman for Boundless Playgrounds.

Accessible playgrounds have rubberized surfaces that accommodate wheelchairs and walkers, and a child in a wheelchair can use wide ramps to get to the top of all climbing structures, Ms. Morris said. Many of the playgrounds include “cozy spots,” where children with Down syndrome or autism can go if they are overstimulated.

The playgrounds cost more than traditional ones, Ms. Morris said, because wheelchair-friendly surfacing can cost four times more than that of typical playgrounds. She said most groups and communities pay for them with donations and public funds.

Some accommodations are obvious, like high-back swings and bouncers; others are more subtle, like a sandbox placed at wheelchair height, or picnic tables with cutouts so a child in a wheelchair can sit with his or her family, not off to the side, Ms. Morris said. Many playgrounds include Braille panels on the equipment and gardens with fragrant flowers for blind children.

An accessible playground under construction in Teaneck, N.J., will eventually have many of those features and more, said Cindy Balsam-Martz, who led the effort to build it. Mrs. Balsam-Martz was inspired by her struggle to find a place to play with all of her children, the twins Eric and Noah, 10; Elaine, 7; and Nettie Faith, 6, who is partially blind and deaf and uses a wheelchair.

When they visit most parks, Mrs. Balsam-Martz said, her older children play while she practices walking with Nettie Faith.

“It feels like punishment,” she said. “All it does is further isolate her and outline her disability, which is not who Nettie is.”

Construction on the playground in the township’s Votee Park is expected to be completed by early fall.

Nationally, the drive for accessible playgrounds began in response to the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, said Antonio Malkusak, who has designed spaces for Boundless Playgrounds for a decade. Although the act did not cover playgrounds, “it got people thinking,” Mr. Malkusak said. More playgrounds were also built after companies started offering more adaptive equipment, prompted by the act, he added.

When Boundless Playgrounds began, Mr. Malkusak said, he would often hear, “ ‘We don’t see those kids coming out, so we don’t need to consider them.’ ”

“What was really happening was the reason why those kids didn’t come out was because there was nothing for them to do,” he said.

Since 2004, the Bush administration has been considering whether to require specific guidelines for handicapped access at new and existing playgrounds. A public hearing on the issue was set for July 15 in Washington.

The Town of Huntington, on Long Island, will include a Boundless Playground as part of a renovation and expansion of Veterans Park. Officials hope to open the playground, which is being named for a teacher with Lou Gehrig’s disease, by 2010.

In Montclair, N.J., work was to begin in a few weeks on the Edgemont Park All Children’s Playground. The project will cost about $200,000, about $40,000 of which was raised in bake sales and coin drives, as well as by a group of local musicians, Parents Who Rock. They held fund-raising concerts and released a CD that was sold in local shops.

Alma Schneider, Parents Who Rock’s founder, said accessible playgrounds are fun for all children. “This playground is for everyone,” she said. “There is no playground where typical kids and special-needs kids can play together.”

At a groundbreaking ceremony last week, Dave Fucio, a member of Montclair’s People With Disabilities committee, said accessible playgrounds were also important for parents and grandparents who use wheelchairs.

As part of the renovation of the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, Morris County, N.J., is building Miracle Field, a baseball field for disabled players and spectators. It is being paved with a rubberized surface to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers. Officials hoped to hold the first ballgame this month.

The field was built with the help of an organization called the Miracle League, which provides communities with architectural designs and consulting support for the fields. The first Miracle Field was built in Georgia in 2000; now, there are 130 of them nationwide and another 100 under construction, said Diane Alford, founder of the league.

There are four Miracle Fields in the New York region and another 10 are planned, Ms. Alford said. The Westchester County Miracle Field, at Ridge Road Park in Hartsdale, has been hosting games since 2006.

At Miracle Field games, able-bodied siblings often act as buddies, pushing a player in a wheelchair to first base or helping one with a walker hit the ball, Phyllis Lombardi of Dobbs Ferry said. Her 10-year-old son, Joey, who is autistic, is a player and her 13-year-old son, Nicholas, is a buddy.

“What has happened is the most extraordinary thing, because he’s started to be so engaged in it,” Ms. Lombardi said of Joey. “We couldn’t get him to run to first base in the beginning, but now he does it. Now he says the word ‘ball.’ When you only have 11 words, it’s a big deal in a mother’s heart.”

Playgrounds That Welcome Wheelchairs - NYTimes.com

Marilynne Miller has been confined to a wheel chair since last year.  On Friday, she and her family went to the Casa Montez restaurant in Joplin for dinner and found the non-smoking section was not handicap accessible.

And when Miller had to use the restroom, she says her wheelchair could not fit through the door's tight entrance.

"Ordinarily, I can handle my handicap really well," Miller says.  "I can joke about it, I can take jokes about it.  I do anything I wanted to do.  But, I feel discriminated against."

She says she manages to do well on her own inside her home, but when she goes out, she feels at the mercy of others.

"Generally, it's real good," she says.  "People are accommodating to my handicap.  But some restaurants you go to aren't wheelchair accessible."

Miller and her family went for dinner to the Casa Montez restaurant, and she wanted to sit in the non-smoking section, but says steps leading up to the area were not accessible for her chair.

They family decided to stay, but when Miller had to use the restroom, she says her wheelchair couldn't fit through the restroom's entrance.

Casa Montez's owner did not wish to be interviewed on camera, but did say from 2 PM until closing, they set up a table that seats six on the restaurant's main floor, specifically for customers with disabilities.

The owner also says most wheelchairs she's seen have been able to maneuver through their restroom's entrance.

The Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990 by the federal government requires all restaurants and other public facilities to have access for those with disabilities.

But Joplin building code supervisor Steven Cope says they can't enforce this law for buildings built prior to 1990.

"The building codes we have do have portions of the ADA requirements spelled out in them, and we look for that on new builds and the drawings that we get in," Cope says.

However, older buildings still may have to comply with the ADA.

The federal government looks at how much it would cost the restaurant to make it ADA compliant.

Based on these costs, they decide if the restaurant has to make the necessary changes.

"The justice department probably has inspectors and such who would make a determination of that responsibility," Cope says.

Miller says she will write her local congress represenative and others in government asking them to require more businesses to be ADA compliant.

In the meantime, she suggests Casa Montez should build a simple, inexpensive wooden ramp to their non-smoking section for others who are handicapped.

KOAM TV 7 Joplin and Pittsburg News Weather Sports |Why aren't Joplin businesses wheelchair accessible?

Paul Griffin, left, Jake Griffin, Suzanne Levin, and Jake’s seizure-alert dog Sienna. – Len Lazarick/Examiner

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Paul Griffin and Suzanne Levin hope going to restaurants and stores with their son, Jake Griffin, will become more hassle-free, now that Gov. Martin O’Malley has signed a new law that will permit Jake’s service dog, Sienna, to accompany them.

Jake, 5, has epilepsy, and Sienna has been trained to sense when he is having a seizure.

“The dog only barks if he’s having a seizure,” in which Jake “turns blue and stops breathing,” Levin said.

“While we had the right to take the dog anywhere” under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, “enforcement was difficult,” Paul Griffin said.

Maryland law only allows the use of service animals for the blind, deaf, hard of hearing or mobility impaired.

But when the new law takes effect Oct. 1, the same rights will apply to people with mental disorders such as epilepsy and autism, including children and the parents of these children.

“I never knew that dogs could be useful with epilepsy,” said state Sen. Jennie Forehand, D-Montgomery, who introduced the bill on behalf of the Silver Spring family. A House version of the measure introduced by Del. Henry Heller, D-Montgomery, was enacted and signed as well.

“I thought it might be difficult to pass,” Forehand said. But the appearance of a shy Jake and docile Sienna at the February hearing cinched the deal.

“You could tell that he and the dog had an obvious relationship. It was really heartwarming,” Forehand said.

“I knew right after the hearing that it was going to pass.”

The family got the dog from an Ohio group called 4 Paws for Ability, which provides the animals to many adults and children with disabilities, including those with seizure disorders.

The organization believes the dogs can sense an oncoming seizure by smelling chemical changes that precede the event or noting minor behavior changes that signal a seizure. The dogs also may have a calming effect on their human partners.

Seizure-alert dogs, owners will now get equal access - Examiner.com

A boorish mom, insensitive cops, and a deaf couple add up to nasty controversy.

By Natalie O'Neill

Just before dinner on a Sunday evening in January 2007, there was a knock at the door of Cynthia Cuevas's small red townhouse on West Eighth Street. But the nine-months-pregnant 21-year-old didn't open it. She had seen police lights flashing outside and was frightened. So she pushed on the door to keep it shut until, suddenly, eight officers burst in. Some had guns, perhaps Tasers, drawn, she recalls.

One of them grabbed Cynthia by the arms and pinned her against the wall. Another questioned her husband Erik Phillips about her mental health and state of mind.

Cynthia couldn't hear any of it. She's deaf. Though she has no history of mental illness and zero Florida criminal record, she would be forced to spend eight nights in the hospital against her will. "I was crying and screaming because I was afraid," she says. "I needed an interpreter, but they didn't seem to care."

Cynthia and Erik recently sued the City of Hialeah and Palmetto General Hospital, where she was held. They contend police were abusive and then improperly kept her from her baby Orien after his birth — mostly because they were ignorant about the disability. The dispute not only tells the story of a dysfunctional family but also raises serious questions about how law enforcement is trained to treat the hearing impaired.

"There's nothing more Twilight Zone than being taken to a mental institution when you're sane and not being able to communicate," says her lawyer, Matthew Dietz. "This is beyond hell."

Cynthia Cuevas was born in Ciudad Reynosa, Mexico, and has been hearing impaired since she was two weeks old. She went to a day school program for the deaf at Memorial High School in McAllen, Texas — on the border near Brownsville. After graduation, she met Erik online at DeafChat.com. Soon she asked him to be her boyfriend, and he flew to Texas from Florida for a visit. They were married on the morning of Valentine's Day 2006.

The couple's hell began with an argument over laundry. On the evening of January 21, 2007, Cynthia and Erik, who is also hearing impaired, got into a spat with Erik's mom, Ana Phillips, a strong-willed 58-year-old. According to their complaint, Ana "attempted to control every aspect of their lives" — such as dictating when they should wash their clothes. When Cynthia became pregnant, Ana even insisted the birth would be by cesarean section.

But that night, Cynthia says, she stood up to Ana. By phone, she said she wanted to rest and would do house chores later. And she was clear about wanting a natural childbirth.

Frustrated, Ana drove to their home and pounded on the door. Cynthia wouldn't let her in, the couple says, so she called Hialeah Police. Officers arrived around 7:30 p.m. and spoke mostly with Ana, who warned them Cynthia was a threat to herself and her unborn baby. (She later claimed Cynthia had hit Erik with a broom and was "acting erratically.")

An incident report signed by Ofcr. Bryan Gonzalez makes no reference to Cynthia's claim that police forced their way in and pushed her against the wall. It asserts the cops found Cynthia "crying and hiding behind the door." Gonzalez also made note that the "victim states she doesn't care about herself or the well-being of the baby" and that she was "refusing help."

During the next 45 minutes, the officers attempted to communicate with Cynthia by pantomiming, since they didn't know American Sign Language. And they tried to speak to her through Erik, who has limited hearing. But the police mistook anger over the recent blowout with her mother-in-law for psychiatric instability, Cynthia says.

After less than an hour, the officers sent her to Palmetto General Hospital by ambulance. She was taken in for a mental health evaluation under the terms of Florida's Baker Act, which allows hospitals to hold individuals who show signs of mental illness, self-neglect, or the potential to harm themselves and others.

There Ana took control, telling personnel Cynthia had gone berserk. Though a security guard with some ability to sign was called in, Cynthia says she understood only bits of what was happening.

Two days later, doctors gave Cynthia pitocin, a drug to induce pregnancy, and recommended a cesarean section. Fearing the baby would be hurt if they objected, the couple went along with the operation. "Cynthia is not an activist," says Dietz. "She's very naive and trusting." On January 23 at 7:19 p.m., Cynthia gave birth to Orien Alan Phillips, an eight-pound five-ounce baby boy.

The next morning, Palmetto psychologist Miguel Flores put a halt to her enforced stay. He found Cynthia "showed no signs of agitation or aggressive behavior," but prescribed Lexapro, a medication for depression. She was discharged four days later.

Things only got worse. On the way home from the hospital, the couple stopped by Ana's home on West 36th Street. But when they tried to leave, Cynthia contends, Ana blocked her from the baby and announced she would care for him.

Frantic and upset, the couple left without their newborn son. "I couldn't get into a tug of war," Cynthia explains.

Over the next two days, they pleaded with Ana to return Orien. Then on January 30, Ana warned that if they kept protesting, she'd call the police, according to the lawsuit. "This is a mother-in-law from hell situation," Dietz says.

Late that night, Ana called 911 and reported Cynthia wanted to take her own life. Officers again rushed to the townhouse on West Eighth Street. This time, they didn't push through the door. But after talking to Erik, they determined the young mother believed she "wasted her time giving birth, therefore she wanted to kill herself," according to the police report.

Both Erik and Cynthia deny saying that. They acknowledge she was sad without her baby but say she never thought about suicide.

And so once again, police held her under the Baker Act. This time she was taken to Citrus Health Network on West 20th Avenue in Hialeah and placed in a room alone. "I would bang on the door and sign, 'I want to go home,'" she says. There was nobody to sign back.

A day later, she was moved to Jackson Memorial Hospital and given a translator. Soon she was discharged with no medication.

On February 6, a letter addressed to Erik arrived at their townhouse. It appeared to be written by his lover. "I don't want to get you in trouble with your 'crazy wife' as you call her, lol," it read. "I will remember your wet fat kisses all over my body."

Erik and Cynthia believe it was an attempt by Ana to separate them. "She wanted me to marry someone rich," Erik explains.

On February 8, the couple filed an emergency motion with the Miami-Dade family court division to have their child returned immediately. They were granted custody 12 days later.

In late December 2007, they sued Hialeah and Palmetto. The claim: Both the city and the hospital failed to provide her an effective means to communicate. They seek damages for mental distress, humiliation, physical pain, and violation of their constitutional rights.

The young couple has since moved to Sullivan City, Texas, three hours south of Corpus Christi. Three months ago, they had a second baby. They don't speak to Ana much anymore.

Ana contends she's not overbearing and that Cynthia voluntarily left the baby with her on the way home from the hospital. Asked why parents who agreed to give up their newborn would file an immediate motion for custody, she said, "Okay, listen. Uh, I don't — Cynthia seems to have a lot of problems from childhood. Maybe she was jealous because Erik was very close to me." She also denied writing the letter.

Hialeah City Attorney Bill Grodnick said he would not comment on the facts of Cynthia's complaint, though he concluded that "based on preliminary assessment, we feel the case has no merit."

Paul H. Field, who represents Palmetto Hospital, faxed New Times a statement that said, "Mrs. Cuevas's admission was not scheduled, which meant that the hospital was not able to have an interpreter standing by."

Both Hialeah and Palmetto have previously settled Americans with Disabilities Act claims for discriminating against the hearing impaired. In 2004, a deaf man named Cesar Muñoz sued the city, claiming police officers cuffed and threw him to the ground for not responding. Hialeah paid Muñoz $10,000. Palmetto, too, settled a 1997 case for having no written policy for procedures with the deaf. Details of that case were unavailable.

"Erik and Cynthia have been stepped on their entire lives," says Dietz. "You see a case like this and you wonder how it got to this."

Cynthia adds simply: "The whole thing was bad communication."

Miami - News - Mother-in-Law from Hell

By ERIN JAMES
Evening Sun Reporter

Disabilities-rights activist Marilynn Phillips is prepared to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission regarding the newly opened Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center - which she alleges does not "reasonably" accommodate disabled patrons.

Phillips' main gripes are with the center's 500-foot sloped sidewalk from the parking lot to the entrance, the low number of handicap parking spaces, a lack of automatic and power-assist doors and the absence of Braille signage for blind persons and audio tapes for the hearing-disabled.

Phillips - who visited the center Thursday to assess its accessibility - said in an e-mail that the center may technically be "in compliance" with the Americans with Disabilities Act in some, if not all, of those cases.

But, Phillips said, she still plans to file a complaint alleging a lack of "common sense" in the design of the building.

"I shall argue that even if the design complies with the 'letter of the law,' it does not comply with the 'spirit of the law,' and is NOT 'reasonable accommodation' under the law," she wrote. "There are no space constraints here. My sense is that the design focused on 'form' instead of 'function.'"

Park superintendent John Latschar said that the $103 million center was built to comply with state and federal accessibility standards.

"As far as I know...we've done everything that's legally required," he said.

However, Latschar said officials are prepared to address a number of accessibility-related comments they have received from visitors since the center opened on April 14.

Though the number of handicap parking spaces meet minimum legal requirements, Latschar said there have already been several days when those spaces have filled to capacity and plans are under way to address the problem.

"I expect we're going to create a half dozen more (spaces)," he said.

Visitors have also complained about a lack of automatic doors at the building's entrance and "heavy" doors at the entrance to the museum exhibits.

Though he believes they are not legally required to do so, Latschar said the park likely will install automatic-door technology at the center's entrance in the near future. And, the doors at the museum entrance will soon be adjusted so that they are easier to open, he said.

Some visitors have complained about the long distance between the parking lot and the center's entrance, Latschar said.

But, he said, that distance and the grade of the sidewalk meet legal requirements.

If the center is found to be out of compliance with any accessibility standards, Latschar said "we will address it."

Phillips is a Hampstead, Md., resident who for years has filed dozens of complaints with PHRC about Gettysburg businesses and facilities she alleges do not comply with federal accessibility standards.

During the center's preview tour for local residents on April 10 and its public opening on April 14, visitors to the center could be heard commenting on a number of accessibility-related issues - particularly a lack of automatic doors inside the building.

But on the day of the center's opening, Latschar said he had not heard of any complaints and that there were no plans to further address accessibility at the center.

Activist: Battlefield visitor center lacks disabled access - Evening Sun

By MELISSA McEVER/Valley Morning Star

Nora Ramirez says she can't imagine life without her guide dog, Phantom.

The 2-year-old, black Labrador retriever, known affectionately as "Phany," protectively walks a few steps ahead of Ramirez wherever she goes. He helps her negotiate steep curbs. He knows when it's safe for her to cross the street. He knows where "home" is, and escorts Ramirez there without missing a beat.

"It's not the same as a pet - I'm trusting this dog with my life," said Ramirez, who has been legally blind since age 15. "And I trust him so much."

Ramirez, a Harlingen resident, relies on Phany to guide her when she runs errands, goes out to eat or visits the grocery store. Problem is, not all businesses seem to understand that the dog is a service animal and not a pet, she said.

On a few occasions, business owners have tried to turn away Ramirez and Phany, although they've never been escorted off the premises, Ramirez said.

"It's just a matter of educating them about my rights," she said. "Most people and businesses know about guide dogs. But those that don't know, really don't know."

Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, all privately owned businesses, as well as public buildings, must grant access to people with disabilities who have trained service animals. A "service animal" is a guide dog or any other type of animal that is particularly trained to assist someone with a disability, says the U.S. Department of Justice.

Seeing-eye dogs are the most common type of service animal, but there are many other types of animal guides, said Dennis Driggers, an attorney for the South Texas Region of Advocacy, Inc., an organization that offers legal services to people with disabilities.

Each year, Driggers sees a few cases of people with service animals who are denied admission to businesses.

"What we find is a lot of people know that seeing-eye dogs are allowed in businesses, but they don't know that other service animals are allowed as well," Driggers said. "There are animals who assist a person who is deaf, or animals who help detect seizures. Any animal that meets the definition of ‘service animal' is permitted in a public area."

Most city, county and state employees seem to be aware of ADA regulations, Driggers said. It's the smaller, "mom and pop" businesses that might not know the law, he said.

"I think business owners need to be made aware of what federal law requires," he said.

Food-service businesses are often the most skittish about letting in animals, because usually animals are illegal in restaurants and grocery stores, Driggers said.

Ramirez said a local grocery-store manager was reluctant to let her in the first time she went there, although once she told the manager about the law, she was allowed in. A couple of restaurants also were worried about the dog's presence, she said.

At H-E-B stores, employees are told they aren't allowed to turn away people with guide dogs, said Carlos Contreras, public-affairs manager for H-E-B in the border region.

City and county officials say they also comply with federal law and would not turn away service animals.

"We know what the policy is, and we certainly wouldn't deny anyone access," said Gabriel Gonzalez, Harlingen assistant city manager.

However, the issue rarely comes up in the Valley, local officials say.

"I haven't seen many assistance animals here ... so I think it's possible some people might not be aware," said Shannon Harvill, Harlingen senior animal-control officer.

Ramirez said she carries a card with her that lists her rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and tries to explain that Phany is not a pet.

"Sometimes, people have said that I don't look like I'm blind, and that's why they think he's a pet," Ramirez said with a laugh.

Maybe that's because Phany does his job so well, she said.

"He makes my life easier," Ramirez said.

Local: Businesses must grant access to guide dogs | guide, says, access : Brownsville Herald

South Florida activists said misuse of parking permits for the disabled goes far beyond Miami International Airport.

BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR AND YUDY PINEIRO

• Video | Surveillance footage from MIA
• Document | Detailed description of Florida's disabled parking laws
• MIA workers abuse handicap parking spots
• Rules on using permits for the disabled
• Disabled-parking policy at Broward's airport

Buying groceries is already a challenge for Fred Shotz, who has terminal cancer and struggles with the physical task of shopping. It is that much harder when he needs to circle the Publix parking lot for 30 minutes waiting for an apparently able-bodied driver to give up one of the disabled parking spots.

He drives past dozens of empty spaces farther out, but they are not large enough to unload his wheelchair.

It is infuriating, he said, but not surprising.

''People will use any permit they can get their hands on,'' said Shotz, a disability access consultant in Plantation. ``People use the spouse's permit, their uncle's permit -- it's just never-ending.''

A Miami-Dade inspector general's report this week focused on workers abusing permits at Miami International Airport. But the report contained off-hand references to wider public abuse.

In a span of about four hours on Thursday, The Miami Herald witnessed roughly 45 cars pulling into the 11 disabled-parking spots near one entrance to Dadeland Mall.

Every one had a disabled-parking placard, but only two of the people exiting the cars had visible disabilities -- one in a wheelchair, the other using a walker.

Most were middle-aged women who parked in the spaces, strolled into the mall and returned with handfuls of shopping bags.

Many said the permits had been issued to their disabled husbands or elderly parents -- none of whom rode along. Some said they were at the mall to pick them up, but later left alone. None would give their names.

Using someone else's permit is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and a year in jail, according to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Others who parked in the Dadeland spaces were elderly couples who walked slowly and told a reporter they suffered from back and knee pain and other ailments such as emphysema, diabetes, varicose veins, spinal cord injuries and rheumatoid arthritis.

In many cases, however, activists contend that doctors sign off on permits for patients who do not qualify under state law. Indeed, the airport investigation is now looking into chiropractors who signed the workers' permit applications.

''I can sign a piece of paper in three seconds or spend 10 minutes getting my patient angry at me,'' Shotz said.

A wide range of doctors, including chiropractors, osteopathic physicians and advanced nurse practitioners, can sign off.

''It depends on how ethical the doctor is,'' said Dr. Fleur Sack, a family physician in Kendall. ``Patients ask and it's very simple: If I think they can walk, I won't give it.''

Temporary permits last no longer than six months, and a doctor must approve renewal.

Permanent permits last four years, require no follow-up medical approval and can be renewed online. The state does not have a system to block renewals after the permit-holder dies.

''Someone dies and someone else in the family just starts using it,'' said Betty McNally, chairwoman of Miami-Dade's Commission on Disability Issues.

Nor does the state system raise flags if one doctor issues an unusual number of permits.

Police can check whether the right person is using it -- the permit-holder's driver's license number is printed on the placard -- but verifying those numbers and looking for expired permits are not necessarily high priorities.

Legitimate permit-holders have long complained about fraud. In Miami-Dade County, an unusual policy of letting permit-holders park free in county-owned garages makes illicit permits even more attractive, as the airport investigation this week showed.

Inspector General Chris Mazzella said the county waived about $2.2 million in parking fees at the airport last year, with another $500,000 at the Port of Miami.

At the urging of aviation director José Abreu, Mayor Carlos Alvarez may suggest repealing the fee waiverBut even within the network of disability activists, such a change would be controversial.

Shotz said the waiver is ''a very bad thing,'' increasing demand for black-market permits and making it harder for disabled drivers to find spaces.

Another activist, Miami's Denny Wood, said ending the waivers would simply boost airport revenues on the backs of disabled travelers.

''It's a small perk in life, but we don't have access to good jobs; we don't get hired,'' Wood said.

McNally took a middle ground, saying the rule should be reformed, perhaps waiving fees for a few hours per day. Some consideration is necessary, she said, because many disabled people cannot use low-cost alternatives such as shuttle buses or taxis.

At the state level, McNally said a panel will present ideas to Gov. Charlie Crist this summer, including a possible overhaul of the permit system.

Until then, Shotz will keep circling the Publix lot, waiting for a space.

Permits for the disabled often abused, activists say - 04/11/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

By: Lana Groves

It takes Thomas McCrory 15 to 20 minutes to reach the bathroom from his class in the Business Classroom Building.
"There's no elevator in the building," said McCrory, a junior in finance. "To get to the bathrooms I have to take the catwalk across to the (Garff building), take the elevator down, then walk across to the BUC," he said.
McCrory, who uses a wheelchair after being injured in a ski accident, is one of about 1,000 students on campus who get around with a disability.
The U offers services to all students who register as disabled and meet with the Center for Disability Services.
"They need to bring in paperwork that shows their disability and how it affects them," said Heather Jensen, deaf services coordinator for the center. The center can accommodate students with hearing loss, mobility issues and psychological diagnoses, she said.
However, some disabled students find it difficult to access some areas on campus.
There's no problem in class, but rolling uphill and getting around campus is tiring, McCrory said.
"This year all my classes are in the business buildings, but it used to be a challenge going to different classes," he said.
Some buildings around campus have Americans with Disabilities Act-approved bathrooms, and most are wheelchair accessible, but any building that was built before the act are not required to be accessible to students with disabilities.
"Our legal obligation is not to have every building accessible, but to have activities and classes accessible," said Tom Loveridge, associate vice president of the Equal Opportunity Office. "But whenever a student comes forward about a problem, we try to fix it."
All new buildings or ones that are being significantly remodelled must allocate no more than 20 percent of their budget to making improvements that comply with the act, said Eric Browning, a campus planner.
"You use that money for whatever best facilitates a path of travel, whether it be a lift, wider door, bathroom stalls or concrete to make the path more smooth," he said.
The Equal Opportunity Office receives a $50,000 budget from the U for building upgrades. The money usually goes for door openers, ramps and other things that make the U more accessible, Loveridge said. When the office heard about a student who couldn't get to his physics lab on the fourth floor of the Physics South building, it spent $750,000 to build an elevator, he said.
McCrory said he crashed once because of an uneven cut out in the sidewalk, and the next day he saw people grinding out the path to make it more smooth.
"The longboarders were really happy," he said. "They asked if I could crash in a few other spots, as well."
Students in wheelchairs can access all parts of the Union except meeting rooms on the east part of the third floor. Any classes scheduled in those rooms can be relocated by the center if a student can't access them, but if they are used for another purpose, some students can't reach them without alternative assistance.
Residence Hall buildings are ADA approved, but McCrory said that when he lived in Sage Point, he had problems getting around. The road from the Business Loop to the Heritage Center isn't completely wheelchair accessible, he said. Instead, McCrory would have to travel up Legacy Bridge to get to Sage Point.
"It used to take me an hour of pushing to get from the business building up to Sage Point," he said.
Buildings such as Chapel Glen and Gateway Heights, which are closer to Legacy Bridge, are generally reserved for freshmen. A student who goes through disability services can request to be moved to a closer building, said Barb Remsburg, associate director for Housing and Residential Education.
Sidney Davis, interim director for the Center for Disability Services, said students living on campus can call shuttle services and request a shuttle to pick them up outside of their class and take them to the Residence Halls.
The Marriott Library has also taken steps to help disabled students access its services. The book delivery service for faculty has been extended to students who have difficulty getting books from the library because of construction problems.
"Students can get books delivered to Disability Services instead of coming to the library," said Daureen Nesdill, interim head of sciences and engineering at the library. "We noticed that after the west entrance was closed down, not as many students were coming in to use services."
Students such as McCrory might be waiting a long time for the U's buildings to be fully accessible.
It's difficult to make the campus ADA accessible because some buildings were built in the early 1900s, Browning said.
"The university will probably never be completely handicap accessible because of the slope," he said.

Access for the Disabled: Many campus buildings aren't ADA approved - News