01 November 2006

Securing Access for People with Disabilities: A Community Affair

Providing accessible transportation is one way cities serve all segments of the population. (© AP Images)

By Michael Jay Friedman

Cities and towns across the United States have embraced the challenge of making public areas accessible to all their citizens. Michael Jay Friedman is a staff writer for the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of International Information Programs.

America’s local communities are full partners in the national effort to secure those with disabilities their full legal rights as guaranteed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title II of the ADA guarantees equal access to the benefits of public services, programs, and activities. The goal is a worthy one but can require considerable public resources—the cost of adding a wheelchair lift to a bus and making the necessary modifications, for instance, has been estimated at $40,000 or more.

Even so, municipalities nationwide have moved aggressively to meet the challenge. From the largest cities to the smallest towns and villages, local governments have answered President Bush’s 2001 promise to the disabled: “Wherever a door is closed to anyone because of a disability, we must work to open it. Wherever any barrier stands between you and the full rights and dignity of citizenship, we must work to remove it, in the name of simple decency and simple justice.”

A Millennium Park for All

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley set himself the goal of making his city, the nation’s third largest, its most accessible. When the city determined to convert a blighted area of railroad tracks and parking lots into a showpiece recreation area, Daley turned to architect Edward K. Uhlir, who resolved to design “a world-class park that could be enjoyed by all residents and visitors, regardless of their ability.”

Dedicated in 2004, Millennium Park incorporates numerous amenities that permit visitors with disabilities to enjoy fully its many attractions. A central fountain and shallow reflecting pool are fully accessible. Zigzag-shaped “switchback” ramps to elevated attractions allow for 180-degree wheelchair turns. The main grassy area is reinforced with a subsurface structural mesh. By keeping the ground rigid, the mesh eases wheelchair navigation.

The Paralyzed Veterans of America organization awarded Uhlir its Barrier-Free America Award. The group’s president expressed gratitude “for the efforts of individuals like Ed Uhlir who make it a priority to not only address the everyday challenges facing the disability community, but more importantly, provide a blueprint for accessible solutions to these challenges.”

Award-Winning Efforts

Beginning in 2001, the private sector National Organization on Disability has awarded its Accessible America prize to municipalities that best afford the disabled full and equal opportunities for participating in community life. Winners have demonstrated a strong commitment to providing access to education, jobs, voting, transportation, housing, religious worship, and a full range of social, recreational, cultural, and sports activities.

Pasadena, California, the 2004 winner, is best known as the home of the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football game. Less widely known is that three wheelchair-accessible, parade-viewing sections are reserved for disabled persons and their guests, that audio descriptions of the festivities are offered for the visually impaired, and that sign language descriptions are provided for the deaf and hard of hearing. All persons with disabilities are afforded a special time to view the floats up close immediately after the parade.

Pasadena works aggressively to accommodate the needs of its residents with disabilities. Its central library, built in 1927, has been retrofitted with chair lifts, wheelchair-accessible computer stations, and elevators. An annual career conference matches high school students and professionals with disabilities for networking and to discuss career options, self-advocacy, and how to request reasonable workplace accommodations. Many city documents are embossed in Braille, for the benefit of the blind.

The city’s commitment to integrating those with disabilities fully into communal life is “strong and longstanding,” says its mayor, Bill Bogaard. Pasadena “celebrates diversity and seeks to offer an inclusive style of life nurtured over time by able and dedicated persons with disabilities and their families and friends.”

Communities Large and Small

Large cities and smaller rural communities alike have striven to meet and exceed the ADA’s standards. San Antonio, Texas, the nation’s ninth largest city, features a River Walk of cobblestone and flagstone paths running along each side of the San Antonio River through the business district. Today, three access ramps, four elevator routes, and a cross-river bridge provide wheelchair access to this important social hub. Hotels and other businesses along the River Walk are moving to provide similar access from their properties. “Access has improved greatly and mobility is much easier,” a blind San Antonian says. “So much has changed!”

Meanwhile, rural Summers County, West Virginia, has moved to assure that its disabled citizens can access and transact business at its county courthouse. Parking is accessible and an access ramp is wheelchair friendly. The wheelchair-bound can easily reach the newly lowered service counters. In the courtroom itself, jury and witness boxes now accommodate wheelchairs. Signage includes raised Braille lettering, and assistive listening devices help those with hearing difficulties. One disabled resident recalls that before these improvements he could not pay his taxes in person because he could not navigate his wheelchair up the stairs to the cashier’s second-floor office. “Now I feel good ... great really, when I look around at the changes made here.”

One finds similar examples across the nation. The details vary, but the determination to improve the lives of people with disabilities is the same. In the end, the benefits are shared: cyclists and parents pushing baby strollers, for instance, also appreciate curbside cutouts, and elevators and ramps are often a boon to the elderly. Most of all, by empowering their neighbors with disabilities to contribute to the common good, Americans strengthen their communities even as they act justly.