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THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT By Gerald Ensley, Democrat Senior Writer, Tallahassee Democrat Originally published July 16, 2006 One year ago today I collapsed on a golf course with a back injury. Not to get too technical, but things went absolutely cattywampus in my spine and shut down the nerves to my legs. For two weeks I had to sleep sitting up. For a month I had to use a walker to go anywhere, including the bathroom. I was out of work for five weeks. I spent four months shuttling among doctors and chiropractors and neurologists. In November I had surgery. I spent another couple of months barely able to walk. Today I still have numbness in one foot. The surgeon said it may be more than a year before I'm back to normal - if I'm ever back to normal. (Don't talk to doctors if you're looking for good news.) Early in the process, one of the medical assistants said, "I'll bet you're going to write something about this." I replied, "Not until it seems funny." Well, it's still not funny. But it sure has been instructive. One of the biggest lessons I learned was: Thank goodness for the ADA. The ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act. The 1990 law was largely aimed at preventing discrimination against people with disabilities in hiring and employment. But it also specified that all public venues, such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, stores and auditoriums, should provide accommodations to let people with disabilities use their facilities. During the worst of my ordeal, that law was a lifesaver. There were times as I shuffled along with my walker that I couldn't have climbed a sidewalk if not for a curb cut-in or entered a building if not for an automatic door. A temporary handicapped-parking pass let me park close to the front of drugstores and grocery stores. Had I parked any farther away, I couldn't have made it to the store and back. While I was injured we drove to Wisconsin, and on that trip I took my first showers in weeks - because every hotel had a bar on the shower wall that let me hold myself upright while the water cascaded on me. It was a vivid lesson in how necessary those accommodations must be to people with disabilities - and a reminder that all of us are just an unexpected injury away from needing them ourselves. "I think one of the reasons (acceptance of ADA) is spreading into the community is because we are all realizing how vulnerable we are," said Bea Awoniyi. "We who consider ourselves normal suffer a temporary disability and we understand. We see our children and spouses and other family members with disabilities and we understand." Awoniyi is director of Florida State's Student Disability Resource Center. The center arranges accommodations for 1,200 F.S.U. students with disabilities. Such accommodations can range from voice-activated computers to special rooms for test-taking to scheduling help. F.S.U. also has an office of ADA compliance, led by Gerardo Rivera, charged with making sure all of its buildings provide access for people with disabilities. Awoniyi and Rivera said what may seem like special features for one group really benefit everyone. Elevators let those in wheelchairs attend baseball games - but also are used by able-bodied people who don't like stairs. Curb cut-ins accommodate wheelchairs - and bicyclists. Push-button automatic doors make entering a building easier for someone with a disability - or someone with an armload of books. Such universality is also emphasized by Rachel Gerlach. The F.S.U. senior has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair - which hasn't kept her from skydiving and studying tae kwon do. She's president of F.S.U. Access, an advocacy group for students with disabilities. "People often come at me with the argument, 'Why should we make these accommodations when they only affect a small percentage of the population?' '' Gerlach said. "But a large percentage of the American public will become temporarily disabled at some point in their lives. We have students come in (the resource center) all the time with broken legs, broken arms, bad backs, you name it, who need some temporary assistance." Mind you, ADA comes with costs that don't please everyone. Bemmie Eustace is site-development director for Interplan L.L.C., an Orlando architectural firm that designs restaurants. Eustace said meeting ADA requirements can significantly reduce the space of a small retail shop and can be a financial and design challenge for older buildings. She said even owners of big businesses sometimes grumble about the space demands caused by the "infamous" lavatory rule: Florida is the only state that requires a sink inside a restroom's handicapped stall. She said there's frustration about the vagueness of the law, which requires businesses to put in accessibility features that are "readily achievable" - but "readily achievable" can be different for a company of 500 stores than for a mom and pop store." "ADA is a very, very broad civil-rights act. It's the only civil-rights law I know that requires every business to retrofit their store to some level," Eustace said. "How much is enough is a question that has not been answered by the courts." But Eustace said industry has largely embraced ADA and realizes it's good for businesses because it expands stores' customer base to people with disabilities and those who accompany them. And, of course, business owners are also citizens. "The intent of ADA was to not discriminate against the disabled, and it is always a good thing in America to eliminate discrimination," Eustace said. "From a social standpoint, it's been a good thing. It has changed America for the better." I couldn't agree more. Contact reporter Gerald Ensley at 850-599-2310 or gensley@tallahassee.com. If you have questions about disability laws and enforcement, contact the King County Office of Civil Rights at 206-296-7592 or 206-296-7596 TTY. OCR contact info & map | Your comments about this website | Site Map Updated: May 16, 2007 |
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