Millions Are Beating The Obstacles Disabilities Act Has Enjoyed Mixed Success

Ten years after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, disabled Spokane area residents find it easier to get work and have better access to government buildings.

But going out for chicken-fried steak, finding a restaurant bathroom big enough to use and getting a job promotion are as tough as ever, disabled citizens and their advocates said.

“I feel that it’s been good in a lot of ways,” said MaryAnn Higgins, a 43-year-old Spokane woman confined to a wheelchair by cerebral palsy. “But even with ADA, the world is still not made for people with disabilities.”

The aim of the law, signed in July 1990, was to end discrimination against disabled Americans by making it a federal crime.

The law prohibits employers from discriminating against disabled people in their hiring practices and requires that public places such as government buildings, restaurants and retail stores be accessible to disabled people.

It covers people with physical disabilities such as blindness and paralysis as well as those with mental retardation and other cognitive dysfunctions.

Disabled people and their advocates said the tool has been effective in coercing local governments to improve access to their services.

Higgins said provisions in the law helped her force Spokane Falls Community College to upgrade its computer lab in 1992 so she could get around in it better.

Prompted by the act, Spokane city and county have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to add wheelchair ramps, automatic doors and other improvements to public facilities.

The work is ongoing. Sidewalks buckled by hard freezes must be fixed and small elevators replaced with larger models so people in wheelchairs can navigate them, said Gary Fuher, who oversees Spokane County government’s 29 buildings.

“We’ve worked very hard over the years to make our buildings compliant,” Fuher said. “The thing we have to continue to do is upgrade every day. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worthwhile.”

Chylene Ward, a paraplegic and president of the Coalition of Responsible Disabled, gives local governments high marks for their efforts.

“By far it’s not perfect, but Spokane is doing a good job,” Ward said.

Employment opportunities also have increased for disabled workers in the Spokane area as a result of the act, advocates said.

Many area employers changed their testing and application procedures so disabled workers can better understand them, said J.B. Travis, public relations manager for The Arc of Spokane, which provides services to the disabled.

They also adjust working hours for handicapped people who must rely on public or specialized transportation to get around town, Travis said.

Verdia Davis and Stan Livingston have taken advantage of those accommodations to land jobs.

Davis, who is confined to a wheelchair and has a speech disability, was hired as a merchandise sorter at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store on East Trent Avenue. Store managers agreed to adjust her work schedule so she could take advantage of a vanpool for the disabled.

As she transferred donated blouses from a box to hangers earlier this week, Davis said she appreciated the opportunity.

“I like to work,” she said.

Livingston, who has a mental disability that limits his cognitive skills, earned a job driving a forklift for a recycling program sponsored by the Arc and Avista.

Because his disability hinders his reading ability, his job assignments are written on straightforward checklists and he receives mostly oral instructions from his supervisors.

“Other places, it was confusing,” said Livingston, who bounced between menial jobs before landing at Avista 3-1/2 years ago. “Here, it’s more clear. And if I don’t understand something, I can ask. This job is a lot better. It’s more of a challenge. It’s not just standing around.”

Still, many disabled people are being shut out of the workplace, according to a nationwide survey conducted this year by the Harris polling company.

Of all working-age people with disabilities, only three out of 10 are employed full- or part-time, as compared to eight in 10 working-age people without disabilities, the survey concluded.

Last year, the majority of complaints filed in Spokane County with the Washington State Human Rights Commission resulted from employment issues related to disability and gender.

Bruce Redding, a Spokane inspector for the commission, said his office receives 10 to 15 discrimination complaints a month from people with disabilities.

Redding recalled the recent case of a man who missed several months of work after suffering a heart attack.

The man’s doctor finally cleared him to return to work but told him not to lift anything over 50 pounds, as it could trigger more heart trouble, Redding said.

His employer refused to take him back, saying that the man’s job description required him to lift more than 50 pounds on occasion, Redding said.

Those occasions were rare, however, and easily done by someone else, Redding said.

“We were able to get him his job back, plus some back pay,” he said. “The employer went down kicking and screaming, though.”

In addition, many disabled people with jobs find their advancement opportunities limited, said Melinda Johnson of the Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues and Employment.

“We know of people who have worked at a place for seven years and are still making the same wage as when they started,” Johnson said. “We haven’t impacted nearly as far as we need to.”

That goes for access to many private businesses as well, disabled people said. While government agencies are doing a good job, many small businesses and even some large ones have a long way to go to be in compliance, they said.

The Coalition of Responsible Disabled is currently negotiating with Spokane-area Burger Kings for better access to their restaurants.

Railing systems designed to help funnel customers to the restaurant’s front counters aren’t large enough to accommodate some motorized wheelchairs, Ward said.

“One fellow gave up and just drove his chair to the drive-up window,” she said. “They wouldn’t serve him there because of safety reasons.”

Higgins said she can’t go to Spokane’s Thudpucker’s restaurant, renowned for its chicken-fried steak, because the space between tables is too narrow for her wheelchair.

“That made me feel like a second-class citizen,” she said.

Many disabled Spokane residents also complained about the size of bathrooms in some local businesses.

“There are only three bathrooms I can get into in the whole city of Spokane,” Higgins said.

Linda Schappals-McClain, coalition director, agreed.

“My personal feeling is that people are just doing the bare bones,” Schappals-McClain said. “There are still a lot of businesses out there that are not aware of ADA.”

Spokane disabled people and their advocates said they will continue to strive for equality as ADA enters its second decade.

“Before ADA, a lot of people didn’t have any idea what accessibility was,” Higgins said. “They used to not even look at me because I was in a chair. It’s getting better.”