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11/10/98, 4:21 pmcdst
Campaign for Real Choice
ADAPT swept into Washington DC over the election weekend to lay the foundation for the 1999 Campaign for Real Choice. The two pillars of the campaign are:
ADAPT got some great tools from the Washington action for us to use in Tennessee. The first day of the action ADAPT split into two groups and visited the Republican and Democratic National Headquarters. Both major political parties will take on MiCASA when considering their platform.
Read the Republican National Committee's commitment to ADAPT
Read the Democratic National Committee's commitment to ADAPT
The next day of action found hundreds of protestors blocking the Department of Health and Human Services Building on election day in Washington DC. We got a fantastic commitment from Donna Shalala's office.
Read John J. Callahan's commitment to ADAPT
On the last day of action, ADAPT stormed into the Washington offices of the American Bus Association. Greyhound and the over-the-road bus industry are still opposing compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. ADAPT has managed to schedule a meeting with the ABA to discuss the Department of Transportation's rule.
When people tell the story about the civil rights movement of the Twentieth Century, parking will not be up there with transportation, housing and employment. But it is sexy. People know about parking and most have some opinion. News Channel 3 attacked a parking issue on their 6pmc newscast yesterday. Andy Wise asked our opinion so we worked on a written response:
Dear Mr. Wise,
Thank you for asking our opinion on the accessible parking issues at the Memphis V.A. Hospital raised by your report on November 9th. We applaud your considering issues of public concern to bring a better understanding of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the civil rights of persons with disabilities.
It is evident from your story that the employee parking issue at the Memphis V.A. Hospital is not directly an ADA accessible parking issue. The public's perspective of disability related issues is disproportionally effected by visible issues such as parking, however, we feel that the traditional areas of civil rights, transportation, housing, and employment, are the major concern of the ADA.
The ADA is a very common-sense law that uses functional assessments for each case. This approach does not coexist well with selective or "privileged" parking that apparently is the case at the Memphis V.A. Hospital.
While we support Ms. Bynum in her self-advocacy to receive appropriate accommodations for her disability, the federal law does not confer a privilege on any citizen. Likewise, the Memphis V.A. Hospital clearly has an obligation to provide each employee with all reasonable accommodations to effectively do their jobs, including all benefits and privileges of the job.
Furthermore, people with disabilities have a moral obligation to know what their rights are and where they begin and end. "Only three in ten working-age adults with disabilities are employed full or part-time compared to eight in ten adults without disabilities. . . even though almost three out of four who are not working say that they would prefer to be working." [1998 NOD/Harris]
If we take our stand on parking, what will we really win for future generations of people with disabilities? Today, many people complain that those parking places are not used. It is easy to segregate our society because people with disabilities do not demand equality; do not insist on reliable and efficient transportation; do not require the same social, educational, and recreational standards that other Americans do.
Tim Wheat
MCIL
The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org
MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency
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