Twenty Years of ADA

Aimee Wehmeier, the director of Services for Independent Living, waits Thursday for her assistant, Lindsay Pike, in the parking lot of Les Bourgeois Winery. Wehmeier was born with muscular dystrophy and has used a wheelchair her entire life. To get around, she uses a wheelchair accessible van and a 350-pound motorized wheelchair.

Aimee Wehmeier remembers maneuvering her motorized wheelchair out of a local grocery store about five years ago when a man in the parking lot gave her a quarter. She was puzzled by his action and asked what the quarter was for.

"To help you," he replied.

She laughs about it even now, joking about what practical use a quarter is for anyone - in or out of a wheelchair.

Wehmeier, who has muscular dystrophy and has been in a wheelchair her entire life, certainly wasn't raised to put her hand out to depend on an occasional quarter for sustenance.

"My mom told me, 'You better get a good job because you'll never wait tables,'" she recalled. So, taking Mom's advice, she left St. Charles after graduating from Francis Howell North High School in 1989 and moved to Columbia that summer.

It was one year before then-President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990. ADA was considered the most comprehensive policy statement ever made regarding civil rights for people with disabilities.

The ADA law marks its 20th anniversary later this month, and the local Services for Independent Living office turned 30 this summer. It seems almost fitting that SIL staff have coordinated a 12-day anniversary celebration from July 21 through Aug. 1, from adaptive sports competitions and public forums to a presentation at Ragtag Cinema and a disability pride parade on July 24.

"We wanted to do a celebration," said Wehmeier, the executive director of SIL since October 2006. The single-event celebration became multiple events, then a week, then nearly two weeks long.

"It just kept growing and growing. It's just amazing," Wehmeier said. She paused briefly, repeating her mother's advice about getting a good job. "It's pretty amazing to me to have a job that is also my life."

The Americans with Disabilities Act was designed to create equality and access in three key areas for people with disabilities. Title I of the act addresses employment for individuals with a disability. Advocates of the law say a common misperception, however, is the cost of making reasonable accommodations, even though most of the accommodations - such providing elevated work stations - are less than $250.

Title II of the ADA refers to state and local government accessibility provisions. Public schools are subject to Title I for employment purposes and Title II with regard to programs, services, activities and physical access. Children who rarely participated in mainstream education before the law are now required to be educated in the least restrictive environment.

Title III refers to private, nongovernmental entities and not-for-profit services operating places of "public accommodation." Businesses governed by Title III include restaurants, supermarkets, lawyers' and doctors' offices, banks, shopping centers, privately owned sports arenas, movie theaters, private day care centers, hotels, accountant or insurance offices, museums and health clubs.

Some examples of ADA requirements include having accessible parking spaces, doorways, hallways, bathrooms and counters.

The senior President Bush called the ADA legislation "a sledgehammer" to the walls that had separated Americans with disabilities from freedoms that were not previously accessible to them.

Whether the walls of exclusion have all "come tumbling down," as the president announced, is open to debate.

"To most people, ADA is just putting up a ramp," said Wehmeier. "I don't think that's changed a lot."

But the ADA isn't just about people in wheelchairs or installing a wheelchair accessible ramp. There are other accommodation and accessibility issues. Wehmeier pointed out that Columbia has no movie theater that offers captioning for deaf people. It's also rare to find a doctor's office that has interpreters for the hearing-impaired.

And not all accommodations are a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, providing print information in Braille might be effective for one person who is blind; however, not all people who are blind read Braille. For another person who is blind, an audio recording might be more effective.

"There's still a lot of work to do," she said.

Troy Balthazor, the public information officer for the Great Plains ADA Center, headquartered at 100 Corporate Lake Drive in Columbia, pointed out that "a great number" of publicly funded facilities still do not meet ADA standards.

General, physical access to buildings and public environments, such as playgrounds and sidewalks, is at the top of Balthazor's list for ADA compliance still needed.

"A lot of changes have been made, and newly constructed facilities tend to be much more accessible to all people than they were prior to the ADA," he said.

While private businesses generally are not required to meet all ADA requirements unless they construct new facilities or host public meetings, state and local governments don't have that option. All programs and services of government agencies must be accessible to everyone. Removing "readily accessible barriers" in both public and private environments is the bottom line of the ADA.

Great Plains is promoting the "2010 in 2010" campaign, which is trying to get 2,010 public entities, private businesses and other organizations to sign a proclamation of recommitment "to full implementation" of the ADA.

The proclamation has been signed by dozens of Missouri organizations and officials, including Gov. Jay Nixon, Columbia Mayor Bob McDavid, local hospitals, the Boone County Commission, the city of Centralia and others, including private businesses.

But not everyone has warmed up to the proclamation of recommitment.

"Plenty of entities have not wanted to sign it," Balthazor said, declining to identify the counties or cities that have opted not to join the proclamation. He thinks the fear of being held to a higher standard might dissuade some from signing.

"The law's been out there 20 years," he said. "It's disappointing when entities don't sign."

The ADA Center is among nearly a dozen organizations involved in planning the local ADA anniversary celebration. SIL community relations coordinator Becky Stewart has worked to put together a jam-packed week of events.

A disability pride parade is set for 11 a.m. July 24 beginning and ending at the Courthouse Square in downtown Columbia. Other events take place throughout the community. A full schedule is available at www.thompsoncenter.missouri.edu/ada/ada.html.

Services for Independent Living provide support and services to seven counties, including Boone, Callaway and Randolph. SIL's programs include peer support groups, a residential ramp project for income-eligible consumers, transportation services, housing information, in-home services and legislation advocacy.

More than half of staff and board of directors members are people with disabilities who have personally experienced social and physical barriers associated with disability. The organization receives funding through the United Way.

Wehmeier is often the face of the organization as well as the community when it comes to people with disabilities.

"I think my purpose is to make people more comfortable" with dealing with people with disabilities, she said. "I feel like my gift is working on barriers. Sometimes it takes a lot of smiles, a lot of energy, a lot of first handshakes."

Just don't mistake her easy-going demeanor for a lack of passion. Wehmeier has thrived in the job market, for instance, but she knows that is the exception for many wheelchair-bound workers.

"The most qualified candidate doesn't always get the job," Wehmeier said. "That hasn't changed" since the adoption of the ADA. "To me, that's a huge barrier."

Wehmeier, 39, attended MU and received a degree in educational and counseling psychology. She later earned a master's degree in business administration. Before taking the top spot at SIL, she worked 10 years at State Farm Insurance, where she wore a variety of hats, including claims representative and supervisor. Another duty was representing State Farm on SIL's board of directors.

"For me, I have been able to work since I was 18 years old," Wehmeier said. "That is not the story for most people."

She also owns her home, complete with a roll-in shower, zero-entry doors and other features necessary for her to live as independently as possible. But independence begins with employment, she stressed.

"That affects every aspect of disability," said Wehmeier, who does not use her left hand and can lift only 6 ounces with her right hand.

"I want to be able to do as much for myself as possible," she said. "I want to be able to have as much dignity as I can."

When Wehmeier remembers her mother saying how important it would be to get a good job, she also hears her mom saying that she has "beaten the odds." But that characterization makes her as uncomfortable as the word "handicap."

"I kind of get tired of being the exception," Wehmeier said. "It should be the same for all."

And if she has anything to do with it, SIL's new mission statement - "We empower people to maximize their independence" - will help other people with disabilities realize the self-determination that Wehmeier exhibits.

Wehmeier gives Columbia high marks for accessibility but noted that rural communities and smaller cities don't provide as many options for people with disabilities.

One community where accessibility has been a hot topic is Centralia, in northern Boone County, where local advocate John Hinten has been officially proclaimed by Gov. Nixon as a "champion" for disability rights and unofficially as a pariah for many in the community for his unabashed, in-your-face campaign for ADA compliance for city sidewalks, parking and accessibility to local retailers.

Hinten said he's probably cast as "an angry man in a wheelchair," and his approach is less diplomatic than Wehmeier's, even if their passions are similar. He began using a wheelchair five years ago in a 20-year battle with complications from Lyme disease.

The No. 1 problem with fully implementing ADA, in his view, is "attitude of society."
"Saying, 'It doesn't affect me' is shallow thinking," he said. "It affects us all. The disability club is one you can join without applying for at any time, any place and to any degree of disability."

Late last year, Hinten filed a complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, alleging disability discrimination by Mayor Tim Grenke and the city of Centralia. The complaint was investigated, and the case was closed without finding any basis to support Hinten's claim.

Hinten has returned to the community's accessibility committee, and the town recently featured beefed-up accommodations at the annual Anchor Festival, but Hinten continues to beat the ADA drum, if only more softly - for now.

"Enforcement" of ADA law "is a problem, but apathy is just as bad," Hinten said, chiding people for turning their heads and doing nothing when they see someone who is not disabled park in a handicap spot.

And he gets especially agitated at the suggestion that the ADA is "too expensive" for compliance.

Big-ticket items under ADA often qualify for grants, tax credits or similar incentives, he said.

"Most things that require modification and change to comply cost very little. Some cost nothing," he said. Hinten contends that the society's priorities is the likely the biggest obstacle to ADA compliance.

"Until we as a society make ADA compliance a priority," he said, "we will be where we are today at the 40-year anniversary."

Balthazor is more optimistic about the future, partly because he sees the aging baby boomer generation driving the economy by creating markets for disability accessibility, pharmaceuticals and other goods and services geared toward that
population, many of whom might develop some level of age-related disability.

ADA advocates claim that one in five Americans currently has some level of mental or physical disability.

Moving forward, Balthazor would like to see Missouri government adopt a state building code that implements ADA guidelines.

"A lot of our neighbors are significantly ahead of us on that," he said.
He's also eager to see the "symbolic measure" of signing a recommitment to ADA bloom into actual steps toward achieving compliance.

Balthazor pointed out that the ADA law is a work in progress, not a one-time fix for the civil rights of people with disabilities.

"Like any other civil rights movement, society has a lot to do with it," he said. "It is a massive undertaking. It is a massive change."

This article was originally published by the Columbia Daily Tribune on July 11, 2010 by Jodie Jackson Jr.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/jul/11/twenty-years-ada/