A-D-A CHANGES WILL HELP DISABLED
by Leo E. Laurence; Member: Nat'l. Committee on Diversity
Imagine you are a disabled, Iraq war veteran and confined to a wheelchair. You want to go play some miniature golf, only to discover when you arrive that the facility is not accessible to anyone in a wheelchair. You feel disappointed and depressed.
After losing a leg to an IED in Iraq, you come home and can't even play miniature golf.
But, that may change. The federal government is considering major changes to the historic Americans-with-Disabilities Act (ADA). Consider this: There are already about 51 million disabled Americans, and that number is steadily growing as wounded veterans return from the Middle-Eastern wars.
By the way, in the S-P-J, the National Committee on Diversity works with the disabled, as well as with ethnic minorities and Gays.
The proposed 1000-pages of new regulations will apply to a wide range of facilities, including access to court houses, amusement parks, drinking fountains, stadium and theatre seating, fishing piers and boat slips and bowling lanes, among many others.
They establish specific regulations for qualifying accessible designs. For example, 50-percent of the holes at a miniature golf course would have to be accessible for players in wheelchair, something that Iraq vet would appreciate.
The new rules will apply to new businesses and to alterations to existing ones.
But, there are complaints. Rather than praise the proposed regulations as helpful to bring in more business from the disabled, many business assocations are complainting about the cost.
And, journalists covering the story sometimes favor those business complaints. For example, an Associated Press story on the issue was slanted, with a headline that said the new regulations would "hit" millions of businesses. It was clearly a business-oriented story.
While some business interests are complaining, some disability advocates say the proposed regulatioins don't go far enough. They cite the need for regulations to help the disabled avoid ticket fraud and in information technology - such as at hotel and airport check-in kiosks.
They also cite the need for close-captioning at movie theatres for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. These are issues they say need to be addressed as the proposed regulations are vetted in future months.
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Leo E. Laurence, J.D. can be reached at leopowerhere@msn.com or call (619) 757-4909