AUSTIN BLASTS MAYOR FOR ATTACKING THE ADA
ADAPT of Texas in Austin took seriously the Advisory Council on Intergovernmental Relations, ACIR, draft report on "Unfunded Federal Mandates" which attacks disability civil rights, among other ways, by calling for a repeal of the curb cut requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. (See last issue of Incitement.) Austin Mayor Bruce Todd is a member of the ACIR committee, and ADAPT in Austin has been fighting hard for curb cuts since 1991. Though the battles thus far have lead to many more curb cuts, Austin still has a long way to go.
February 8th ADAPT and other disability groups (such as: CTD, ARCIL, UCP, Advocacy Inc) held a rally outside the Mayor's office. Over 100 supporters watched as ADAPT organizer Danny Saenz burned a Certificate of Appreciation for help with compliance with the ADA which Mayor Todd had signed and presented to ADAPT last July. "This [certificate] is a joke if Todd won't renounce this outrageous report" said Saenz.
After the rally the crowd lined up and marched across downtown to the Austin City Council Meeting chanting and calling for the Council to support ADA. Freaked by the fracas, the Mayor called the Council into a three hour Executive Session. When they emerged they were again confronted by many of the protesters who demanded they sign pledges of support for the ADA by next Wednesday -- which just happened to be Valentines Day.
When ADAPT collected the pledges they delivered chocolate candy hearts to those who signed. Those who did not, received hearts filled with half eaten chocolates, and a note which read "this valentine is as empty as your support of
disability rights. Support given only when you feel like it is charity, not rights."
MR CURB CUTS HITS THE STREETS OF EL PASO
Dessert ADAPT has launched a full scale campaign for access in El Paso. Top on their list is curb cuts, which are an endangered species in the border town. The death of a local wheelchair user, who was forced into the automobile traffic by the uncut curbs, served as grim example of the importance of their issue. Taking aim at the City Council Desert ADAPT has disrupted meetings, taken over hearings and taken no prisoners in the struggle to get on the sidewalks and out of the traffic. When the city's Community Development funds were doled out and not one was to go to curb cuts, Desert ADAPT got the local media out to document their efforts to sledge hammer the curbs themselves. Their mascot, "Mr. Curb Cuts" (a wild haired skeleton in a wheelchair), served as master of ceremonies at the event.
Their Access El Paso campaign has not stopped at the curb however. They are also taking on local businesses, and have so impressed several of these businesses that they have agreed to sponsor future Desert ADAPT access efforts.