IF YOU ARE A PUBLIC SERVANT, BUT YOU DON'T WANT TO SERVE ALL PEOPLE EQUALLY

YOU ARE NOT QUALIFIED AND MUST QUIT YOUR JOB

City official: "It denies access to people with disabilities, but it technically meets code. So there's nothing we can do."

Me: Fix your broken code.

Laws prevented women from voting & deemed Black people 3/5ths of a human being.

Just because it's the law doesn't mean it's right.

Perpetuating discrimination is NEVER following the rule of law.

SHOCKED THIS ARTEFACTO FLAGSHIP STORE’S MAIN ENTRANCE HAS ONLY STEPS AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE

ITS FRONT DOOR LITERALLY IS A BLOCKADE 

TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

If you take public transit, paratransit or rideshare, this is where you enter.

You are shut out if you use a wheelchair for mobility.

The ableist store is in Coral Gables or Miami.

How could either city allow this 3 decades after the ADA?

The accessible entrance is segregated in the back.

Why are people with disabilities isolated and segregated?

IF YOUR CITY IS NOT ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE

 IT HAS FAILED AND SERVES NO ONE

There is something deeply symbolic and disturbing about the yellow caution tape signaling yet another out of order MTA elevator in New York.

It screams that in one of the most-diverse cities in America, people with disabilities are barely second class.

It says that decades of mayors – from both major political parties – have failed.

They have supported tax breaks and cushy deals for billionaires – promising tax revenue to fix problems.

Yet long into the 21^st century, only a fraction of train stations have wheelchair access.

Half the elevators I examined were roped off, non-functioning or otherwise out of service.

The subjugating, ignore the problem answer for decades has been that the bus system has wheelchair access, so that’s enough.

Ever try to get from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side…for a business meeting, for a restaurant reservation…for a timed ticket to a museum?

The train takes 15 minutes max.

Busses take two to three times that long.

And the irony is, for a lot of people with disabilities – such as those with rheumatoid arthritis that have joint pain – the endless bumping and listing of a bus right produces pain, discomfort and danger of injury.

So the default, substandard ride option is the more stressful and fatiguing one – along with taking up time.

It’s like the city doesn’t think, a third of a decade after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, that people with disabilities are vibrant, firm-leading employees that need to move about the city rapidly: to keep their highly productive lives in motion.

Imagine a transportation system that said only White Anglo-Saxon Protestant abled-bodied males reaped the benefits of the underground and elevated speedy trains – but everybody else had to stand in the rain and snow for a slow, inefficient ride on a bus.

News of this discrimination would lead the local TV broadcast and top the newspaper headlines for weeks. Boycotts would take place. 

Politicians would lead rallies to overturn to abusive treatment.

How is it any different when subways and elevated trains could have added elevators and ramps for half a century, but have not?

TRULY ACCESSIBLE AIR TRAVEL

COULD BE COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK

The headline contains the good/hopeful news.

But first the bad.

For more than half a century, my wife and all others who use a wheelchair for mobility, have to check their legs at the door and worry during an entire flight.

The very real possibility is an essential power or manual wheelchair will be broken beyond repair, lost or damaged so much that the trip is ruined.

Every time I get an online form thanking me for using an air carrier, I move to the “other” comments and submit something like this:

Please build a plane that allows wheelchair users to board in their power wheelchairs.

My wife is a wheelchair user.

She cannot fly with a power chair -- because the airlines are very well known (tragically) for badly damaging, even losing wheelchairs.

Flying without your wheelchair is like flying without your legs attached.

Technology exists to allow a person to roll aboard and be safely secured for flying.

Forcing people to stow their means of mobility out of sight and out of use is: humiliating, terrifying -- something that strips dignity and perpetuates discrimination.

Please address this.

If you do not, anything American Airlines states about commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity -- rings 100 percent hollow.

Now the somewhat good news, light at the end of the tunnel story:

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/truly-accessible-air-travel-could-be-coming-sooner-than-you-think.html

A PANDEMIC IS NO REASON TO DENY CIVIL RIGHTS

WHEN EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT EQUITY AND INCLUSION, DISABLED PEOPLE ARE BEING EXCLUDED BY INACCESSIBLE COVID-19 RESPONSES 

Narrow steps block all patrons with disabilities at La Camaronera

We love supporting mom and pop businesses.

We have probably had 100 $50 meals at La Camaronera, a seafood joint very near our home in Little Havana.

We felt like family, putting up with the cash only operation despite growth that demands acceptance of credit cards.

When the pandemic hit and responsible actions included closing indoor dining spaces, we were no longer family.

Literally, we were no longer at the table.

Because the Camaronera owners brought in a raised platform for outdoor dining that sits several feet above ground level in its Flagler Street parking lot.

There are two entrances to the platform. Both are up several steps – though there is ample space to accommodate a wheelchair ramp.

My wife uses a wheelchair for mobility.

She is blocked from accessing the raised platform.

If the restaurant banned people from dining on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, orientation or other minority status – it would be blasted on the evening news and front page of the newspaper.

Politicians would be tripping over themselves to lead a boycott.

For people with disabilities, just a shrug.

The attitude is “give the business a break, these are hard times.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act is federal civil rights legislation protecting the rights of people with disabilities.

Saying it should be set aside because of a slumping restaurant-retail economy is no different than saying the pandemic justifies a boss firing everyone for being Jewish…that COVID-9 makes it just fine to pay everyone with black skin $5 per hour while paying all with white skin $15 per hour.

Discrimination is discrimination -- and it is out of bounds and repugnant 100 percent of the time.

It is ironic that politicians – so eager to declare themselves the champions of equity and inclusion, so ready to get free publicity on TV, radio and in print by marrying themselves to Black Lives Matter – couldn’t give a crap about the rights of people with disabilities. 

(For the record, we very much support BLM and all movements to end brutality and discrimination by police and government).

Wheelchair users cannot access the BID-placed picnic tables on Fuller Street in Coconut Grove

I have pointed out to several elected officials that the picnic tables put out by a government entity – the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District – are inaccessible to wheelchair users.

Despite federal statistics that prove one in five Americans experience some type of disability, the response is a collective yawn.

In other areas, I have seen city managers and other prominent government officials laud the “game changing” action to block sidewalks with outdoor dining tables.

The only game that changes for wheelchair users and blind people are to push them in harm’s way, out in the street.

Sometimes there are makeshift secondary sidewalks at street level – with only traffic cones separating people with disabilities from death by distracted driver.

In other spots, I have seen the public right-of-way and off-street parking lots transformed into outdoor dining under a tent or awning.

For some insane and exclusionary reason, a significant amount of these outdoor setups are equipped only with high top tables. 

No wheelchair, scooter or other assistive mobility device user can access these.

This problem is widespread in Miami and the South Florida region.

Based on barriers created by pandemic outdoor dining adaptation that I’ve seen in dozens of media reports from around the nation, the problem is making life difficult and dangerous to people with disabilities from coast to coast.

This assertion is backed up by hundreds of Twitter and other social media posts from frustrated wheelchair users and others whose simple run to the corner store, pharmacy or deli is blockaded by idiotic setups that black sidewalks, curb ramps and other access for months on end.

Our family will be boycotting any restaurant, shop or service that thinks it’s fair game to destroy mobility for people with disabilities. That means $5,000 to $10,000 loyal dollars will go elsewhere.

And we certainly will be supporting the opponents of elected officials who ignore the disability community at every turn.

Zero Access at La Camaronera

 

WHY I DON’T PULL PUNCHES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

I AM PROUD TO SHARE MY ADVOCACY FOR EQUITY, MY SHAMING OF BIGOTRY, WITH ALL – REGARDLESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES

"Republicans buy shoes too.”  That was Michael Jordan’s famous reported response to why he didn’t use his immense influence, talent, stardom and wealth to speak up for progressive causes or speaking out against policies and politicians that continue to hurt marginalized people.

MJ, famous for years for being apolitical, has a right to do whatever he wants to. Years after retiring, he broke his silence and condemned the deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement.  If had his bank account, I would not have waited so long to be fearless in calling out discrimination both overt and subtle -- damn the celebrity, fame, adulation and shoe contracts.

Actually, I’m pretty sure Jordan’s sofa change is worth much more than my accumulated net worth from 55 years on this planet.  And I take discrimination and inequity to task almost daily…on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, this blog and in nationally-published essays.

Most often, I take on policy and design that continues to enslave people with disabilities in poverty, underemployment, unemployment, substandard housing and worse.

I also have no trouble calling out local, state and federal officials for any act that is corrupt, hateful, arrogant, abusive or unethical.

More than a dozen friends have quietly, privately told me to knock it off. That I have probably offended a potential client or killed the chance for repeat business from a client who loves bullying, bigoted politicians and “leaders.”

They tell me I can ill-afford to rail against paving over park land, sweetheart deals to billionaires, bigoted/biased policies, demagoguery and other things infecting government on all levels.

Acquaintances have pleaded with me to take down posts that outline why Donald Trump is a white supremacist, a liar, a crook, a cheat, a person who mocks people with disabilities and plots to take away what little access to health care and social safety net that remains for them.

Maybe I’m a fool. But I’m a fool who sleeps soundly. A fool that will leave this world with his good name.

I am trained as a journalist. My DNA screams to me to shine a light on evil, corruption, hatred, racism, sexism, homophobia.

People are willing to think whatever they want, vote for whatever authoritarian, destroying of democracy that appeals to them.

But if they cannot work with me because I believe in social justice, in affordable housing, in a vast safety net, in equity in planning, transit, parks, infrastructure and mobility for all – then that’s their problem.

My work arrangements are like mini marriages. We have each other’s back. We can confide in each other. Trust, honesty and decency are treasured.

It is our duty, as Americans, to fight for equality. To shame elected and appointed officials who spew hatred and damage lives.

I honor that duty with most every word that comes out of my mouth, with virtually each word I type on my keyboard.

If that renders all my experience, talent, creativity and collaborative spirit void, then so be it.

Guess I’ll never have the wealth of Air Jordan. Guess we’ll have to get by with one small house, flying coach and investing wisely.

I cannot, will not, compromise my values for the dollar.

 

Disability References Removed From White House Website

THE FIRST OF MANY ATTACKS ON DISABLED PEOPLE BY PRESIDENT HITLER

As President Donald Trump took office, nearly every reference to disabilities on the White House website disappeared.

The online presence of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. got a revamp tailored to its new resident after Trump’s swearing in on Friday and, with the changeover, came a noticeably reduced emphasis on disability matters.

A section on disabilities was one of more than two dozen issues listed prominently on the homepage of whitehouse.gov during former President Barack Obama’s tenure.

The full story from Disability Scoop

ON INTERNET MEMES...

...AND OTHER UNQUESTIONED ACTS OF BIGOTRY 

by Heidi Johnson-Wright

EarthBound Tomboy

Perhaps by now you’ve seen the Internet meme making the rounds of a drawing of a guy in a wheelchair. He’s looking back over his shoulder, a sad, pathetic expression on his face. Surrounding him are the following words: “If you're (sic) spouse became disabled for the rest of there (sic) lives, would you still be with them???”

Yes, dear reader, it is taking all of the strength I can muster to resist calling the meme’s creator a moron incapable of knowing the difference between "you're" and "your" and “their” and “there,” or even knowing how to use a software grammar check function. And, yes, I am irritated with the use of the pronoun “them,” as if the question poses the hypothetical situation that this is a pluralist marriage that includes multiple partners who “became disabled” all at once. Perhaps it’s implying the crash of a plane on which the multiple marital partners were flying, or they all contracted a rare tropical disease while on safari together.

I also believe it is quite likely that anyone who uses three question marks in a row probably dots every letter “i” with a tiny heart. For that reason alone, the meme’s creator should be placed a stockade in the village square and bombarded with rotten produce.

 

Nevertheless, it’s not the meme’s grammatical atrocities that have inspired me to write this post. It is the sheer butt-puckering bigotry of the question being posed. Why is it an acceptable question worthy of an answer?

 

Would it be appropriate to ask: “If your spouse sent in DNA to 23 and Me and learned he/she had African ancestry, would you divorce him/her?” Or “If your spouse told you his/her grandparents emigrated from Uruguay, would you make him/her relocate permanently to the guest bedroom?” Or perhaps “If your spouse converted to Judaism, would you toss him/her off a cliff?”

 I’d like to think that most decent human beings would be appalled by questions about whether a spouse remains worthy of love even if he/she is of a different race, religion or country of national origin. Yet when it comes to disability, many people – such as those that actually answered the question on Facebook – feel it’s fine to weigh the option of giving walking papers to the person they married.

I’m not sure whether to be pissed off or profoundly sad that a quarter century after the passage of the ADA – the most comprehensive civil rights statute ever enacted to protect disabled folks from discrimination – societal attitudes remain in the Dark Ages. We continue to deny that illnesses and health issues are inextricably part of the human condition. We still cling to hierarchies, to notions of “us versus them,” to assigning value to other human beings based on their ability to meet an often unattainable ideal.

 Perhaps I should buy a more comfortable mattress for the guest bedroom.

http://earthboundtomboy.blogspot.com/2016/01/on-internet-memes-and-other.html