[nfbmi-talk] they fixed some but certainly not all

[joe harcz Comcast]

March 17, 2010

 

Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.

Mt. Morris, MI 48458

810-512-5262

E-mail: joeharcz at comcast.net

 

Re: Official Inquiry ADAAG Compliant Signage Victor Office Building (Throughout) and Official ADA Grievance/Complaint

 

Patrick D. Cannon

Michigan Commission for the Blind

CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE

Michigan Commission for the Blind

201 N. Washington, 2nd Floor

P.O. Box 30652

Lansing, MI 48909

Phone (voice): (517) 373-2062

Fax: (517) 335-5140

TTY (517) 373-4025

Toll-Free Numbers:

1-800-292-4200 (voice, answered in Lansing)

1-800-323-2535 (voice, answered in Escanaba)

TTY 888-864-1212

(Request via e-mail)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Director Cannon,

 

I am writing you today both in your capacity as the State of Michigan Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator, Former Chair of the United States Access Board, and Director of the Michigan Commission for the Blind. I wish to know if all rooms in the Victor Office Building and the facility throughout meets the following ADAAG 

standards for signage:

 

 

“Signs which designate permanent rooms and spaces shall comply with 4.30.1,

4.30.4, 4.30.5 and 4.30.6. Other signs which provide direction to, or

information about, functional spaces of the building shall comply with

4.30.1, 4.30.2, 4.30.3, and 4.30.5."

 

 

This office building was not in compliance at several meetings conducted by MCB that I’ve attended in the past; something of which I’ve informed you and others about on several occasions including at past meetings of the MCB Board. This facility was not compliant last Friday when I visited it to make an ad hoc ADA site survey; something I also reported in person at the Michigan Commission for Disability Concerns. In fact that particular office was especially egregious in that the sign designating it was purely visual with no tactile elements altogether and mounted on the door. In fact I would not have even known of this office if a sighted person hadn’t point it out to me. This is especially egregious as that very office is where one might go to ask for this very accommodation and also to file a grievance against the Department of Energy Labor and Economic Growth. The irony and crass and overt discrimination is not lost on this person who is blind. For this is as if there were no ramp to that room for a wheelchair user.

 

Now, under the ADA a public entity is responsible for making its facilities accessible and must act affirmatively in these regards. My goodness the ADA is now nearly twenty years old and we face these barriers to this very day? Moreover, the Michigan Commission for the Blind will be holding its quarterly meeting on the third floor and the entire path of travel is non-compliant and even that conference room related to ADAAG specifications listed above.

 

Thus this is not an accessible meeting as your agency’s literature attests; as the WIA, ADA, and Section 504 require.

 

It is, quite frankly a chronic and pervasive, pattern and practice of discrimination by you, MCB, DELEG and the State of Michigan.

 

One would think the activities and facilities of State entities purportedly serving the blind would be fully accessible to us within the requirements of the laws that you are not only paid to follow, but also are entrusted through Executive Order of the Governor of Michigan to facilitate.

 

Thus this is a formal complaint against you as MCB Director and this is a formal ADA grievance made to you as the State ADA Coordinator. 

 

I await your prompt response to this inquiry in accessible format of course as I am indeed blind. My most accessible format is a simple e-mail response to this inquiry.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

 

Cc: several

Cc: John L. Wodatch, US DOJ