[nfbmi-talk] Fw: i thought you wereworking on this?

[joe harcz Comcast]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: Ellis, Sharon (DTMB) 
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 6:14 PM
Subject: i thought you wereworking on this?


> Americans with Disabilities Act celebration turns sour at Flint site that isn't ADA-compliant By Paul Egan Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau LANSING -
It
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> was billed as a celebration of the landmark federal law intended to make sure disabled people have equal access to public facilities. But the site in
Flint
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> chosen to celebrate the 23rd birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act - Kearsley Park - did not meet requirements of the ADA. A wooden ramp had
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> unsafe railings, broken planks and protruding bolts. Sidewalks weren't level. A playground area was inaccessible. People who used wheelchairs had to roll
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> across grass to reach portable toilets that lacked raised signage for the blind. It was supposed to be an ADA anniversary celebration," said Scott Heinzman,
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> 51, an organizer with the group ADAPT who uses a wheelchair because of a spinal cord injury at age 20. That's why it makes it kind of weird to hold it
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> in a place that I wouldn't say is compliant with the ADA. The July 26 event at a Flint city park, one of a handful of events held around the state, was
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> sponsored by the Disability Network, a nonprofit agency, and the Genesee Health System, the county mental health agency. Disabled activists say it was
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> a poignant example of the frustrations and indignities they experience at state and local public facilities on a daily basis. State buildings still fail
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> to meet many requirements of the ADA, and the state still lacks a transition plan - required under federal law - for coming into compliance. Though data
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> comparing Michigan with other governments is lacking, a 2010 survey by the Chicago-based Great Lakes ADA Center gave Michigan an overall grade of C on
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> its ADA report card and a C+ for removal of physical barriers from buildings. That was slightly better than Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin fared, the same
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> as the grades Indiana received, and slightly worse than Minnesota's score. Joe Harcz, a Mt. Morris resident who is blind, pointed out that even the state's
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> library for blind people inside the Michigan Library and Historical Center in Lansing - recently renamed the Braille and Talking Book Library - does not
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> have an entrance sign in raised lettering and Braille, as required by the ADA. Harcz said he has not found a single state building, including the Capitol,
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> that fully complies with that requirement. And state officials do not dispute that. The state is trying to negotiate the settlement of a federal lawsuit
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> brought against it last year by Michigan Economic Development Corp. employee Jill Babcock, who uses a wheelchair and sued over accessibility problems
at
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> Cadillac Place, a huge state office complex in Detroit's Midtown area that includes an office for Gov. Rick Snyder. Late last year, the Snyder administration
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> appointed Sharon Ellis as its first statewide ADA compliance director. She will help oversee a transition plan spelling out how and when the state plans
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> to come into compliance with the law. We hope to have the transition plan completed within the next six months," Department of Technology, Management
and
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> Budget spokesman Kurt Weiss said Sept. 4. While the current administration cannot speak to what occurred prior to 2011, the current focus is on improving
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> our state facilities and signage so that we are meeting the needs of people with disabilities," he said. A statewide ADA compliance audit - the first
since
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> 2008 - is under way, and improving signage across state government buildings will be a major piece of the transition plan, Weiss said. For the Flint event,
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> a group of ADAPT activists that included Heinzman, Harcz and Bill Earl, who uses a wheelchair because he has cerebral palsy, went prepared. They brought
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> video cameras to document the deficiencies and confronted organizer Mike Zelley, who is president and CEO of the Disability Network in Flint and chairman
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> of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. In the videotaped interview, Zelley - who uses a wheelchair because he was paralyzed in a motor vehicle accident
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> 35 years ago - acknowledged most of the shortcomings the activists cite. We're rebuilding the ramp right now to make it to code," Zelley said in the video.
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> The rails are too tall. The park is not fully accessible; it's pretty accessible," Zelley told Earl in the interview. We're improving it as we go along.
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> Zelley said Sept. 4 that he had 100 volunteers on hand to make sure people could cross the ramp safely and to assist with other accessibility shortcomings.
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> Flint is strapped for cash and volunteers built the ramp, unfortunately not to code, he said. It will be fixed in time for next year's celebration, Zelley
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> said. Tisha Deeghan, senior vice president and chief operating officer of co-sponsor Genesee Health System, said the Disability Network handled logistics
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> for the event, which has been held at Kearsley Park in previous years. Her agency had not heard of complaints this year, she said. If there were individuals
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> who could not fully participate, we would apologize," Deeghan said. It's tough to find a venue that's as compliant as we would like things to be. We'll
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> strive to do better next summer.
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