Opening Doors for the Disabled

By NANCY TRAVER

Norma Westfield eases her wheelchair out of the elevator of her apartment, through the front door and to the Handi-Van waiting in front of her building. It is a vehicle with hydraulic lifts that the city of Fond du Lac offers to disabled residents. Westfield, 43, who has used a wheelchair since she was stricken with polio as a child, relies on the Handi-Van to reach her doctor's office and a local hospital where she does volunteer work. She is not strong enough to push herself to the bus stop a block away, and during the winter Westfield's wheelchair could easily tip over on Fond du Lac's icy streets. She can rely on the van until 10 p.m., while city buses run only until 6:45 p.m. And the 60 cents fare is no higher than riding the bus. Said Westfield: "It's a godsend."

Like disabled people in hundreds of small towns across the nation, Westfield fears that the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed overwhelmingly by the House last week and expected to be signed into law by the President in July, will unintentionally harm those it is designed to help. Widely viewed as the most sweeping civil rights measure in more than 25 years, the act offers the nation's 43 million disabled new employment opportunities and greater access to public accommodations, transit systems and communications networks. Until the law goes into effect, handicapped people are protected by only a patchwork of state and local laws.

Some advocates for the disabled argue that those local ordinances were better tailored to meet the needs of the handicapped than is the new law. One provision of the disabilities act, for example, will require all new buses to be equipped with hydraulic lifts that will cost state and local governments up to $30 million annually for the next several years. Meeting that requirement will confront hard-pressed small towns with a difficult financial choice.

In Fond du Lac, a town of 40,000 curled along the shores of Lake Winnebago, lifts will boost the price tag on each new bus $15,000. Operating and maintenance expenses will tack on an additional $5,000 each year. City-council members worry about finding enough money to both continue the Handi-Van service and install lifts on the city's fleet of twelve buses, half of which are due to be replaced this year.

Disabled-rights groups lobbied hard to defeat an amendment to the bill that would have exempted transit systems in cities of fewer than 200,000. They argued that disabled people should not be segregated in special buses or vans. But Stan Kocos, chairman of Disabled Advocates of Fond du Lac, admits that his group was torn between support for the new law and the Handi-Van. Says Kocos: "We want lifts on buses, and we want the alternative service. But we'd hate to see a taxpayer backlash."

Kocos said many local store owners are confused and fearful about the improvements they will have to make, which require businesses to be made accessible to the disabled by the end of next year. Business groups have estimated that building a concrete ramp can cost between $1,000 and $10,000, while widening an exterior door runs $3,000.

Martin Ryan, a manufacturer of artificial limbs, has talked to business owners about the bill at local Chamber of Commerce meetings. The cost of improvements can be kept down, he maintains, by building wooden ramps instead of concrete ones or simply attaching a buzzer on a front door. "Many business owners say, 'I don't have many disabled customers, so why should I build a ramp or widen my doorways or install a pull on the door of my store?' " says Ryan. "I just try to tell them it's a cost of doing business, and it's worthwhile."

Though finding accessible housing remains a problem for Fond du Lac's disabled, the city has made progress in opening some public accommodations. Movie theaters have removed rows of seats to make room for people in wheelchairs. Several service stations offer to pump gas at no extra charge for disabled drivers, and grocery stores provide electric carts for shoppers who cannot navigate the long aisles. Parking spaces marked with the blue-and-white symbol of a wheelchair are vigilantly guarded; anyone who illegally slips into one is subject to a $30 fine. Rather than rely on police to enforce the law, many disabled residents carry ticket forms that can be slapped onto the window of an offending car. Their eagerness to be tough on parking violators is a sign that the disabled do not intend to allow the unhandicapped to walk all over their rights.