Today marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Former President Bush signed the law that provides equity in employment, transportation, and accessibility.
Since then, wheelchair ramps, signs in braille, and telecommunications devices for the deaf have multiplied across the country.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens has this progress report on how well New Hampshire has done to accommodate its citizens with disabilities.
Killam: …The whole thing begins with the parking lot and then works up the ramp or the sidewalk to the door. So we start with accessible parking…
Cheryl Killam is the Accessibility Specialist for the Governor’s Commission on Disability.
As part of a celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, she gave a tour of the Common Man restaurant in Concord.
From her wheelchair she points out all the ways the restaurant has made accommodations for people with disabilities.
Killam:…we have the sign that shows the wheelchair symbol and the sign is in brail…
Accessibility has been a major focus of the commission, getting voting places, district and superior courts, and state parks to update their facilities.
Killam also advises businesses on how to comply with the Act and remove barriers.
She says in New Hampshire, businesses have gotten pretty creative when it comes to the challenges of updating old buildings.
Killam: For instance there’s a small business in Concord, White Mountain Coffee on Pleasant Street, that is restricted by city sidewalks. They could not possibly put in a ramp. But what they did is they bought a portable ramp, they put a sign on their computer and laminated it, they installed a ten dollar doorbell and they made a wedge shaped piece of wood for their threshold.
Another local business with front steps shares a ramp with the store next door.
And many others that don’t have ramps provide sidewalk service.
But Killam says there is room for improvement and many businesses are losing out on customers.
Killam: There are people that still don’t get it. They don’t understand that a step that’s more than a half of an inch is a barrier to somebody in a wheelchair. If you think of how many times you lift your foot up before you enter a business—most people don’t think of that—but that five inch step is Mount Everest to somebody in a wheelchair.
Some businesses may get it, but they still have a hard time accommodating people with disabilities.
Charming main streets of small New Hampshire towns, with old buildings scrunched together on narrow streets, can be prohibitive for people in wheelchairs.
Don Brueggemann, the manager of Bagelworks in Concord, works in one of these buildings.
And he hasn’t found a solution to his shop’s front steps.
Brueggemann: I’ve looked into ramps, but in order to get a proper pitch for the ramp it would essentially extend out into the street. And so I’m some what at a loss as to how to accommodate that, but I find it really disappointing that we can’t be. Because I feel like we are a community gathering place and the idea of excluding individuals from that is not right.
But Brueggemann says his company has made a big effort to accommodate people with mental disabilities.
And Bagelworks isn’t alone.
Dick Cohen, executive director of the Disabilities Rights Center, says New Hampshire has made especially good progress accommodating people with mental disabilities.
Cohen: New Hampshire became the first state in the country not to have an institution for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. And really developed a community based system to fully serve people with cognitive disabilies mental retardation and has a community based system that’s probably better than most around the country.
On the down side, people with disabilities in New Hampshire face many hurdles when they look for housing that suits their needs.
And, says Cohen, employment opportunities in the state are far less than equal.
Cohen: We still have a huge ways to go. The unemployment rate I think nationally for people with disabilities is in the neighborhood of like sixty or seventy percent unemployed. And almost all of them are ready willing and able to work. In New Hampshire the unemployment rate is also about the same so we need to do a lot more in that area.
Cohen says a big part of the solution may be in employers understanding that making accommodations for disabled employees won’t break the bank.
He says a quarter of all adjustments cost nothing at all.
For NHPR News this Kerry Grens.
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