Barriers block path to access

By Steve Kanigher

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 8:10 a.m.

Ten years after Congress passed the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, disabled Southern Nevadans still have difficulty using many taxpayer-funded buildings or even reaching them from parking lots and bus stops.

The 1990 federal act was hailed as a major civil rights victory, replacing a 1973 law criticized as too vague. The aim was to give disabled people independence by allowing them to use buildings open to the public without requiring assistance.

But a check of taxpayer-funded buildings in the Las Vegas Valley revealed spotty enforcement of the federal law. From doors that are too hard to open to van-accessible handicapped parking spaces that are too small, items that would seem trivial to most Nevadans can be monumental to individuals who use wheelchairs or walkers.

"The bottom line in all of this is that architects and the building code people tend to look at the letter of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) but the law is not necessarily user friendly," said Vince Triggs, executive director of the Nevada Association for the Handicapped. "There's no thought to making the buildings truly accessible. A lot of this is budget stuff."

Nevadans most impacted by building access issues include 10,634 severely disabled individuals who use wheelchairs, including 6,746 in Clark County, according to the latest state figures. As of last year, there were also more than 55,000 permanently disabled Nevadans who had blue handicapped parking placards or special license plates, and nearly 18,000 others who had temporary handicapped parking permits.

Some local disabled rights advocates say it is easier to take on casinos and other businesses than state and local government when it comes to building access issues. Examples include victories over the MGM Grand hotel-casino, as well as restaurants and medical facilities.

Yet disabled individuals say they still have problems accessing UNLV, the Sawyer State Office Building, public schools, libraries, the Clark County Government Center and Las Vegas City Hall.

"The private sector sees that the more accessible you are, the more you will have a new target market," said Mary Evilsizer, executive director of the Southern Nevada Center for Independent Living. "The public sector is not as concerned about getting a market share. If you're the Medicaid office, you're not trying to get new customers."

The 1990 law is far from perfect, judging from dozens of legal challenges nationwide. Some critics say the law is as vague as its predecessor because it absolves public entities of having to make buildings more accessible if to do so would result in "undue financial and administrative burdens."

Marc Cardinalli, UNLV's interim code officer charged with enforcing the federal law, said the university seeks to make its programs accessible to everyone. But he said the federal law was made vague in part by political compromise.

"The problem is trying to strike a balance and finding reasonable accommodations," Cardinalli said. "One of the problems we have is that new rules come out all the time. It's confusing but we do the best we possibly can."

But UNLV critics, such as Evilsizer, are easy to find.

"UNLV for a long time has had more barriers than other institutions because it is a large facility," Evilsizer said. "They tend to focus more on education, and the accessibility issues go by the wayside."

It was reported in March that 12-year-old Stephen Quinn was prevented by arena employees from accessing the floor level of the Thomas & Mack Center for a UNLV basketball game. The incident rehashed long-standing complaints about access to the arena. But to the disabled community, the Thomas & Mack is merely one example of a campus riddled with access problems.

Sophomore James Altman, a secondary education major with cerebral palsy, will not soon forget his first week on campus in September 1998. On a stormy morning he left the William D. Carlson Education building in his wheelchair, on an unfamiliar route. Because of how he must sit in his chair, he cannot see the ground directly in front of him.

Without any signs or handrails to warn him, he reported that his wheelchair tipped over the edge of a downward three-step staircase, causing him to lose three front teeth and suffer a broken jaw. Altman filed an administrative complaint with the state and won an out-of-court settlement, though his mother said it didn't cover all of his medical bills.

"I'm trying to get a kid educated without getting him killed," Sharon Altman said.

According to Needham Injury Attorneys, the Las Vegas law firm that represented Altman, UNLV installed warning signs following the accident. UNLV assistant corporate counsel Karl Armstrong said the university does what it can to remediate problems with campus access. But he added that the federal law is difficult to enforce because the regulations constantly change and are subject to varied interpretations.

Former UNLV student Paul Martin, a wheelchair user and member of Nevadans for Equal Access, said he dropped out of school in part because of the "frustration of getting into some of the rooms and the frustration of professors not providing me remedial circumstances."

Among the concerns about UNLV from the disabled community:

This latter issue posed a problem for wheelchair user Moshe Bialac, a state AFL-CIO labor coordinator. He said he was forced to park diagonally in a regular handicapped parking space at UNLV in March "which is all well and good unless you're in a wheelchair." What he needed but couldn't find was a van-accessible space wide enough for his wheelchair ramp.

After returning to his vehicle from a conference on campus Bialac said he found a ticket on his car for illegal parking. He wheeled back to campus to complain and convinced a parking enforcement officer to rip up the ticket.

"She didn't even argue with me," Bialac said.

UNLV expects to address many of the access issues within the next three years, said Eric Anderson, campus director of planning and construction.

Later this year the university plans to have maps in kiosks that will show all accessible routes on campus. More directional signs with wheelchair symbols will also be installed.

Anderson said the curb cut and ramp concerns surrounding Tonopah Hall and the dining commons will also be addressed by next year during a construction project that will add 400 dorm rooms on the parking lot adjacent to the existing dorm. Campus parking lots along Maryland Parkway also will be reconfigured to include legal-sized, van-accessible handicapped spaces, he said.

UNLV also intends to ask the 2001 Legislature for money to renovate Wright Hall, which includes liberal arts classrooms. If the request is approved, the renovation would be complete by 2003 and include elevators large enough to accommodate all wheelchairs, Anderson said.

"We're trying to get all our corrections done with the large projects," he said.

Anderson said the door malfunction at the architectural building should be an easy fix. He said the front counter, which was not part of the original building, was installed by someone who likely "hadn't considered the ADA." He said the university will comply with the federal law that requires a portion of the counter to be no more than 36 inches high to accommodate wheelchair users.

But he said the university does not plan to widen the hallways in the humanities building, which was built in 1972, a year before the first federal law went into effect. That law required existing public buildings to be renovated for full accessibility if they were built by entities that receive federal funds, including UNLV.

But Anderson said it would cost more than 25 percent of the original price of the humanities building to make the renovations, exempting it from federal law. Most of the floors with narrow hallways include faculty offices, but renovating those floors would require major structural changes, he said. The alternative for wheelchair users is to make arrangements to meet elsewhere with faculty with offices on those floors.

Unlike the old UNLV buildings that are exempt from portions of federal law, that is not the case with the Sawyer State Office Building at 555 E. Washington Ave. On a recent tour of the building -- which opened in 1995 -- with Disabled Rights Action Committee members Robert and Carol Lee of Las Vegas, they shared three major concerns as wheelchair users.

One is that the most direct way to get to the building from the Las Vegas Boulevard North bus stop is to go downslope along a winding cement path that has no handrails or curb edges. A wheelchair user who is not careful potentially could fall down the hill or into a stony creek bed.

"You could fall down the gully and get hurt," Robert Lee said.

Another problem, according to the Lees, is with the wheelchair entrance on the east side of the building, which consists of two sets of double doors. Pressurized buttons outside the outer door and outside the inner door heading back outside will open both sets of doors as one enters or exits the building.

But they said it is possible for wheelchair users who are not quick enough to become trapped between the sets of doors, forcing them to wait for assistance. The solution, according to the Lees, is to put additional pressurized buttons on the inside of both doors.

Once inside the building the Lees complained that the restroom doors were too hard to open. Round-the-clock security is available in the building to lend assistance, but Robert Lee said that defeats the purpose of the federal law.

"That would treat me like a second-class citizen because it's not allowing me to do something as an independent citizen," he said.

Ward Patrick, deputy manager of the State Public Works Board, said the restroom doors can be adjusted. The timing of the doors used for wheelchair access can also be altered to stay open longer, he said.

"There may be some work there to be done," Patrick said of the winding path. "One person has told me here in the office that maybe it does need some rails there."

Like UNLV, the Clark County School District intends to correct many access problems, particularly as it renovates older schools using taxpayer-approved bond funds. An example is the installation of metal plates that will make it easier for a wheelchair user to enter a school where the entrance may be an inch or so higher than the ground outside.

But Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, a teacher at Ed Von Tobel Middle School, has complained for years about the lack of ramp access to most portable classrooms. Most of the estimated 900 portable classrooms in the district can be accessed only by stairs.

"Only one out of a whole row may have a ramp," Giunchigliani said. "If you're a kid who breaks a leg over the summer, you won't have access. If you're a disabled teacher, you won't have access."

Patrick Herron, assistant superintendent for facilities and transportation issues, said that North and South Carolina, where he has worked, require all portable classrooms to have ramps. He said no such requirement exists in Nevada. Instead, the Clark County district does what it can to transfer disabled students and teachers to accessible main classroom buildings, he said.

"We do believe we need to create more flexibility and our goal is to put in more ramps," Herron said. "We're working toward at least one ramped portable per campus. What we're trying to do is find some middle ground."

Giunchigliani, author of a new state law that requires stricter adherence to federal building access standards, also said many school playgrounds open to the public during weekends are difficult for disabled individuals to use.

"If they open the gates to the playgrounds, they should be open to anyone," Giunchigliani said. "They shouldn't force a disabled person to go around the block to use a facility."

That's because to enter these playgrounds, one must walk through a maze-like path designed to keep out bicycles and motorcycles from causing vandalism, such as torn up playground grass. The same design also prevents access by wheelchair, however.

But Herron said it would be difficult to provide wheelchair access through the maze entrances because they were designed to prevent the bicycles and motorcycles.

"If someone could give us a solution to that, we would be delighted," he said. "I suggest (disabled people) contact the principal and work out something on an individual basis."

The barriers thrown at wheelchair users include the heavy doors leading to the Las Vegas City Council chambers. The Lees also said the soap and towel dispensers are too high to reach in the restrooms at the Las Vegas Library at 833 Las Vegas Blvd North.

An example of a device that may be easy for some wheelchair users to master but difficult for others with limited arm movement is the wheelchair lift in the County Commission chambers. One must grab the handle of a swinging door to access the lift. The person then must keep a hand depressed on a button in order for the lift to reach the podium level at the base of the chambers.

Wheelchair user Tamara Thompson, a member of the Disabled Rights Action Committee, experienced some pain in her arm when she operated the lift but was able to use it on her own. She said, however, that someone with more limited use of their arms would not have been able to keep a hand pressed on the button.

County spokesman Doug Bradford said it is possible to make modifications to accommodate individuals with limited arm movement. But he said security officers are always on hand to lend assistance. Thompson, however, said everything possible should be done to promote independent use of the lift.

"If you have a handicap, it shouldn't be accentuated for every single thing you do," she said. "It adds to your depression if you don't have that independence. It's all about your self-esteem, the whole way you look at yourself."

Steve Kanigher is a staff writer for the Sun. He can be reached at (702)-259-4075 or by e-mail at [email protected].