Deval Patrick and Ted Kennedy: town meeting on disability issues

Posted by John B. Kelly

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick and Senator Ted Kennedy will be meeting with the disability community on October 24 at 12 o'clock noon, at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown. (The meeting was originally scheduled for 10:00 a.m., but the change to 12 p.m.will be good news for the number of disabled people -- like me -- whose morning routine takes hours.)

This will be a great opportunity to ask what Patrick plans to do to help improve our lives.

Patrick has posted a position paper on disability issues, which says quite a few good things about promoting community living over nursing homes and expanding access to the PCA program and health insurance, but doesn't have much to say about street level access. Patrick says he will:

Enforce the ADA. Building on my experience as head of Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration, I will make compliance in state government with the Americans with Disabilities Act one of my highest priorities. We will have accessible public facilities and services, well-trained and prepared staff, and active outreach to and partnership with the disability community. I will also seek the service of persons with disabilities in my administration. As Governor I will not tolerate discrimination.

Getting state government to comply with the ADA is a good first step, but what we need 1st is access to our own neighborhoods. What slaps us across the face every time we leave our front doors is the breathtaking dangerousness of our local sidewalks and streets.

They are so dangerous because our cities and towns are indifferent or actively hostile to our civil rights to access.

I want to ask Deval Patrick whether he will commit to vigorous enforcement of the special part of the state building code that guarantees access in all new construction: 521 CMR. That would include the following:

• Directing Mass. Highway to make sure that all its projects improve rather than decrease access. This would mean more than "access guidelines" which cities and towns are free to ignore (for example, the guideline against having curb cuts made of brick)
• Directing the Department of Conservation and Recreation to make access along its roadways and reservations as high a priority as it has in some of its state parks. The DCR's record regarding its sidewalks and roads is terrible, and must be improved.
• Informing towns and cities that your administration will not tolerate discrimination against people with disabilities in any new construction, whether performed by cities themselves or the private developers they award permits to. And this would mean confronting cities like Boston, whose new construction has ignored access for years.
• Increasing funding for the state Architectural Access Board so that it can address the thousands of violations committed yearly in a timely fashion.

These are just my first thoughts, and I welcome comments.

And if you send me your questions for Deval Patrick or Ted Kennedy, I will print them here first!