Very good. I was able to get a quickshop to repaint the ramp area to get on
the sidewalk and make it much more visible so people would not park there.
There was another ramp at the end of the sidewalk but it was steep and would
throw a person in a w/c foreword because of a bump in the middle.
What was actually done was the parking lot was redone! They put down new
asphalt, new paint and it is very nice and smooth now. the steep ramp is
still there, but at least now everyone who goes there can do it much safer.
I have noticed noone is parking in the handicap spot anymore--the store
changed its name too, more like a community market than a quick shop name.
It took me several times of saying something to the workers and some guy who
Ithink was a manager--the last time I was there and had talked to him just
as I was leaving a car pulled into that spot and I could not leave. I went
back in and the guy saw it in person--"that" did it!
Now what to do about the hospital that built a new wing and put the door
handles to the patient rooms too high to work them. The other hospital puts
trash recipricals in front of each floor elevator button. My mother will be
going to that hospital for a knee replacement and I will be visiting every
day. So far when I've been there I just push the trash can to the side.
May do something else this time. It will take letter writing this time.
Little by little.
take care,
Dana and ?
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "River Wolfe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Tod E. Santee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "quad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 4:31 PM
Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] ADA Definitions, HIV, and Abuses
Todd,
I love you ;-)
River
On Sep 11, 2004, at 3:16 PM, Tod E. Santee wrote:
> Please Educate yourselves... I do my best at it in this area because
> of several of my own work-related discrimination circumstances I'm
> forced to deal with in order to be an effective employee and teacher.
> I've had to file charges (not law suits) through the state attorney
> general, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and my charges have
> allbeen gfound with enough merit to forwarded to the Dept. of
> Justice. The US DOJ just sent attornies, investigators, and an
> architect to my school based on my charges and the official findings
> of the state and federal EEOC. I have not sued... I want it fixed! I
> could have sued years ago, but now I have the weight of federal
> agencies backing up my claims who can force them to fix the probblems
> rather than "pay me off."
>
> I've had to testify by subpoena (i.e. had no choice) in a somewhat
> unrelated ADA discrimination case against my employer, and had to be
> cautious about identifying retaliation for it.
>
> So, with all that, I can be certain in telling you, based on all the
> research and other work I've done, and professional contacts I've
> made, that I know it isn't those with HIV, mental illness,
> drug/alcohol addictions, and behavioral disabilities... the ones
> targeted by the Texas GOP as the ones who are "abusing the ADA."
>
> The vast majority of abuses and law suits under the ADA do not come
> from those mentioned in above in the TX Platform, but from money
> grubbing attorneys who find money grubbing wheelchair user who will go
> up and down a business corridor and file suit after suit for alleged
> inaccessibility and claim "pain & suffering" and "mental anguish"
> because of things like a toilet handle on the wrong side of the
> toilet, or a ramped entrance is 5' farther from the doors than the
> parking area, or a parking space with a 3' sign instead of a 6' sign,
> as it should be. These are the abuses. If your toilet handle IS on
> the wrong side, you can fight it in court and lose, having to pay your
> attorney and the attorney fees of the person who was "discriminated"
> against.... OR you can settle and pay the plaintiff's fees and
> monetary "damages" and the hope you have enough left to actually fix
> the problem before the next assembly-line plaintiff comes in.
>
> The Texas GOP Platform inaccurately portraying homosexuality as a
> disability is nothing but a way to turn the public against the ADA in
> general... ("My God! Can you believe what this ridiculous law
> protects!!??" Get rid of it, Senator/Congressman, if you want my
> vote!") Do you really think people will READ the law? Or just acept
> what lawmakers tell them? Hell, regardless of your opinions of the
> USA Patriot Act, the fact is that lawmakers didn't even read the law
> before they approved it because their constituents thought the parts
> they heard would protect them from terrorists! Whether it does or
> not doesn't matter... They voted for it so they wouldn't get booted
> out of officve by pissed off constituents. Same thing with the ADA...
> Convince people of something, true or not, and THEY determine a
> representatives position, support, or vote for/against it.
>
> ** In the ADA, the definitions include many people, even those who
> may not consider themselves disabled but who the general public,
> businesses, and employers may consider disabled:
>
> SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 42 USC 12102
> (2) Disability. The term disability means, with respect to an
> individual
> (A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one
> or more of the major life activities of such individual;
> (B) a record of such an impairment; or
> (C) being regarded as having such an impairment.
>
> and,
>
> (8) Qualified individual with a disability. The term qualified
> individual with a disability means an individual with a disability
> who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the
> essential functions of the employment position that such
> individualholds or desires. For the purposes of this title,
> consideration shall be given to the employers judgment as to what
> functions of a job are essential, and if an employer has prepared a
> written description before advertising or interviewing applicants for
> the job, this description shall be considered evidence of the
> essential functions of the job.
>
> ** Those who need assistance or modifications to perform a job, are
> offered the protection of being assured access to a "reasonable
> accommodation." On average, every study thus far has shown that the
> average reasonable accommodation costs an employer less than $200.
> (Giving someone a wheelchair is not a reasonabble accommodation...
> that's a personal item.)
>
> (9) Reasonable accommodation. The term reasonable accommodation may
> include
> (A) making existing facilities used by employees readily
> accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; and
> (B) job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules,
> reassignment to a vacant position, acquisition or modification of
> equipment or devices, appropriate adjustment or modifications of
> examinations, training materials or policies, the provision of
> qualified readers or interpreters, and other similar accommodations
> for individuals with disabilities.
>
> ** The provisions of the ADA with regard to HIV/AIDS actually protect
> the general public from these and other communicable diseases (see
> below). Eliminating HIV/AIDS from the definitions may, in fact, be
> dangerous to everyone if someone is not disabled and not afforded the
> protection of a reasonable accommodation under the Act.
>
> SEC. 103. DEFENSES. 42 USC 12113.
> (d) List of Infectious and Communicable Diseases.
> (1) In general. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, not
> later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, shall
> (A) review all infectious and communicable diseases which may be
> transmitted through handling the food supply;
> (B) publish a list of infectious and communicable diseases which
> are transmitted through handling the food supply;
> (C) publish the methods by which such diseases are transmitted;
> and
> (D) widely disseminate such information regarding the list of
> diseases and their modes of transmissability to the general public.
> ** Such list shall be updated annually.
>
> (2) Applications. In any case in which an individual has an
> infectious or communicable disease that is transmitted to others
> through the handling of food, that is included on the list developed
> by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under paragraph (1), and
> which cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation, a covered
> entity may refuse to assign or continue to assign such individual to a
> job involving food handling.
>
> ** The ADA also protects those associated with people with a
> disability or regarded as having a disability. Under "Public
> Accommodations," it specifically prohibits discriminating against a
> person who is associated with someone with a disability. Same goes
> for jobs...
>
> SEC. 302. PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION BY PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS. 42
> USC 12182.
> (a) General Rule
> (1) General Prohibition
> (E) (E) Association. It shall be discriminatory to exclude or
> otherwise deny equal goods, services, facilities, privileges,
> advantages, accommodations, or other opportunities to an individual or
> entity because of the known disability of an individual with whom the
> individual or entity is known to have a relationship or association.
>
> Ok... Wrapping Up
> ---------------------------
>
> So, if YOU have HIV/AIDS and it "substantially limits one or more of
> the major life activities" (i.e. having to take a longer work break to
> take medications, for instance, would be an accommodation for such a
> situation if you agree to work earlier and later to make up on-duty
> hours) ... you are disabled or regarded as being disabled even if you
> don't consider yourself disabled.
>
> Now, if your spouse applies for a job and is turned down because
> he/she might have to take care of you longer at home if/when you get
> ill, he/she has also been discriminated against by being associated
> with you because you have HIV/AIDS or another communicable disease.
>
> If you get fired because you ask for leave to care for your spouse
> during some critical period of their mental impairment (another group
> the TX GOP wants removed from definitions of "disabled")... but a
> person who asks for leave to care for a family member beginning
> chemotherapy is not fired, then you are discriminated against because
> you are associated with a person with a disability.
>
> Educate yourselves while it's still in effect! Then decide. Once
> it's gone, it's tough to get it back!
>
> Best Wishes to All!
> Tod
>
>
