He was a pain in the ass.
I don’t remember his name, so let’s call him “Bill.” I was 19 years old, and he was the first peer I’d ever met who used a wheelchair.
Bill was a sophomore at the University of Oregon in 1979, and a vocal proponent of disability rights. Again, the first I’d met.
Much of the U of O campus was inaccessible in those days. Classrooms were often several flights up in buildings with no elevators. Doorways were narrow. Bathroom stalls had no room for chairs.
Bill would point these out to us. He’d speak up at Student Council meetings. At least once, he fought to move a class from the third floor of an old, elevator-less building to the first floor.
Why? So he could attend without being carried up the stairs.
I remember him at the 1980 Mock Republican Convention, demanding that the platform include a plank about disabled rights. Other students — me among them — would roll their eyes when he wasn’t looking.
Bill was relentless. He annoyed people. He annoyed me.
But the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), signed July 26, 1990, exists because Bill—and people like him—refused to shut up.
More on that below.
A quick review, from the ADA’s web page:
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday activities. The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability just as other civil rights laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, purchase goods and services, and participate in state and local government programs.
These days we take the ADA for granted — the law, with the protection it grants, feels like it’s always been there.
We may forget the decades of struggle that finally brought the issue to Congress and then the President’s desk. And we forget that these protections don’t necessarily apply to the rest of the world.
I’ve been thinking of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and Bill, because of a news report out of Istanbul.
News Flash:
ADA Protections Don’t Apply in Other Countries
A British passenger with Parkinson’s was refused boarding on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to the UK because he didn’t have a doctor’s note certifying that he was capable of traveling by plane.
Mark Mardell spent several hours at the airport trying to locate his checked luggage, was forced to rebook on another airline, and had to spend the night in a Turkish hotel before flying home.
My first reaction was that airline personnel on the ground had made a mistake.
Wrong.
Here’s the rule, from the Turkish Airlines website:
We can give admission to board to our sick passengers who has no infectious diseases and for whom there is no medical impediment to travel, provided that they submit a medical report issued within a maximum of 10 days and bearing the statement of “there are no risks on traveling by plane…”
…Passengers who have Parkinson’s disease are admitted to the flight with a doctor’s report stating that “There is no harm in traveling by plane”. The report must include a statement specifying that the passenger can travel accompanied or unaccompanied…
So the passenger not only needs a note — they must ask their doctor for a new copy of that note any time more than ten days have elapsed since the last flight.
Turkish Airlines doesn’t seem embarrassed by any of this. Over two weeks after the Mardell incident, the rule is still right there on the website.
Mardell’s experience shook me out of my complacency. I went back and read up on the ADA, and about the struggles activists went through to give us the rights I now take for granted.
I learned:
- During the Great Depression, the Emergency Relief Bureau routinely denied benefits to disabled people, whom they considered “unemployable.” The ERB would not refer the disabled to the Works Progress Administration for jobs. In response the League of the Physically Handicapped staged a sit-in at the Bureau’s office in New York City.
. - In 1977, President Carter’s Health and Human Services Director Joseph Califano was slow to establish regulations to enforce the disability protection provisions of the Rehabilitation Act. To encourage Califano to make something happen, “activists occupied the federal building in San Francisco for nearly a month. When the government cut off phone service to the building (years before cell phones), Deaf people in the building got messages in and out by signing back and forth to allies outside.” This remains the longest sit-in in a federal building in American history.
. - In 1984, members of ADAPT (formerly the Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) blocked Chicago city buses with their wheelchairs, demanding equal access. “The protest led to a lawsuit against the Chicago Transit Authority. The court ruled that buses must have wheelchair lifts. “
. - In 1990, when the ADA was stalled in Congress, protestors staged an event that became known as the Capitol Crawl. “On March 12th, 1990, protestors with ADAPT gathered at the White House to begin their “Wheels for Justice March” and made their way to the U.S. Capitol. Once at the steps of the Capitol some protestors left behind their mobility aids and began crawling up the steps. People of all ages and abilities made their way up the steps, with Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, an eight-year-old with cerebral palsy saying, “I’ll take all night if I have to.” Protestors climbing the steps took with them copies of the Declaration of Independence, which were delivered to members of Congress after everyone reached the top. “
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These pains in the ass — including my old college classmate Bill — were heroes. Their refusal to shut up ensured that when when we board an airplane in the United States, nobody demands a doctor’s note.
Even here in the US, there’s no guarantee that the rights established by the Americans with Disabilities Act will always be there. There are efforts afoot — some at the highest levels of government — to chip away at the infrastucture of the law.
You can learn about those efforts here, here, and here.
In 1979 when I first met Bill, none of this was on my radar. As a 19-year-old able-bodied college student, I was one of those who wished he’d pipe down.
44 years later, I got my Parkinson’s diagnosis and began to contemplate a future in which this stuff might directly apply to me. I’m grateful Bill and his colleagues would not be quiet.
So take a moment to read about the Americans With Disabilities Act.
If you’re traveling out of the United States, understand that the rest of the world operates under different rules.
And if the cheapest airline ticket you can find is on Turkish Airlines, spend a little extra and fly someone else.
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Bonus for Those Who Read to the Bottom
A waffle. Falling over.
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This guy is a professional whip cracker, and holder of several Guiness World Records in the category. I was until recently unaware that any of this was a thing.
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At least one Ramones song works surprisingly well as a country tune.
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Speaking of “works surprisingly well,” here’s Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on acoustic guitar.
Shakin' Street -- A Parkinson's Blog 
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