CITY'S INACCESSIBILITY ADDRESSED AT INACCESSIBLE HEARING

Disabled community leaders rally around the mayor's initiative

By Scott Sayare

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Access ramps were set up in the chamber, but the handicapped-access door was locked, and no one thought to hire a sign-language interpreter for last week's City Council hearing. Though access for the disabled was the matter of the day, community leaders in attendance—wheelchair-bound, blind or deaf—were disappointed, but not surprised. They came to support the creation of the Commission for Persons with Disabilities to address the everyday frustrations of the disabled in an often unaccommodating city.

"We lack a lot of access that other cities have built in," said Kristen McCosh, Ms. Wheelchair America 2008, who testified on behalf of the Boston Center for Independent Living, a disability education and advocacy group.

Mayor Thomas Menino announced his plan to create a commission on disability last month.

"This commission," wrote Menino in a letter to the City Council, "will work towards the goal of full integration and participation of people with disabilities in the City of Boston."

According to the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey, an estimated 14.1 percent of Massachusetts residents over the age of five are disabled.

The proposed five- to nine-person commission, consisting primarily of disabled persons, would advise both the state and municipal governments on issues of disabled access. About 200 such commissions already exist in cities and towns across the state.

Jay Walsh, director of the city's Office of Neighborhood Services, spoke at the hearing as a representative of the Menino administration; he suggested that city and state agencies would rely upon the commission "as a policy-making, policy-guiding department."

But when pressed about funding for the commission, Walsh could not offer specifics. "They'll get the support that they need," he said.

Councilor at Large Sam Yoon asked, "From where?" to which Walsh replied, "I'll make sure of it."

Under the provisions of Massachusetts General Law, funding for the commission could be sourced from fines for handicapped parking violations, which total about $1.5 million annually in the city of Boston, according to Walsh. But the administration, he indicated, will not be pursuing that option.

The creation of the commission, which should go to vote in the City Council on September 10th, would represent another in a string of recent victories for Boston's disabled community. Earlier this year, Mayor Menino committed $15 million to upgrading the city's pedestrian ramps. In 2007, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) agreed to implement accessibility improvements totaling an estimated $310 million in a settlement with disabled plaintiffs and community organizations.

But recent advances aside, "The reputation of Boston with respect to accessibility is not great," said Bob Hachey, president of the Bay State Council of the Blind, during testimony.

In 2006, the state's Architectural Access Board began fining the city of Boston $500 a day for a sidewalk on Huntington Avenue near Symphony Hall that violates Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. After more than a year, with fines totaling roughly $479,000, the city agreed to rebuild the sidewalk in mid-July.

John Winske, president of the Disability Policy Consortium, Inc., a disabled-advocacy group, cited the incident as typical of a city government unresponsive to concerns of the disabled.

"For too long," Winske told the City Council, speaking from his electric wheelchair. "Bostonians and visitors with disabilities have been second-class citizens in our city. Unfortunately, for the last decade, our disability commission was too weak. Our needs were ignored. Our complaints were unheeded."

Winske is increasingly optimistic, though.

"A fully functional disability commission will go a long way to setting us on a positive path," he said, adding, "The tide is turning. Mayor Menino has heard our pleas."