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From: era@ncar.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: A Couple of Stories...
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Date: 4 Sep 90 02:13:52 GMT
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Index Number: 10045

In article <13649@bunker.UUCP> moth@dartmouth.edu (Tom Leathrum) writes:
|Index Number: 9940
|
|It has been a while since I have put up a serious posting to this
|group (since January?)

Welcome back.

|[story about parents of handicapped children who are against inclusion,
|who want their children in institutions]

It's amazing how many people there are who are against inclusion.
Sometimes I think we need to bring in gay activists to give them
lessons in how to come out of the closet.  :-)

I was reminded of this just today, as I'm holding a legislative alert
about Senator Chaffee's Medicaid Reform Bill (S.384).  This bill would
help pay for services outside of institutions.  But many parents who think
their kids would be thrown out of institutions, are bombarding their
legislators with mail opposing the legislation.  It isn't going to pass
unless a lot of people write Senator Lloyd Bentsen, and their own senators,
real soon ... like by Labor Day.

|[story about problems encountered in taking persons with severe
|disabilities to a local opera house]
|
|We reached the theater and were shown to our seats.  The ushers
|were ill-prepared to deal with two people in wheelchairs and two
|attendants.  Our seats were inappropriately placed near one of the
|narrow inner aisles -- the wheelchairs would block the aisle.  Fire
|code, you know.  So, with management approval, we moved to the side
|isle (which is much wider).  We also moved back to within two rows
|of the back of the theater, away from the crowd, since we were
|expecting to leave around intermission anyway.  After some
|arranging (to keep the aisle reasonably open -- fire code again),
|we settled into our seats and the music started.  The overture was
|nice, and we all enjoyed the first part of the show.  About fifteen
|minutes into the show, management confronted us, asking us to move
|the wheelchairs to the very back of the theater, saying we were
|being "disruptive."  Both clients were enjoying the show, but they
|expressed their satisfaction with the performance by fidgeting in
|their chairs "rocking," some would say.  This did present a bit of
|a problem for one of them, because the brakes on his wheelchair
|were slipping.  The aisles are sloped.  I spent what little of the
|show I saw with my foot under his wheel.  About five minutes after
|we were asked to move to the back, management returned.
|Apparently, this wasn't good enough -- we were still being
|"disruptive."  The woman who had asked us to move back asked us if
|"going outside for a minute would upset them."
|
|Enough is enough.  We left.

Sounds like Lebanon hasn't changed a whole lot, attitude wise, in 20 years.

Two comments:

1) In situations like this, I would call ahead and explain to the theater
   manager that I would be coming with wheelchairs that would need a wide
   aisle.  At least they would be forewarned and couldn't make excuses.
2) However, even if I hadn't done that, I think I would stick in there.
   Yes, hindsight is 20-20 and I've made mistakes like this, but ...
   I think I would have stayed, and let the management call the cops,
   if that's what they wanted to do.

|I am working on getting a formal complaint of some sort written by
|the administrative people at the residence.  As a "mere" volunteer,
|my anger wouldn't do much good with the theater people, but I have
|gotten the right people at the residence involved -- something good
|will come of this yet.

Make a nuisance of yourself!

|Oh, I still haven't given you the punchline:  the performance we
|attended was a benefit for United Way.

That reminds me: the greatest thing to come down the pike since
sliced bread, is the new United Way regulation for business givers,
that allows individuals to make their contributions directly to
non-profit organizations of their choices, rather than funneling it
through the UW bureaucracy.  There's something very satisfying about
short-circuiting the allocation decisions made by the front-office
wingtips at UW.

BTW, did you see the article "Neither Morons, Nor Imbeciles, Nor Idiots"
in the June 1990 issue of Harper's Magazine?  If so, what did you think
of it?
--
Ed Arnold * NCAR * POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(voice)
303-497-1137(fax) * era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * era@ncario.BITNET
era@ncar.UUCP * Edward.Arnold@f809.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG