Op-ed: Playing catch-up on accessibility

By Martha Mae Bryson

A federal judge recently approved a historic agreement between people with physical disabilities and the Oregon Department of Transportation. As part of the largest commitment to an accessible transportation system in state history, the state agency pledged to install missing curb ramps, fix substandard ones and upgrade crossing signals on the entire state highway system. The agreement promises to create more inclusive communities.

As a Springfield resident who uses a wheelchair to get around, I applaud this legal milestone. I rely on being able to safely cross streets to go to medical appointments, participate in community activities, visit friends and be able to shop for myself. This access is a prerequisite for staying connected to my community and living a full life.

But many street crossings are too dangerous for me. Some of the wheelchair cut-outs are so steep that I have to turn around and back up the ramp. On others I slide down into traffic, and cars almost hit me. Across the state, people with physical disabilities face similar dangers.

The settlement requires the state Transportation Department to begin work immediately and to make changes across Oregon. By the end of 2017, the state will complete audits of all curb ramps and pedestrian crossing signals along state highways. The department is required to fix 30 percent of curb ramp locations within five years and to increase that to 75 percent in 10 years. All locations must be repaired within 15 years.

The state will give high priority to missing curb ramps and existing ones that present a barrier to access as a result of having a too-steep slope that puts them at risk of losing control of the wheelchair; a lip at the bottom of the ramp that’s too high, potentially stranding people with wheelchairs in the street; and insufficient space on adjacent sidewalks for wheelchairs to negotiate turns.

What do all of these curb ramps and crossing signal repair projects add up to? Eventually, I’ll be able to more easily go all of the places that nondisabled people go to take care of their business.

In many ways, this large-scale undertaking is nearly three decades in the making. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act put into law requirements that states must provide accessible curb ramps where pedestrian walkways cross curbs. The ADA also requires that states provide accessible pedestrian crossing signals at curb ramps with traffic lights.

Yet 27 years after President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA into law, individuals with physical disabilities across Oregon found that they were barred from some of the most important streets of their cities and towns by poorly constructed or missing curb ramps.

I’ve often wondered what accounted for the delay. With the rights of people with disabilities enshrined in federal law, why do we continue to struggle to make inclusion part of the norm?

People with physical disabilities face many quiet moments of challenges that often go unseen, sometimes for decades, by people without physical disabilities. For example, I encounter people without physical disabilities taking up sidewalk wheelchair ramps, when they could easily step off the curb. People in wheelchairs cannot. Sometimes when I try to take an elevator, people rush right past me to fill up the space, preventing me from being able to use the elevator. This makes me feel that I’m invisible to them, just because I’m in a wheelchair instead of being able to walk.

If more of the public knew what it takes for disabled people to navigate around town, and how draining and taxing it is to deal with these types of barriers and inclusion issues, I suspect there would be greater support for correcting the problems and doing so more quickly.

The bottom line is this: People in walkers and wheelchairs need to be able to go where people with legs go. This agreement with the state Transportation Department will foster a deeper understanding, among Oregonians of all backgrounds, about what people who use mobility equipment require to be able to live full lives. And growing that understanding is integral to building truly inclusive communities.

Martha Mae Bryson of Eugene is an activist who has worked on behalf of homeless and disabled people in California, Texas and Oregon.