The following reports originate from a variety of sources, including the Associated Press. We're always on the lookout for news of interest. Send us news and if we use it here we'll send you a `Piss on Pity' button. Use the eMail below.
There's a book out about golf entitled "A Good Walk Spoiled." It seems as if the Professional Golf Association thinks that's what Casey Martin is doing to the old game.
Martin is a 25-year-old golfer (he roomed with Tiger Woods at Stanford) who happens to have a disability. He doesn't have the vein that runs along the bone in his lower leg. Blood returning to the heart goes through a tangle of veins near the surface. When they get stress, they bleed into his knee, causing pain.
When he uses a golf cart Martin is able to play, and play well. In fact, in January he won a tournament on the Nike Tour, which is just below the top PGA circuit. But he had to get a court order to let him use the cart because the Big Swings at the PGA said no. They say it would be a special advantage for Martin; walking, they claim, is an essential part of the game.
Many golfers on the PGA Tour agree. Says Tiger: "As a friend, I'd love to see him have a cart. But from a playing standpoint, is it an advantage? It could be. If it's 100 degrees in Memphis, does it help to ride?"
Mark Calcavecchia, though, says: "I think he should be allowed to come out here, see what happens, and let it rip."
Other golfers have and have had physical problems: bad backs, bad feet, for example. And they have toughed it out. Mind you, golfers on the so-called Senior Tour are allowed to use carts, although Arnold Palmer says he's against that, too. Go figure.
A judge is going to decide this issue, but Martin won the first round when the judge said the PGA is not exempt from the ADA.
Is a cart a reasonable accommodation under ADA?
Why not let everybody use a golf cart? That would equalize matters. Or maybe Casey Martin could use a handcycle or a wheelchair on the course; then he would have to use energy like walkees.
As for Martin, he says "I can't say I've gone into this trying to carry a banner for the disabled. I just love competing. I love the feeling of a great shot. It's one of those sports that when you're playing it you get so frustrated you swear you're going to quit. Then you wake up the next day and want to go play again."
That sounds like the essence of the disability rights movement to us.
Martin also has been signed up by Nike as a spokesman for its clothing. In an ad, Martin says, "I don't want them to pity me because I limp around. You might as well chase your dreams while you're young before it's too late. I'm not going to let my leg stop me." Nike boss Phil Knight thinks the PGA is wrong on this one. "We believe Casey should be allowed to chase his dreams" in a cart. So do we.
The Department of Transportation is to issue regulations for over-the-road transportation services þ read Greyhound þ by March 15, with the final regs due by this September.
Meanwhile, DREDF (Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund) is seeking people with Greyhound experiences/stories/problems with a view to filing a class action suit against the Bus Line That Won't. (Call DREDF at 510-644-2555)
Last September, members of ADAPT, the hardened veterans of the battle for bus access, made 41 trips on Greyhound in various locations to test accessibility.
ADAPT says the results show that Greyhound, over seven years after the ADA was enacted, has hardly made an effort to meet either the spirit or the letter of the law.
Some findings: Greyhound refused to take 32 percent of the test riders, even though they had already sold tickets to most of them.
Thirty-six percent of those who did ride the buses had to get help from non-employees because employees would not or did not know how to assist. In Reno, Greyhound called 911 to get the rider off the bus.
Greyhound required 29 percent of them to bring their own helper.
Fifty-nine percent of those who rode or attempted to ride were treated rudely (or worse) at the station or by the driver, including remarks like "people like you should not ride the bus" and "we don't know how to handle your kind of people."
Twenty-two percent of the test riders were asked to reschedule their trip for the convenience of Greyhound, rather than when they needed/wanted to travel.
Of the 12 trips which involved rest stops, 58 percent of the test riders were not given help to get off at the rest stops. Restrooms on the bus are not accessible.
Greyhound says it doesn't need lifts to serve people with disabilities and that it complies with the ADA.
Tell DOT that the regs must mandate lifts on all new buses. Write: Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington DC 20590.
"60 Minutes" has begun closed-captioning in Spanish, and CBS said it's the first time captions will be offered for a network show in a language other than English.
Most televisions sold since 1993 have a built-in decoder that allows viewers to pick up the captions by using their remote controls.
CBS said the move was a way for the network to assist the more than 27 million Hispanics in the United States, the nation's fastest-growing ethnic group.
The state of California illegally authorized facilities for the severely retarded to charge fees for in-home "respite care," which allows families time off from the duties of attending to their child or other relative, says a state appeals court.
The ruling by the 3rd District Court of Appeal overturns a $3-an-hour fee charged since 1995 by the North Bay Regional Center in Napa, and a policy announced later that year by the state Department of Developmental Services allowing all 21 regional centers in California to charge similar fees.
About half of the centers' 140,000 clients get some type of respite care, said Christopher Poulos, vice president of the Association for Retarded Citizens-California. He said only the North Bay center has charged fees.
A respite care worker looks after a developmentally disabled person at home for certain periods in a day so that the family can get away for chores, social events and other activities.
The North Bay Regional Center, which serves Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties, started charging $3-an-hour co-payments for respite care in March 1995 to family members of children under 13. Families would be exempted if they could show that the payments would threaten their ability to keep a child at home.
The Department of Developmental Services announced a similar policy statewide in October 1995, relying on laws passed during a state budget shortage that allowed the regional centers to seek "alternative sources of payment for services."
A settlement filed in U.S. District Court will let visually impaired Hawaii residents - as well as blind visitors to the islands - bypass the quarantine as long as their guide dogs are pre-certified and vaccinated against rabies.
"Now people who are blind or visually impaired, like all Americans, will be able to travel freely and independently to Hawaii for business or pleasure," said Bill Lann Lee, the Justice Department's acting assistant attorney general for civil rights.
Hawaii is the only state with a quarantine for rabies. The state has never had a reported case of the disease, and all dogs and cats entering Hawaii face a quarantine.
Complaints forced the state Board of Agriculture last year to approve a 30-day quarantine for dogs and cats that were certified as vaccinated. The settlement is the result of a 1993 class-action lawsuit that said the quarantine law, as applied to guide dogs, violated the ADA.
Disabled bus riders in Long Beach and Artesia often find the machinery designed to help them on buses doesn't work or is missing altogether, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, representing five disabled bus riders, claimed that the Los Angeles County transit agency and Ryder/ATE, which operates some bus routes, were in violation of the ADA.
The plaintiffs said they had complained repeatedly to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to no avail. The lawsuit contends some bus doors designed to accommodate disabled riders were broken, and clamps to hold wheelchairs in place were broken or missing on some buses.
Some disabled riders also were denied service altogether, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit seeks an injunction requiring the MTA and Ryder to give equal access to disabled passengers and eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities.
Marion MacKenzie, a spokeswoman for MTA, declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit but said the agency trains its drivers on how to serve disabled riders. "We take our responsibility to transport the disabled people very, very seriously, as we do with all our riders," Ms. MacKenzie said.
In a proposed nationwide settlement, Amtrak has agreed to increase fare discounts for persons with mobility impairments, offer discounts to their companions and make it easier for them to get wheelchair-accessible rooms.
The settlement, in a suit by a disabled woman and her husband stemming from their experiences on a cross-country train trip, was given preliminary approval by U.S. District Judge Fern Smith in San Francisco. A hearing on final approval is scheduled May 1.
Terms of the settlement include:
-- Continuation of the present 15 percent ticket discount for mobility-impaired persons for the next 10 years, and extension of the discount to one adult companion of a mobility-impaired passenger for three years.
-- Reductions in prices for wheelchair-accessible bedrooms, which are larger and currently carry higher fees than standard Amtrak bedrooms. Their prices will be dropped 30 percent below standard bedroom charges for three years, then allowed to rise no higher than standard bedroom prices for the following seven years.
-- A reservations policy for wheelchair-accessible bedrooms that will make them available only to mobility-impaired passengers until 14 days before departure, then allow other passengers to reserve them if other large bedrooms aren't available.
-- Payments of $15,000 to the two plaintiffs and $80,000 to their lawyers. "We are pleased that Amtrak saw this case as an opportunity to improve their services," said Linda Kilb, a lawyer with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund who filed the suit.
Disabled New Jersey drivers no longer have to pay fees for disabled license plates or placards, thanks to a lawsuit settlement that will bring refunds of most of that money to about 274,000 people.
The state agreed to settle the class action suit brought by five disabled motorists, who argued that making them pay for the disabled tags amounted to a violation of the federal ADA.
"The disabled are entitled to equal access," said Joel Kreizman, the attorney who brought the suit. The state plans to refund more than $1.4 million collected from disabled drivers over the past six years. But about 25 percent of that overcharge will be used to pay an estimated $350,000 in legal fees for the lawsuit.
The state decided to settle after watching federal courts side with the disabled in California, Maryland and Florida rulings. New Jersey admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, which officials said will cost the state $2.8 million in lost revenue over the next few years.
When Jack Kupka is ready to get back into his van, he can be sure there will be room for the wheelchair lift at the side door.
The Iowa man was paralyzed in a construction accident in 1993 and started his fight to get special orange cones to reserve the space next to his van.
"I worked with legislators to get this passed," said Kupka, 47, a quadriplegic. "It is a law that guarantees people the right to get back into their vans."
Anyone with a wheelchair and van lift may apply to the Iowa Department of Transportation for a cone, which is free. When they park in a public parking lot, they place the cone in the space next to them to save room for the lift.
The Justice Department says it will develop a new pamphlet on ticketing policies to outline the rights of theater-goers and sports fans with disabilities.
The pamphlet will deal with issues such as how much can be charged for a wheelchair seating location, whether ticketing agents can request proof of disability, and how many wheelchair seating locations must be available in a given sports complex or theater.
The Dallas Mavericks wheelchair basketball team won the World Club Championship, defeating the Spanish team 88-78 in Madrid. The Mavs qualified for the World Club Championship by winning the National Wheelchair Basketball Association championship last year. Only four teams from around the world advanced to the World Club level. The Mavs are sponsored by Invacare.
Meanwhile, the 24th National Women's Wheelchair Basketball Tournament is set to begin March 2 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ten teams from across the nation will participate.
Mobility International USA is seeking people with and without disabilities to apply for a three-week Leadership, Diversity and Disability Rights Exchange in Mexico from June 22 to July 13.
Contact MIUSA (541) 343-1284, or on the web at www.miusa.org.
Ocean Spray Cranberries is accepting applications for the Jean Driscoll Award, with $10,000 to be awarded to women wheelchair athletes.
The award, named after the seven-time winner of the Boston Marathon wheelchair division, is open to women who are seniors in high school or older. Call Ocean Spray at 1-800-662-3263 for an application.
Associated Press reports were used compiling this column.