Chicago Divvy Should Consider Including Adaptive Cycles for People with Disabilities with Bike-Share Program

Although Rudy Winfrey says he's "blind as a bat," he regularly experiences the joy of cycling. Winfrey, a 72-year-old clerk with the Chicago Department of Streets & Sanitation, lost his sight in the 90s to retinitis pigmentosa. Andy Slater, the visually impaired musician profiled last month in this column, has the same condition.

Photo of Divvy Bikes and Chicago Skyline

Article by John Greenfield for the Chicago Reader | May 22, 2017                                                       
Like Slater, Winfrey frequently navigates the CTA, but he also often takes pleasure rides on the back of a tandem bicycle as the "stoker," with a sighted "captain" steering in front—usually his friend Jerome Hughes. Together the pair have completed five of the annual RAGBRAI bicycle tours across Iowa.

"Bicycling feels so exhilarating," Winfrey says. "I can do it without opening my eyes and seeing what I can't see. To feel that surge and that type of authority—'Look what I can do!'—it makes you feel like a superstar."

People with other disabilities can also enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of cycling by using adaptive bikes. For example, handcycles allow paraplegics and amputees to pedal with their arms instead of their legs, and adult tricycles are great for people with balance issues, such as those with multiple sclerosis. The late Sheldon Brown, the patron saint of DIY bike mechanics, got around on a trike near the end of his life as he battled MS.

However, while the national bike-share revolution has made cycling accessible and affordable to a wider swath of the population, municipal rental networks have been geared almost exclusively toward able-bodied riders. That's about to change in June, when Portland, Oregon, will launch an adaptive bike rental program as an extension of its Biketown bike-share system. Detroit is currently planning a similar approach. Local disability and bike advocates say Chicago should also get with the program and add an accessibility component to the Divvy network.

Most U.S. bike-share networks are heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars, so advocates, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, argue that there should be an accessibility component from the get-go. "When the city gets involved in any type of public service, they have an obligation to make sure it's accessible to people with disabilities," Disability Rights Oregon director Bob Joondeph told BikePortland last year. As was recently reported by Streetsblog USA, this became a political issue in Portland in a campaign where city council candidate Chloe Eudaly, whose son has cerebral palsy, defeated incumbent Steve Novick, who was born with no left hand or fibula bones in his legs. Before Novick lost last November, he lobbied the local transportation department to make adaptive bikes available through the Biketown system.

The city of Portland partnered with advocates and local bike shops to host an adaptive bikes clinic where people with disabilities could take test rides. Based on input from disabled residents, who said they were interested in taking longer recreational rides on trails rather than the short trips and errands on city streets associated with traditional bike sharing, the transportation department came up with a new approach. Biketown-branded tandems, handcycles, and trikes will be made available for rent at shops near bike paths, at affordable prices. The budget for the pilot project is $30,000, which is coming from the department's discretionary funds.

Inspired by Portland, Detroit plans to launch an adaptive bike rental program after its MoGo traditional bike-share system debuts later this month. The city has already held a focus group and conducted a survey to find out what the local disability community wants from the accessibility program.

So how about making adaptive cycles available for low-cost rental from Chicago bike shops via a Divvy-sponsored program?

"That would be excellent," Winfrey responded when I floated the idea, adding that it would be great if the city could help set up a network of volunteers to captain the tandems for blind stokers like himself. (He added that he's always looking for sighted people to ride with. Hit me up on Twitter if you want to get in touch with him.)

Adam Ballard, manager of organizing and policy for the Chicago disability rights group Access Living of Metro Chicago, says Portland's strategy seems to be a good one. "Our first rule is, if you're not listening to the disability community, you're not doing it right, but it sounds like Portland did it right," Ballard says. "We'd definitely support this."

Likewise, Active Transportation Alliance director Ron Burke says his organization would get behind a plan to make Divvy more accessible. "A publicly supported system should be available for people living with disabilities," he says. "We're eager to learn from the experiences of Portland and other cities that are piloting similar programs to help determine the best approach, and then work with Chicago Department of Transportation to make that happen."

Paul Kozy, owner of the eponymous local bike shop chain, with locations spread across the city from Avondale to Bronzeville, says he'd welcome an opportunity to partner with the city on offering low-cost rentals as part of the Divvy program. "It's an admirable idea," he says, adding that his stores currently rent tandems and trikes at market rates.

So far, so good. Everyone I spoke to says adaptive cycles would be a worthy addition to the Divvy fleet. The fly in the ointment, however, is that CDOT seems a little wary of the idea.

"It would be a challenge to incorporate the variety of highly specialized adaptive cycles into our automated bike-share system," says spokesman Mike Claffey via e-mail. "But we are going to continue tracking Portland's efforts as they move forward this year to see if there's lessons to be learned for our program."

Fortunately, a heavy hitter in Illinois politics just so happens to be an avid handcycle rider. Freshman U.S. senator Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who lost both legs while copiloting a helicopter in Iraq, has used an assistive bike to compete in four marathons. Just last week she pedaled a handcycle in the ACLI Capital Challenge, a charity race in the Washington, D.C., area.

"I'm sure Chicagoans living with disabilities would appreciate the opportunity to use their city's bike-sharing program," Duckworth said in a statement. "I hope the Divvy program looks into the possibility."

Since a Wounded Warrior who helps make decisions about federal funding—including the grants that have funded Divvy—thinks making the network accessible is a good idea, maybe it won't be long until CDOT gets rolling on this. v

John Greenfield edits the transportation news website Streetsblog Chicago.

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/divvy-disability-accommodation-bicycles/Content?oid=26583057&mc_cid=b26965297a&mc_eid=5dae3a3793

Former Massachusetts Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Funds From Disabled Veterans & Running Fraud Tax Preparation Business

May 16 - A former Whitman, Massachusetts police sergeant pleaded guilty today to wire fraud, preparing false income tax returns for clients of his tax preparation business, obstructing the internal revenue laws and misappropriating funds from the accounts of disabled veterans while he was a fiduciary appointed by the U.S. Department of Veterans ffairs (VA), announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb for the District of Massachusetts.

According to documents filed with the Court, from 2007 to 2012, Glenn P. Pearson, 61, was appointed a VA fiduciary for eight disabled veterans of the U.S. armed forces. A veteran, who has been awarded VA benefits but is unable to manage his or her funds due to injury, disease, mental incompetence or infirmities of advanced age, can have another individual, referred to as a fiduciary, appointed by the VA to receive funds on the veteran’s behalf and to manage those funds for the benefit of the veteran. Pearson used his position as a fiduciary to misappropriate and embezzle more than $250,000 in VA-issued benefit money from the accounts of several veterans.

Moreover, beginning in 2012, Pearson operated FTS Tax Services, a tax preparation business through which he prepared false tax returns for clients for a fee. From 2012 through 2015, Pearson prepared numerous tax returns that included false credits and fictitious deductions in an effort to get his clients bigger refunds than they were entitled to receive. When Pearson’s clients were audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Pearson took steps to obstruct the IRS—including making false statements to the IRS and preparing false documents for his clients to submit to the IRS during the audits. Pearson admitted to causing a tax loss of more than $1.5 million.

“Glenn Pearson took advantage of disabled military veterans who could not manage their own financial affairs, by diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in VA payments to his personal benefit,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg. “He then used his tax preparation business to generate more than $1.5 million in bogus refunds and obstructed IRS audits looking into the fraudulent returns he prepared. Today, Pearson is held fully accountable for his abuse of trust and fraudulent conduct.”

“Mr. Pearson abused his position as a fiduciary and took advantage of vulnerable members of our society,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Weinreb. “Our veterans deserve the best care, and we will hold accountable those who seek to profit at their expense.”

“Mr. Pearson now finds himself on the opposite end of the very laws he was once sworn to uphold,” said Special Agent in Charge Harold H. Shaw of the FBI’s Boston Field Division. “He took advantage of his position as a fiduciary to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from disabled veterans. The FBI will do everything we can to protect citizens against fraud, and stop those who steal from them.”

“The American tax system is designed to provide vital government services to our citizens, especially disabled veterans, who have paid the highest price for our freedom,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Kristina O’Connell of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI). “Mr. Pearson took advantage of both, motivated by greed and his desired lifestyle. The IRS will use all lawful means to identify and prosecute those, like Pearson, who prepare false tax returns.”

“Pearson deliberately targeted our most vulnerable veterans – those who were unable to handle their own financial affairs,” said Special Agent in Charge Donna L. Neves of the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Northeast Field Office. “Fiduciary fraud, especially in this case of multiple victims, is considered a high priority and aggressively investigated by the VA Office of Inspector General because those veterans deserve protection, not deceit.”

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 19 before Judge Saris. Pearson faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud, five years in prison for misappropriation of funds by a fiduciary, three years in prison for preparing false tax returns, and three years in prison for attempting to interfere with the administration of internal revenue laws. As part of the terms of the plea agreement, Pearson will make restitution to the veterans, the VA and the IRS. Pearson also faces a period of supervised release and monetary penalties. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and Acting U.S. Attorney Weinreb thanked special agents of IRS–CI, FBI and VA-OIG, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Vassili Thomadakis and Assistant Chief Karen Kelly of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

source: Department of Justice press release

Featured Speakers Named for Annual EXCEL Conference on Employment Discrimination Law in Chicago on June 27-29.

AARP CEO and EEOC Acting Chair to Discuss Persistent Problem of Age Bias

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that several nationally known authorities on equal employment opportunity law and policy will speak at the agency's 20th annual EXCEL training conference in Chicago on June 27-29. EXCEL stands for Examining Conflicts in Employment Laws.

The theme of this year's EXCEL conference is Embracing the Future: People, Purpose, Passion. EXCEL provides the employer community, in both the federal and private sectors, with tools and strategies to address emerging issues in equal employment opportunity (EEO) and foster model workplaces nationwide. EXCEL includes separate agendas for the federal and private sectors, which includes state and local governments. The comprehensive training workshops and events are geared toward EEO managers, supervisors, practitioners, HR professionals, attorneys, ADR specialists and other interested parties.

"EXCEL is the EEOC's premier annual training event," said EEOC Acting Chair Victoria A. Lipnic. "EXCEL attendees will get cutting-edge information and the latest updates on EEO law and policy issues. This conference is a key EEOC tool in promoting best practices in the workplace."

As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the agency is pleased to announce that Jo Ann Jenkins, chief executive officer (CEO) of AARP, will join EEOC Acting Chair Victoria A. Lipnic for a candid conversation about age discrimination. Jenkins has been described as a visionary "thought leader" and a catalyst for breakthrough results at the nation's largest social welfare organization with nearly 38 million members.

Other speakers include:

• Kathleen McGettigan, acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), who has an extensive understanding of both the private and public sectors. She has spent over 25 years in federal service at OPM and 20 years in private sector financial management.
• Steve Pemberton, senior executive at Walgreens Boots Alliance, the first global pharmacy-led health and well-being enterprise in the world. He is a subject matter expert on diversity, inclusion and related issues.
• Haben Girma, a civil rights attorney and leader in global inclusion efforts.  She is the first deaf and blind graduate of Harvard Law School.
• Sheldon Goode, director of diversity and inclusion for Oshkosh Corporation, a global company that is the leading manufacturer and marketer of specialty vehicles.

In addition, EXCEL 2017 offers three plenary sessions, two specialty tracks and over 50 open workshops. The plenary sessions and workshops provide participants with knowledge and skills to address the emerging issues in EEO, enhance their performance and meet the evolving demands of today's workplace - from harassment and retaliation to disability and accommodation. A sampling of the workshop topics includes:

• You Measure What You Treasure: Diversity Metrics
• Tricky HR Situations: Harassment and Retaliation Edition
• MD-715: Addressing Opportunities for Hispanics in the Federal Workforce
• Accommodation Outside the Office - Issues and Answers
• Get It Right the First Time: Investigative Interview Techniques
• Islamophobia 2.0
• The ADEA at 50: Observe the Golden Anniversary by Avoiding the Golden Handshake

The EXCEL conference will take place June 27-29 at the Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60605. Additional information about EXCEL -- including the agenda, pricing information and online registration -- is available online at https://eeotraining.eeoc.gov/excelmain.html. Registrants are responsible for their own travel and hotel arrangements. Follow EXCEL 2017 on twitter at @EEOC_EXCEL.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.

source: EEOC press release May 23, 2017 

Defend the Civil Rights and Access of People with Disabilities - Online Petition

The following Online Petition is posted at Change.org, Please take a minute to consider supporting.

Two bills have been introduced in Congress, that if passed, would take away some of the protections provided under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

HR 620, the "ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017", sponsored by U.S. Representative Ted Poe (TX, Republican), and HR 1493, the "ADA Lawsuit Clarification Act of 2017", sponsored by U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (CA, Republican) both contain sections which would place more limits on the ability of people with disabilities to sue if they are excluded from a building or public space due to a physical barrier. For example, "barriers" include not having a ramp allowing wheelchair and scooter users to enter a building.

The opportunity to enter public spaces and buildings such as stores and hospitals should continue to be recognized as a basic civil right. People with disabilities include many of us, our loved ones, and people in our communities. People who do not have disabilities now can be expected to live with a disability at some point during our lives.
People with disabilities need to be able to take rapid legal action when disability civil rights are ignored or violated.

Members of Congress: We need you to oppose HR 1493 and HR 620, and any other attacks on the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT CHANGE.ORG - CLICK HERE!

Illinois Disability Rights Consortium - Special Education Law: The Year in Review on May 31, 2017

The topic for the meeting will be Special Education Law: The Year in Review. Our speaker will be Professor Mark Weber from the DePaul College of Law, one of the leading experts on special education law. With the Supreme Court issuing two disability education decisions this term, the information provided should be particularly timely.

The Illinois Disability Rights Consortium next meeting will take place on Wednesday May 31, 2017 from 9:30-11:00 (ct) at Equip for Equality, 20 N. Michigan, Suite 300 in Chicago.  A captioner will be available.
People who cannot attend in person may participate by phone by calling 800-910-8278; Access Code: 1940990

This session will be eligible for 1.5 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit. 

U.S. Access Board May 2017 Town Hall Meeting in Minneapolis

On May 9, the U.S. Access Board held a town hall meeting in Minneapolis that featured panelists from the Target Corporation's accessibility program and local speakers on outdoor recreation. The event, which was held at the University of Minnesota, also included an open forum that invited comments or questions from the public. Access Board Chair Deborah Ryan and Executive Director David Capozzi opened the meeting with introductions and an overview of the Board and its work.

The first presenter was Barry Grieve who serves as Building Regulatory and Strategy Lead for the Target Corporation. He provided an overview of the work of the company's Accessibility Team which was formed 11 years ago to promote accessibility and compliance. He outlined some of the procedures and practices that have been implemented, such as conducting accessibility reviews at the outset of remodeling projects and providing access to all store check-out aisles instead of to just a portion. In addition, Target has a Digital Accessibility Team that focuses on access to the company's website and online services. He also described related activities, including Target's membership on the ANSI A117 Committee which maintains voluntary consensus standards for accessibility referenced by the International Building Code.

Greg Lais, Executive Director of Wilderness Inquiry, followed with a presentation on access to outdoor recreation. Wilderness Inquiry is a nonprofit organization that introduces youth, families, and people with disabilities to the natural world through outdoor trips and adventures. His presentation covered accessible features at the Apostle Island National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin and a nearby Wilderness Inquiry base camp, including accessible tent platforms, picnic tables, toilet facilities, and boardwalks. He promoted compliance with the accessibility guidelines for outdoor developed areas that the Access Board issued for federal lands in 2013 and called attention to the need for updated illustrated guides on achieving access to such sites. In addition, he recommended outreach to state student conservation corps, which help develop outdoor recreation sites, and the Corps Network on integrating accessibility into projects according to the guidelines for outdoor developed areas.

The next presenter was Elise Niedermeier who serves as the ADA Coordinator for the Minnesota Parks and Recreation Board which oversees almost 180 outdoor sites throughout the state that total over 6,000 acres. She presented examples of access improvements completed at specific sites, including a city park, a cultural and community center, a playground, and a wading pool. She also outlined a $23.6 million plan that is being developed to improve access to existing sites. Based on an accessibility audit that surveyed over 200 sites and facilities, the plan updates an earlier transition plan and would be conducted in three phases. The first phase would involve simple corrective actions, including those that can be accomplished as part of routine maintenance, while the second phase would focus on access to recreation sites that are newly covered in the 2010 ADA Standards, including playgrounds, golf facilities, sports courts and fields, and boating and fishing facilities. The third phase features more complex corrective actions that require long range planning. A report on the plan, which is currently being finalized, will be released for public comment this summer.

During the open forum that followed the presentations, the Board invited comment from the public. Members of the audience called attention to areas where accessibility needs to be further addressed, including websites, pedestrian signals, transition planning for public rights-of-ways, and outdoor developed areas. It was noted that consensus standards for classroom acoustics that were developed with support from the Access Board are now applied to new school construction in Minnesota. In addition, concerns were raised about the availability of information in braille in government offices and universities, access to paper currency for people with vision impairments, and accommodations in the workplace for employees who are deaf. Several advised that action is needed on accessibility for people with age-related disabilities, morbid obesity, and deaf-blindness.

Each year, the Access Board substitutes one of its bimonthly meetings in Washington, D.C. with a town hall meeting in a different city. Details on next year's event will be released as they become available.

source: U.s Access Board press release

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT HUMAN RIGHTS 2016 REPORT OF 194 COUNTRIES

The U.S. State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released annually, represent the culmination of the U.S. State Department’s review of the human rights records and situation in 194 countries around the world. The reports are a supplied to Congress in accordance with law to assist in matters of foreign affairs.

Click here to read the State Department's Notes on the Preparation of the Reports

USICD has consolidated the disability references from the 194 Country Reports into a comprehensive document. Each country summary within the document is organized into four possible subheadings:

1. Constitution and Laws: If and how a country’s constitution or laws cover disability rights
2. Persons with Disabilities: Material drawn from the report’s section on “Persons with Disabilities”
3. Other Relevant References: Disability highlighted elsewhere in a country’s report (e.g. overlap with the section on children, etc.)
4. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: The status of a country’s signature and ratification of the CRPD (Note: ratification dates are in date/month/year format)

The following condensed reports are intended to be a resource only and do not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the quality of content or perspectives contained within the reports. All content is pulled directly from the State Department reports with the exception of the CRPD status which was added by USICD staff.

2016 REPORTS

Click Below to download an accessible PDF version of regional disability references, or the complete report. (CRPD ratification dates are current as of April 2017)

Africa (Sub-Saharan Africa)

East Asia and the Pacific 

Europe and Eurasia

Near East (Middle East and North Africa)

South and Central Asia

Western Hemisphere

Complete 2016 Human Rights Reports Disability Citation

source: United States International Council on Disabilities

United States International Council on Disabilities appoints Isabel Hodge new Executive Director

The United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD) Board of Directors has recently announced to the Membership of USICD that our Executive Director for over eight years, David Morrissey, is leaving the organization at the end of June 2017.

David Morrissey-Senator Al Franken-Isabel Hodge.

David's collaborative style, leadership skills, and hard work will be missed by everyone involved with USICD and many in the Washington, DC community, as well as in locations around the world, all of whom have benefited significantly by their interaction with David. 

In notifying the board, David wrote,

It is the people I have been so fortunate to work with that I will miss most. Leading the organization has been the highlight of my career and an honor. Together, we developed USICD's projects and partnerships, raised our collective voice calling for disability rights and inclusion around the world, and brought people together across borders to build a global disability community. I am grateful for all of the members, friends and supporters who make this work possible. USICD's mission is important and I will always support it and remain engaged. 

The USICD Board of Directors is pleased to announce its appointment of Deputy Director Isabel Hodge as the new Executive Director beginning July 1, 2017.  Isabel's extensive work with and on behalf of people with disabilities around the world, combined with what she has already accomplished for USICD, made her the obvious choice to work with all of us and guide USICD into its next exciting stage of development.  From her federal career at the Department of Defense and her work with Wheelchairs for Kids International, to her tireless advocacy for the United States to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Isabel's organizational leadership, financial and administrative skills, and commitment to global disability rights have shined brightly, and all of us on the USICD Board are thrilled to continue working with her in this advanced leadership role.

 

source: press release May 24, 2017

Webinar Mat 25: The Trump Budget and What's Ahead in Congress: What Every Advocate Needs to Know

The 'Coalition on Human Needs' is hosting a webinar on The President’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal (which is expected on May 23) and the forthcoming House budget proposal (which is expected in early June) are both likely to include deep cuts to non-defense discretionary programs such as rental assistance and education, as well as deep cuts to mandatory programs targeted to low- and modest-income people, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Health care, nutrition assistance, housing, education, and other services essential for children, families, seniors, and people with disabilities are all under threat.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Coalition on Human Needs, and Center for American Progress are co-sponsoring this webinar for state and local advocates to learn about the content of these budget proposals and discuss recommended messages and activities to use to help protect human needs programs as the federal budget debates progress. This webinar is off the record and not for the press. Contact Deborah Swerdlow at dswerdlow@cbpp.org with any questions.

Speakers

Sharon Parrott, Senior Fellow and Senior Counselor, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

John Halpin, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

Moderated by Ellen Teller, Director of Government Affairs, Food Research and Action Center

Register Now!

Thursday, May 25, 2017
1 PM ET

source: Coalition on Human Needs

Segregation Still Lives in America,If You’re in a Wheelchair

Last year, the former chief of the Santa Fe, N.M., police department, Donald Grady II, said something that stuck with me. “There’s a thing that we call freedom of movement,” he said in an interview with The Atlantic, “which is really revered in this country — that we should have the right to move freely without impingement from the police simply because.” He was speaking as both a black man and a police officer about the ways racial discrimination can limit a basic right. But I related to this on more than one level.

Opinion by Luticha Doucette, published by The New York Times | May 17, 2017                                  

As a black woman with incomplete quadriplegia and chronic pain, and as a full-time manual wheelchair user, my own ability to move freely is frequently restricted. Too often, both the lack of accessibility in public spaces and the ingrained ableism of many nondisabled people bars my way.

Let’s say I want to go out to dinner downtown. Even if I can enter an establishment — which I often can’t — very rarely is the accessible seating in a visible place, if it is there at all. Once inside, I am often relegated to a corner, the aisle, a back room. In brew pubs with high tables and high chairs, trying to have conversations at eye-level with other people’s crotches while nursing my beer leads me to feel less like an adult and more like Oliver Twist. No one wants to try the new hot spot in town and then be seated at the kids’ table.

If I arrive somewhere by myself, I am often greeted with shock when I make clear that I have no caregiver with me. If I am with a companion — a nondisabled friend or a date — it is assumed that this person is my caregiver. Sometimes it seems that people believe accessibility is having your own chaperone who goes and asks for the accessible entrance.

These are just a few variations on the sort of ableism that people with physical conditions like mine face every day. Ableism is at work when disability is not an inclusive part of the design process, where the space flows and is welcoming to all bodies. Instead, accommodations are tacked on haphazardly, leading to hostile and hard-to-navigate spaces. With the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 — which sets standards of compliance for buildings in public spaces — progress has been made, but inclusive thinking and design are still the exception, not the norm.

Today, segregation and limiting the movement of disabled persons in public spaces is commonplace and accepted. Even in our nation’s capital, I have to use the back entrance at the National Gallery of Art. As a black woman I am keenly aware of the irony of being ushered through back ways, sketchy hallways, side entrances and kitchens to enter restaurants, bars and other establishments. My favorite bar up the street has its accessible entrance down an alley, with a steep ramp that leads to a door in the bowels of the building. There’s no signage, no security cameras, and I once saw a bloody towel covering the fire alarm. At another local restaurant, I have to enter from a side door, through the kitchen and then to the dining room. It is a running joke with my friends that if the accessible entrance is not up front, you’re going to end up needing a map to find your way through.

Some aspects of this situation, though, are too painful to joke about. Much of what people with disabilities like mine must suffer conjures the historically painful specter of racial segregation. Even at my job, where I work for the city as a researcher in a government building, there is an entrance with a double doorway for those walking in, then next to it, hidden around a pillar, a sliding door for wheelchair users. The other exterior doors have stairs leading up to them. My employer did a wonderful job in doing a walk-through with me to identify ways to solve the problem, but this raises a key point: The building was built in a time when people with disabilities were almost entirely hidden from society, and architects did not consider how such a person would use the building. This makes retrofitting an even bigger challenge. All this eerily mirrors the segregation of blacks in the workplace, where separate doors were not unusual. We need to be just as vigilant about disability inclusion as we are about racial inclusion.

In the social justice space, ableism would be categorized as a macroaggression. Disability comes with its own unique challenges and trials, but the inability to engage with, and move freely through, our communities, or not being able to easily visit friends’ and relatives’ homes — and the social isolation that follows — because inclusive design is so uncommon, is a gross violation of our rights and is detrimental to our health.

Our freedom of movement is hindered in other ways. How we move as disabled people often leads to poor encounters with the police. We are often taken for drunks, our caregivers are harmed, or even shot; we are perceived as threats and beaten when trying to communicate in sign language, or worse, killed. In March, a report published by the Ruderman Family Foundation highlighted that half of police shootings have involved a disabled person. They were also people of color. Yet these deaths are rarely spoken of in the context of the person’s disability.

To make things worse, the intersection of race, poverty and disability is often ignored. Black Lives Matter has come under much deserved criticism by black and Latinx disability rights activists for lack of inclusion in their “woke” spaces. We cannot be fully woke if we refuse to acknowledge our disabled brothers and sisters. My city has some of the highest poverty rates for minorities and for the disabled. A recent study ranked Rochester 147th out of 150 American cities in a list of best and worst places to live if you are disabled. Yet, those in poverty who are disabled live in the highest-poverty census tracts, have very low education levels, no access to jobs and a shortage of affordable, accessible housing, and lack the resources to move within their communities, which have poor transportation options. They very rarely have the opportunity to live somewhere else, nor can they fully engage with the myriad initiatives designed to lift people out of poverty.

For me, freedom of movement also encompasses the ability to move in environments without people coming up to me and touching me or invading my personal space. Black women know the violating feeling when someone decides to touch our hair without permission as we go about our daily lives. Disability adds another layer to it. A poignant moment was during prep for an M.R.I. My hair was ripped out by a white female technician because she was “curious about its softness.” My blackness was singled out and my disability used against me. She took a moment where I was vulnerable and exploited that.

But these body-autonomy violations are a regular occurrence. People push my chair without asking, and often in the wrong direction, and shove me in the back as a way of “helping” me propel my chair — my movement and autonomy are constantly being challenged. And just as black men experience people moving to the other side of the street or white women clutching their purses on the assumption that they are a threat, I too experience people jumping out of the way or pulling their children to them in fear as they loudly proclaim that they don’t want to be hit by a wheelchair, even when I’m several feet from them. To be treated as something to avoid but also something to be touched at will creates an odd juxtaposition that is unique to the black disabled experience.

Navigating the world as a black woman is difficult, but I refuse to give up the fight to dismantle structural racism and structural ableism. At the core of the civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter and the disability-rights movement is the idea of autonomy and agency over one’s life. We are fighting for the right to not be judged based on external sets of unrealistic expectations. The rights afforded to us in the Constitution are not fully granted to us if we are constantly obstructed by structural biases. To that end, I would paraphrase Chief Grady’s definition to be even more inclusive: We should have the right to move freely without impingement from anyone or anything. Simply because.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/opinion/if-youre-in-a-wheelchair-segregation-lives.html?_r=0Luticha Doucette is an innovation researcher for the city of Rochester and a disability-rights activist.
Disability is a New York Times weekly series of essays, art and opinion by and about people living with disabilities. The entire series can be found here. To reach the editors or submit an essay for consideration, write opinionator@nytimes.com and include “Disability” in the subject field.