Area businesses need more education
on Americans with Disabilities Act law
To the editor:
I have written a similar letter to this one about eight years ago, and over these years not much has changed! Why is it that area businesses are not being made to bring their places up to code as far as the ADA laws and making their places handicapped accessible? What is it going to take to make them comply? This is not a choice that a business owner has, it is a law!
I have checked around a little and got replies such as it is too expensive or they don’t have to comply because they fall under the grandfather clause and had their business before these laws took effect in 1992. I have also heard “Oh, we are accessible”. If you call a regular sized bathroom stall with a grab-bar on the wall accessible, then you have some research to do! A handicapped person needs to be able to get a wheelchair into that stall and be able to shut the door. I suppose such renovations could get expensive; however, there are tax deductions and discounts that a small business owner can receive to get this work done. Isn’t it just morally right to make it accessible?
If a person who is from out of town is driving through Presque Isle and sees a restaurant with a ramp out front, that would look inviting for that person to dine there and have a wheelchair accommodated. But what happens when they get in there and cannot use the bathroom because the wheelchair 1) cannot fit through the doorway and 2) cannot fit in the stall? A new business must be handicapped accessible. One new place in our Star City does not even have a ramp out front.
Wouldn’t these places want more business coming through their doors? To a wheelchair person, it is as good as having a sign out front saying “Everyone welcome, except wheelchair users.” Wake up people! There are people in wheelchairs that work full-time jobs, who own businesses, or who are out in public every day but can only go to certain places because there are no accommodations for them.
More voices need to be heard and more business owners need to comply with the laws. The ADA guide for business owners is a book that tells all about the laws and guidelines that one must go by in their place of business. How on earth is this being overlooked? Does every business have this book handy to make sure they comply? Probably not.
Maybe all of you business owners out there should spend a day in a wheelchair and see just how well you can get around your place! I am doing a research paper for my English comp class at NMCC and this is the topic I chose. I chose it because as a wheelchair user, I believe the message should be getting out there a lot clearer than it already is. Public places have come a long ways in complying with ADA laws; however, we have a long ways to go!
Years ago disabled people sat in their home all day because there was no life for them in the outside world. Times have changed. There is life. We have to go out and find it and make our place in society.
I have traveled the East Coast and visited many places in between and have never run into a place that was not accessible. It seems outside of Maine, people have a clue and welcome everyone into their public places. Many people in wheelchairs may have moved out of this area for that very reason. I choose to stay and do what I can to make the world a better place. We deserve equal rights to do the things an able-bodied person does, and also to go where they go.
My fellow wheelchair users, stand up and make your voice heard. Let’s do our part to be part of our beautiful state!
Mapleton
