Help For People with Special Needs is NOT a Right!

Well I think accomodations should be made for the disabled but it has to be done with in reason -- Macy's and Sears should, the small Mom & Pop shops if the are to do it, should be given assistance if they are forced to make such a change.. what bothers me is I work with developmentally disabled adults. the government gives these adults everything including spending money and vacations. Yet, the parents make all the major decision. We have one guy who in the past 4 months has sent several people to the ER due to his violence. Last week he assaulted 3 people in the first hour and a half of the day. His mother will not allow us to give this man any medications to help control his violent episodes. She will not take him home even to visit for an afternoon because of his violent episodes. She is scared of him. Yet she feels that it is ok for us to be physically abused by him. Now as far as I am concerned some where someone went astray, the parents have no responsibility for their children yet they control them. We have had parents complain about haircuts, styles of sneakers and length of their pants. Where is the responsibility here.

Well Parated I think the inspectors were right: if he hasn't got a weelchair ramp he should get one. With your reasoning then no one would put a weelchair ramp (too expensive) and people with weelchair couldn't go anywhere. If we can do something to help disabled people then we should do it, unfortunately not all the problems are easy to help (like your problem) Maybe the better thing would be a contribute from the state to put ramps and other facilities for disabled persons.

You describe your disability, but it is nothing like having to rely on a wheelchair just to move from A to B, interact with society and get about. Actually, I would advocate the government issuing you with protective clothing that will protect you from falls, but you would no doubt choose to not wear it. I believe in access to a basic level of care for all. There is little to be admired morally, in trying to defend the tradition of making buildings only suitable for the able bodied, especially on the basis of cost. Your diner owning friend can look at it another way if he chooses. For ten years or so he has not had to spend a cent constructing access for disabled wheelchair access, and now the Law requires him to spend 10,000 dollars. So, on average it has cost him 1,000 dollars a year and now he has a more civilised and welcoming diner. How many wheelchair users have not visited the diner due to lack of access is hard to assess, and you should be aware that encouraging wheelchair users to his diner would increase his profits. Whilst I am thinking of "the root of all evil" aspect, I am also thinking that disabled folks are part of our society and should be welcomed wherever we gather. For example, did you know that approximately one third of all military veterans are registered as disabled? Is your friends diner part of a land fit for heros, or just a commercial desert?

Having easily accessible buildings is a LAW. Regardless of where you are, or how many wheelchair bound people are around your place of business, you are, required, by law to accomodate anyone that may need to enter your place of business. You may not like it, but it's the law. Thank you 504, ADA and all the other laws that have been placed upon the books. Your disability is quite different. You can easily enter buildings without a hassle. You can walk, you can go up and downstairs, you don't have to worry about relying on someone else to pull your wheelchair up stairs and everything else. You don't have to feel like a burden on the people that care for you, or just random people walking by simply because they can not easily enter a place of business. You may not like it, seems like you have some sort of personal grudge because you don't get special treatment for your disability. You are far better off than others that are wheelchair bound for the rest of their lives.

I agree with you, especially in the case of small time private business owners. If the patron does not find it comfortable to use the establishment then they should by all means take their business elsewhere. I would rather see a business lend a helping hand in raising a wheel chair up over a couple small steps than to have them spend all kinds of money on ramps and such that may never get used. That shows more character. I suppose with all the regulations of the day I would probably build a ramp into my business and forgo having steps altogether - able bodied people can use a ramp, no? the private school my son went to which from kindergarten to graduate probably has less than 100 students - was made to install 2 wheel chair bathrooms within the confines of the small classrooms. This is an expense that the school will be hard pressed to meet, and again it is frivolous. one wheel chair access bathroom in a common area rather than inside the classroom should be sufficient. 1 per 100 students - all of which right now are capable of using a "normal" stall.

ParaTed2k, I have to say you are brave for posting a thread like this. Kudos to you for that. It is an interesting debate. It would practically impossible to make the world accessible for someone who has a disability like yours. I have had faintings spells as well since my early 20's, dizziness, my sister has the same thing, the Dr's can't figure out why...anyhow! I understand how you can get injured from one of these faintings, and it is VERY embarrassing when you wake up on the floor and everyone is looking at you (I did it waiting in line to check in for my flight at the Montreal Airport in Quebec CAnada - one of the largest airports, if not the largest in Canada, VERY EMBARRASSING). So I do understand where you are coming from, especially in that I don't expect people to cater to my needs. Also, when you're pregnant...I just had a baby in March 2007. Man, when you are in that last trimester you almost need someone behind you pushing you up the stairs hahaha I complained to a few stores because many things were not accessible for me (low shelves in supermarkets and such) and had to keep asking for help. Chapters (a large bookstore chain in Canada I'm not sure if they are in the US) put the baby name books on the very bottom shelf. I squated down while 8 months pregnant and couldn't get back up...seriously. I had to sit down, bring my knee out front and use one knee and leg with my hand on my knee to get the leverage to get myself back up. It was ridiculous and embarrassing. So I went to the manager on the floor and showed her where they had put the babyname books and told her to do something about it. She said she would. I have no idea if they changed it or not but I hope for the sake of all the other pregnant women they did! So anyhow, accessibility is A RIGHT my friend for those who cannot walk. Making our world accessible to them is POSSIBLE, and it is AFFORDABLE. However, I do agree that your friend who has the diner should not have had to foot that bill. Larger chains, Sears or Walmart or whatever...have the money to pay for ramps and such. Small diners don't. I think they should be able to apply for subsidies to get renovations in order to be accessible to the public. So...on the one hand I agree with you that your friend shouldn't have had to pay 10 G's for the upgrade. But, I disagree with you...Help for people with special needs THAT CAN BE HELPED is a RIGHT.

I think that government buildings should all be made accessible, because there are times when it is required to enter them and do business there. And there is usually no choice about which government building to go to. I also think that sidewalks should be accessible, as there aren't choices there either. And while I personally utilize many accessible businesses, I don't know that they should be required by law to be accessible. I get rather peeved with all the "thou shalt nots" that have gone into law to mandate certain behaviors. It is just good business to be accessible. I like the idea of a bell or buzzer that would summon someone from the business to help someone get into the place if they wanted to. I've traveled to Canada, where it is not required to accomodate disabilities and found it very frustrating that I couldn't go in some places. But still, should it be a law? And if it is a law should there be financial incentives attached to it? I know that making those changes can be very expensive AND that they are tax deductible. Doesn't seem fair to small businesses.

Overall I agree with you. I owned a pet store for a few years, and ran into a similar problem for not having a ramp. Before being told I had to have a ramp, I had a regular customer who was in a wheelchair. She would call me before she came to the store and tell me what she needed, I'd gather the items, have a receipt ready & go out to her van to complete her transaction. I was a small business owner, valued her loyalty & made a way to make my products available to her- without going out of business to pay for expensive ramps & fixtures (might I add on a building I didn't own). Government can enforce on the small business owner to make these changes, but yet our currency (here in the US) is not able to be used by the blind! As I understand it, many countries have either different sized paper money or brail in the corner so blind people know what denomination is what, but not in the US. There's a reasonable accomadation that has been fought by the government for ages.

I don't think private businesses should have to do things accourding to state regulations because they are privately owened. I don't think what they did to your friend was right, I think they should have left it up to his discretion, if he wanted to have a ramp or not. Given how no one in that area was even close to needing it he shouldn't have had to put it in. Now if he was a big city type place then sure, because he would be getting a variety of people comming and going. I am temporally disabled and I can understand to a point how hard it can get to go to places that aren't really set up for someone who can't get around very well. I guess I don't get as bothered because even my own place isn't really accessable to me at times.. I actually had to re-do some things in here to just be able to funtion for the time being. I don't expect the world to stop and bend to me or anyone else though.. I think its more our job to figure out how to function in a world not really made for the disabled.