Massachusetts advocates continue to worry stimulus projects aren't considering disability access

From the Statehouse News Service in Massachusetts:

BOSTON -- Accusing Gov. Deval Patrick of “gutting regulatory powers” of an equal rights protection board, disability rights advocates said March 9 they were still unsatisfied with the administration’s guarantees of access to projects funded by the $787 billion federal stimulus package.

Members of a group that met with the state Architectural Access Board and Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke on Monday morning said they have not received ample assurances that infrastructure construction under the state’s share of the money will provide the amenities required by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Advocates said they wanted to see “access ready” projects on top of the state’s priority list. They said they were concerned about wheelchair access in college buildings, at parking lots and garages, and on curb cuts along the billions of dollars worth of road projects policymakers say the stimulus money will bankroll. The administration has prioritized nearly $600 million in transportation projects to submit to Washington.

The Disability Policy Consortium charged Patrick with circumventing the Architectural Access Board by seeking broader exemptions from panel oversight in
order to expedite stimulus-funded projects.

“People with disabilities are not represented,” said Bill Allan of the Disability Policy Consortium.

Burke told the News Service later that disability access would not be compromised under the expedited projects, and that administration officials had discussed the issue at a Cabinet meeting last week.

“I assured them that the governor, from the very outset of the stimulus process, had been very concerned with disability rights, and there is no intention, even through this accelerated process, to deprive or lessen any of those rights,” Burke said.

He said, “I told them I think it would be best to wait as we go project to project, and we’ll meet our goals.”

Advocates said they had considered filing an injunction against the state on grounds that the spending would violate federal rules, but decided they would wait to review projects.

Kristen Jung, a “community first” advocate with the Disability Policy Consortium who is uses a wheelchair because of a connective tissue disorder, said she has been unable to take classes or enter college buildings because some are not wheelchair-accessible.

“When you look at things like this happening, and them saying they don’t have to live up to the codes or the laws, it directly affects people,” Jung said Monday.

The top House budget author said the parameters of the infrastructure spending remained unclear.

“The whole stim money process is very nebulous at this point in terms of how much we’re getting, when can we spend it, what can we spend it on, what the ties are to it,” said House Ways and Means chairman Charley Murphy.

Murphy said Monday was the first he had heard of disability access concerns with the federal package.

“Who addresses it, I don’t know, but that’s serious stuff,” Murphy said.