California's Ed Roberts campus, an international center for people with disabilities, readies for spring opening

From the Oakland Tribune in California:

BERKELEY, Calif. — When the Ed Roberts Campus opens in the spring, disabled people will be able to access the first-of-its-kind center via mass transit from almost anywhere in the world.

The 86,000-square-foot center, which will house up to a dozen nonprofit organizations and community groups, is under construction at the Ashby BART station.

With BART trains running to the San Francisco International Airport, a major gateway to Europe, Asia, and Australia, campus president Dmitri Belser said that disabled people from all over the world will be able to use trains, planes, taxis, paratransit vehicles and buses to get to the one-stop center for disability services.

"I think the Ed Roberts Campus is going to be a huge draw for people," he said,

Belser said that disabled people and disabled-rights activists already come from Europe and Japan to see the city that launched the independent living movement more than three decades ago and was the first place in the world to have "curb cuts" for wheelchairs.

"They want to see where it all started," Belser said.

Two years ago, the National Organization on Disability named Berkeley the most "accessible city in the United States" because it had the first universally designed affordable housing development, free and reduced fare taxi services, and emergency attendant care and transportation services that are funded by a self-imposed tax.

The idea behind the campus — a first of its kind in the world — is to allow disabled people to get off a BART train and get as many services as possible in one place. Organizations will provide housing services, disability benefits assistance, parenting support, health and fitness support services, job training and development and educational services.

It is expected to serve roughly 30,000 people annually in the Bay Area, center officials said.

The center is named for Roberts, who had polio and spent much of his time in an iron lung — a therapeutic chamber used to force air in and out of the lungs — and helped start the independent living movement in Berkeley. He also often refused to take no for an answer, suing UC Berkeley when denied admission and ultimately paving the way for disabled student services at the university.

Roberts died in 1995 at age 56.

Belser said the campus, which has been in the works for 14 years, will likely open in April 2010, the same month that Roberts' mother, Zona Roberts of Berkeley, will celebrate her 90th birthday.

"We are going to have a big party for sure," Belser said. The year 2010 is also the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.

The two-story center is currently under construction five days a week. When it opens, it will have a good deal of common space and light and have a long and wide wheelchair ramp running upward.

"Part of the concept in designing the building is we really wanted to change the way people see institutions that work with people with disabilities. If you think about rehabilitation hospitals and other places that work with disabled people they tend to be very closed and dark," said Belser, who is the executive director of the Center for Accessible Technology and partially sighted. "The idea here is to be open, airy, warm and inviting."

The building exceeds the requirements of the ADA, with a massive ramp to the second floor, wide corridors for wheelchair users to pass one another, oversized elevators with specialized controls, bathrooms with special features and a downstairs fountain that will help blind people orient themselves.

The center will cost $47.5 million to build and the seven partners will each own an equal share of the building, Belser said. The funds for the project come from a mix of private and government money.

The partner organizations are: the Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program; the Center for Accessible Technology; Center for Independent Living; Computer Technologies Program; Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund; Through the Looking Glass; and World Institute on Disability.

Over the past 14 years, there have been some hurdles to construction of the center.

At one point, the state Office of Historic Preservation was impeding efforts to build the center, claiming the city didn't adequately study how it would fit in with nearby historic buildings.

At another point, disabled rights advocates were pitted against preservationists who claimed the campus was going to be too modern looking to blend with nearby century-old buildings. Landscaping was later added and the state changed its position. There was also some public outcry about the potential for a loss of parking.