2008 Woodie Awards
Letter: Disabled Access Not Just an Option, but a Right
Issue date: 5/26/04 Section: Opinion
To the Editor:
A Disabled Student Programs and Services student who uses a wheelchair told me today that he received a $250 scholarship from the Patron's Association at the May 13 award ceremony. Although he was very pleased about the award, he was unable to receive it in the same manner as the other individuals who were awarded scholarships. They received theirs on the Monarch Hall stage. He received his handed down from the stage where he had been told he would be receiving it because "there is no ramp to the stage."
The college has a portable wheelchair lift that is regularly used for wheelchair access to the Monarch Hall stage.
This is 2004. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which ensured the civil rights of individuals with disabilities was enacted in 1990. And last week, a landmark 5-4 decision was made by the United States Supreme Court, upholding a key provision of the ADA and siding with an individual with paraplegia who sued the state of Tennessee after he was forced to drag himself up the steps of a courthouse that didn't have elevators or ramps. The ruling upholds Title II of the ADA, which requires that state and local governments provide equal access to services for individuals with disabilities.
I am writing this letter only because I think it is essential that accessibility awareness be practiced by everyone on this campus so that our students with disabilities can be provided access to all educational activities as is, according to national and state law, their civil right.
Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D.
Coordinator, Disabled Student Programs and Services, LAVC
A Disabled Student Programs and Services student who uses a wheelchair told me today that he received a $250 scholarship from the Patron's Association at the May 13 award ceremony. Although he was very pleased about the award, he was unable to receive it in the same manner as the other individuals who were awarded scholarships. They received theirs on the Monarch Hall stage. He received his handed down from the stage where he had been told he would be receiving it because "there is no ramp to the stage."
The college has a portable wheelchair lift that is regularly used for wheelchair access to the Monarch Hall stage.
This is 2004. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which ensured the civil rights of individuals with disabilities was enacted in 1990. And last week, a landmark 5-4 decision was made by the United States Supreme Court, upholding a key provision of the ADA and siding with an individual with paraplegia who sued the state of Tennessee after he was forced to drag himself up the steps of a courthouse that didn't have elevators or ramps. The ruling upholds Title II of the ADA, which requires that state and local governments provide equal access to services for individuals with disabilities.
I am writing this letter only because I think it is essential that accessibility awareness be practiced by everyone on this campus so that our students with disabilities can be provided access to all educational activities as is, according to national and state law, their civil right.
Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D.
Coordinator, Disabled Student Programs and Services, LAVC
