Advocate: Access for disabilities improves access for all

By Linda Bloom*

Mathew Sapolin, blind since age 5, addresses United Methodist Women during a disabilities and older women seminar hosted by Global Action on Aging at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York. A UMNS photo by Elena Chadova, Global Action on Aging.

NEW YORK (UMNS)-Mathew Sapolin, blind since age 5, is a proponent of universal design.
That means products, buildings and public spaces are created with anyone in mind-allowing "greater access for the greater number of people."

As commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Sapolin and the two architects in his office look for such universal applications not only when considering ramps, elevators and hand rails, but also lighting, signage and textures.

"The building code is one way in which we can require access," Sapolin told a group of local United Methodist Women during a June 20 seminar on "Older Women and Disabilities" hosted by Global Action on Aging at the Church Center for the United Nations. "When people don't want to make things accessible, they have to come to me to get a waiver. We usually say no."

The use of closed captioning on television is one example of how better access can benefit the larger population. In the 1970s, according to Sapolin, the deaf community fought hard to secure closed captioning over the objections of the communications industry.

When it eventually became a requirement, closed captioning proved useful in other ways, such as providing an outlet for emergency responders and helping immigrants and young children learn to read. "We see tremendous benefits from closed captioning that go way beyond the deaf and hard of hearing," he said.

In the same way, curb cuts on sidewalks can be helpful to mothers with strollers or even women in high heels as much as to persons in wheelchairs or on motorized scooters, Sapolin pointed out. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has allocated $218 million through the year 2010 to place curb cuts on more than 27,000 miles of sidewalks throughout the city.

The development of new federal laws on disability in the 1970s-a response to the difficulties suffered by Vietnam War veterans-led to the creation of local government offices such as the one that Sapolin leads. But it has taken the international community much longer to catch up, according to Susanne Paul, a United Methodist who serves as president of Global Action on Aging.

On March 30, members of the United Nations signed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which had been adopted in December. "That is an historic event and it took 25 years to pull that off," Paul said.

Negotiations on the convention included input from hundreds of non-governmental organizations and delegates representing the world's 600 to 650 million people with disabilities, 80 percent of whom live in developing countries. The document now must be ratified individually, with the legal language incorporated into the laws of each country, she added.

Jamaica was the first country to ratify the convention. Paul noted that the United States was not one of the countries approving the document. According to The Associated Press, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations has said it was opposed to the convention because it could dilute the strength of U.S. legislation protecting the rights of the disabled. The U.S. mission does support the improvement of international standards for the disabled.

The areas where the disabled often face the most difficulties with access are affordable housing and transportation, according to Sapolin. He suggested that the aging and disability movements join forces on these issues, "letting the world know we are empowered" for action.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.