People with disabilities face frustrations in stores, elsewhere

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By Deidre Cox Baker | Monday, July 07, 2008 |

Mike Hoenig of Davenport, 'feels' his apples, and then hands them to Hy-Vee employee Mike O'Hara for visual inspection while grocery shopping. (John Schultz/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

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On an autumn visit to a Quad-City restaurant, Sharon Gunderson was able to guide her wheelchair into the dining area, but when it came time to exit the restroom, she got stuck. She was forced to wait until someone else entered and held open the door that was too heavy for her.

“People just don’t think,” the Davenport woman said of accessibility issues that crop up regularly, 18 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was passed by Congress and signed by President George H.W. Bush.

Those who do not rely upon wheelchairs are not aware of how difficult it remains to get around in the Quad-City region, numerous individuals who use wheelchairs say. Their frustrations center on restaurants, big-box stores and public transportation

systems.

Gunderson, 64, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis seven years ago and lives in a handicapped-accessible condominium with her husband of 44 years. The debilitating disease requires the retired registered nurse to use a walker or a wheelchair when she goes out in public.

Area businesses probably meet minimum ADA requirements, she said, but there is little consistency. Gunderson and others interviewed for this article found Hy-Vee Food Stores accessible, but they reported problems at some “big box” retail stores.

Mike Hoenig, 44, an advocate for people with disabilities, said the ADA has been weakened over the years.

“There have been frivolous lawsuits and some negative sentiment,” he said. “There’s a backlash.”

Hoenig, who has been blind since birth, thinks the Quad-City area is fairly accessible, but he knows there are difficult barriers for others.

“I’ve been really fortunate,” he said. “I’ve not faced a lot of discrimination.”

He lives alone in central Davenport and has an active social life, including dance lessons. But Hoenig finds himself reminding some restaurant workers that they are required to have Braille menus, and he has to use various means of transportation to get around.

Hoenig works at the Center for Disability and Development at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. To get to work each day, he catches the River Bend Transit bus to the Iowa Machine Shed in Davenport. There, he meets a van, operated by the university, which takes him and several other employees to Iowa City.

The ADA has been embraced in different ways by businesses, he said. He finds restaurants such as McDonald’s, the Olive Garden, Granite City and the

Village Inn to be helpful.

He also remembers when representatives of the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse contacted him to ask how to make the downtown Rock Island theater more accessible. Hoenig now uses an “audio describer” for the shows he attends there and has become a regular patron.

The translation technique involves a person who stands just off-stage with an audio connection to Hoenig. He is fed information about the show when there is no dialogue, such as, “The butler just entered from the right,” or “The couple is now embracing.” Hoenig said he also uses audio describers at the Adler Theatre and the Quad-City Music Guild.

Businesses respond

Area businesses try to be user-friendly to persons with disabilities, representatives said. Brad Lybbert has worked at the Red Lobster Restaurant in Davenport for the past 17 years. That is where Gunderson — and some others interviewed for this article — have struggled with the restroom doors.

Lybbert, a manager, said he not heard of any restroom door problems, but he noted that the popular Davenport restaurant will be remodeled inside and out this year. Red Lobster hosts many customers who arrive in wheelchairs, with walkers and with seeing-eye dogs, he added.

“We not only comply with the ADA, we like to go beyond it,” he said, pointing to the five new handicapped-only parking places in front of the facility.

Gunderson had particular problems around the Christmas holiday shopping season at the Kohl’s and SuperTarget stores, both in Davenport.

She used a wheelchair at Kohl’s and tried to shop for shoes, but she found the display was too high, making it impossible to see various available styles.

“I wasn’t going to pull each box out one at a time,” she said.

Kohl’s is nationally recognized for its customer service, and salespeople will help anyone who asks for assistance, said Vicki Shamion, vice president for public relations with the corporation based in Menomonie Falls, Wis. Kohl’s has wheelchair-accessible entrances with automatic doors, accessible restrooms and fitting rooms and wheelchairs available at the store entrances, she said. Kohl’s complies with all state and federal accessibility standards, Shamion added.

At SuperTarget one afternoon, Gunderson and her husband found the electric wheelchairs were all either in use or out of service. They have sworn off using the store since they had to wait more than an hour for a wheelchair.

“That’s the result, and that’s not good for Target,” Gunderson said.

Elizabeth Wolf, a spokeswoman for Minneapolis-based Target Corp., says two additional electric wheelchairs have since been placed in service at the Davenport store. It is likely the batteries had worn down on the ones that were out of service, she said, adding that there were crowded shopping conditions that contributed to Gunderson’s frustration.

The Target wheelchairs are checked and tested monthly on a regular maintenance schedule, Wolf said, noting, “It’s not uncommon that batteries run low during busy times.”

Equal opportunity

Congress adopted the ADA to ensure equality of opportunity, full participation in society, independent living and economic self-sufficiency, said Jennifer Mullin, communications director for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who was instrumental in writing the original ADA legislation.

“Many people with disabilities live in Iowa communities, and they have the same expectations about being able to do all those things the rest of us take for granted, whether it is shopping, going out to eat or to a movie, or just socializing with friends,” she said.

Businesses with accessibility issues should work with local organizations or the ADA Technical Assistance Center to remedy the issues, she added.

Barreling along

Joe Lambert, a burly 21-year-old from Davenport who is in a wheelchair because of spina bifida, powers his way through area stores. If an aisle is too narrow or there are obstacles, he just knocks them down, Lambert said.

“I get around OK in Target and Wal-Mart, but I don’t really do much shopping,” the Scott Community College student added.

Lambert, who takes classes at the Kahl Building in downtown Davenport, had to contend with transportation issues earlier this year. He uses River Bend Transit much of the time, but he finds the service somewhat unavailable, especially in the early morning and late afternoon hours.

“Peak times are difficult to schedule,” agreed Randy Zobrist, River Bend’s executive director. The public service — which evolved out of ADA requirements for accessible transportation — operates for about 900 qualified customers in Davenport and Bettendorf.

River Bend uses its bus system as equitably as possible, he said, noting that some needs go unmet.

“We’re not a taxi service,” he said.

Lambert has a driver’s license, but the van he owns is not dependable. His mother, Sue, said a new accessible van would cost $40,000.

Transportation challenges

Joe Lambert’s problems with local transportation system are echoed by other Quad-City residents with physical disabilities.

That includes six women in the Living Well With Independence class recently held at the Spring Village Apartments in Davenport. The class is taught by Susan Mosetick of Joy, Ill.

“At the first class, they all agreed, if they each won the lottery, they’d hire themselves a car and driver,” Mosetick said. “They all want improved transportation in the Quad-Cities.”

Mosetick has worked on ADA enforcement issues for many years, and she has done accessibility audits of several Quad-City structures.

One reason the law is not thoroughly enforced is that problems have to be corrected via a complaint process.

“You have to work your way through the court system, and that means hiring lawyers and lots of money. It’s just too much trouble to force change,” she said.

“We have to pick our battles,” Sue Lambert agrees. She has looked into private transportation services for her son and found that they run $45 to $135 a week.

“It’s just tough not having a highly accessible city,” she said.

Deirdre Cox Baker can be contacted at (563) 383-2492 or dbaker@qctimes.com.