Disabled parking.
Jade Russell
Tribune reporter
Email: [email protected]
Nalini Bethel, chairperson of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), said no one had ever been charged under the Persons with Disabilities Act, enacted in 2014 to ensure equal opportunities and eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities.
Erin Brown, a prominent disability rights advocate and NCPD commissioner, said the low number of prosecutions indicates the law isn’t being properly enforced, and she believes the main reason is that many lawyers don’t want to represent people with disabilities.
Bethel told the Tribune that 14 corrective orders have been issued to businesses this year to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The orders were issued for areas that were inaccessible to people with disabilities, such as not having wheelchair ramps, handrails, handicapped parking or adequate restrooms. When one of NCPD’s three inspectors cites a violation, the business is typically given 90 days to correct it, Bethel said.
“Many of our buildings, especially the older buildings, don’t meet the code,” Bethel said. “Building codes have been changed and modernized to take into account accessibility for people with disabilities, so the newer buildings are more up to code than the older buildings. Some of the older buildings need to be renovated.”
If a company doesn’t comply with an adjustment order within 90 days, the case can be sent to the attorney general’s office. But Bethel said most companies typically comply with the orders. “No, no one has been prosecuted under this law,” she said. “But we are dealing with some complaints.”
Bethel said progress was being made when it came to disability rights and that “awareness is growing.”
Brown agreed that awareness is growing and progress has been made.
But people with disabilities are not well represented in schools, police stations or even courts, she said. Finding lawyers who represent people with disabilities or who specialize in the disability field has been a long-standing challenge, she said.
“If the law says we have to rely on this system that doesn’t have the expertise in this field, or the people willing to work on this, then who are we going to rely on?” she said.
She questioned whether the attorney general’s office had done its job to hold people and businesses accountable under the law.