Disability rights advocate Margot Imdiek Kloss has blazed so many trails when it comes to access in Minnesota that those who have worked with her say there are few more left to blaze.
“She’s done so well that a lot of the work that she’s done is already finalized and completed so we don’t have to keep doing it,” said David Dively, executive director of the Minnesota Council on Disabilities.
Cross, who served for more than 35 years with the Minnesota Council on Disability, an independent state agency focused on advocacy and training on disability rights and policy, died on July 21 at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis from complications related to uterine cancer. She was 68 years old.
Margot Indike Cross, 68, a disability rights advocate from Minneapolis, died of complications from uterine cancer on July 21, 2024, at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. (Courtesy of Stuart Cross)
Dively said Cross was instrumental in making sure all of Minnesota’s major sports venues, including Target Field, U.S. Bank Stadium, CHS Field and Allianz Field, were accessible to everyone. In fact, he said Target Field was considered “the leading stadium in terms of accessibility” when it opened in 2010. “That was Margot’s argument.”
Cross said he has been instrumental in passing legislation that advances disability rights, giving countless presentations and consulting with architects, designers, contractors and builders to represent community concerns and challenge the status quo.
When new building projects or stadiums were being funded in Minnesota, Cross was the key person at MCD “to make sure access was part of it,” Dively said. “Margot had two different roles. One was on the policy side, dealing with the building codes. She had a big role in pushing for access to be required in the building codes. That was the proactive, systems change piece. Margot then worked on the implementation side, working on the actual cases and making sure they got done.”
She also served as a consultant on the new Minnesota Senate building, renovations to the State Capitol complex, the Green and Blue Line light rail projects and the Target Center renovations, and was instrumental in ensuring accessibility in state parks and trails. She was also a champion for handicapped parking spaces, accessible polling places and curb cuts, he said.
“This is an unimaginable loss for Minnesota and the nation,” said Jane McClure, editor of Access Press. “She made an enormous contribution to access, and we will never see anyone have that level of influence again.”
Cross was present when President George H.W. Bush signed the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990.
“She often spoke about it and how meaningful it was, but she also felt the promises of the ADA had not been fulfilled, especially when it came to employment,” McClure said. “She talked about being turned down for telemarketing jobs altogether because she was in a wheelchair.”
Cross is “part of a dwindling number of people who remember what life was like before the ADA,” McClure said. “She talked about getting out of her wheelchair and pedaling onto a city bus with someone pulling her. She had to get into an alley to cross the street because there was no curb cut. How do you replace someone like that? You can’t. She had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of disability and access, and what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to access.”
Margot Imdike grew up on a farm near Sauk Centre, Minnesota. She was hit by a truck when she was one year old and became paralyzed from the waist down. Her father, Otto Imdike, died in a farm accident when she was four years old.
Cross always credited her brothers Tim, Dan, David and Herman for “allowing her to grow up to be independent,” her husband, Stuart Cross, said. “They made her do everything herself.”
Cross graduated from Sauk Centre High School in 1974 and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where she said she became active in the disability rights movement.
The two met at a Halloween party in 1994.
“We were crazy about each other from the beginning,” he said. “We talked all night. Politics, sports, religion, the environment. We talked about everything and we decided we liked each other.”
The couple married in 1996 at their Minneapolis home.
Margot Cross has served on the boards of Wilderness Inquiry, Access Press, and the Metropolitan Center for Independent Living, and was a civil rights commissioner for Minneapolis and a member of the Minneapolis Disability Advisory Council.
In 2003, Cross was the inaugural recipient of the Access Press Charlie Smith Award for her contributions to improving the lives of people with disabilities, and she is also the recipient of the Courage Center’s Rose and Jay Phillips Award.
“Her life was defined by the challenges that she encountered and overcame,” Cross said. “She was big-hearted and compassionate and tough at the same time. She just wanted to make the world a better place. She cared about people, really, deeply at heart.”
In addition to her husband, Ms. Cross is survived by four brothers and three sisters. Her parents and brother preceded her in death.
A ceremony celebrating Cross’ life will be held at Banquets of Minnesota in Fridley on Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. Lunch will be served following the ceremony, followed by storytime and fellowship until 3 p.m. ASL and CART will be offered during the ceremony, lunch and storytime.
Crescent Tide Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.