Jim Langevin is used to finding workarounds.
“I’m pretty resilient. I’m pretty adaptable,” the former congressman said in a recent interview. “As people with disabilities, we do it every day.”
When he first arrived at the Capitol in January 2001, the old building and cramped offices presented many obstacles for a quadriplegic working in Congress for the first time.
The House floor had an adjustable podium from which Langevin could deliver his speech, and the Capitol’s architects removed two seats to make room for Langevin’s wheelchair, which became popular among lawmakers with temporary injuries or who use crutches or wheelchairs while recovering from surgery, Langevin recalled.
“They would always come to the House floor and come straight to where I was supposed to be sitting,” he said. “I’d joke with them and say, ‘Oh, yeah, now you’re trying to get my handicapped parking spot, too.'”
“What’s interesting is that oftentimes what’s created as an ADA accommodation is meant to be for one specific individual, but it’s not actually for one specific individual. It’s meant to make it accessible to everyone,” Langevin said, referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
During his 22 years in Congress, the Rhode Island Democrat has seen Congress become a bit more accessible, from the House office buildings to the committee rooms to the speaker’s podium.
But barriers undoubtedly remain: A 2023 report by the Congressional Workplace Rights Unit found 567 barriers to access across campuses.
“I often say I’m the first quadriplegic in Congress, but I certainly won’t be the last,” Langevin said. “I want to continue to make improvements to accessibility, whether it’s big or small.”
One of the long-awaited projects could be completed as early as this summer.
The Fiscal Year 2024 Legislative Appropriations Act included $450,000 to fund a new drop-off and pick-up zone for people with disabilities visiting the Capitol. Another $350,000 was set aside to create a similar zone on the Senate side of the campus. Work to upgrade the curb and install new signs is expected to take place in the coming months.
It’s a small amount and a seemingly small change, but it can make a big difference for people with disabilities who come to Congress, Langevin said.
“This is really crucial. It’s not easy to get picked up or dropped off on the Capitol campus because there are a lot of security barriers. And you don’t want to do it in the middle of oncoming traffic,” Langevin said.
“It’s not an afterthought.”
Arriving at the Capitol is often a source of stress for visitors with disabilities, said Heather Ansley, chief policy officer for the American Council on Disabled Veterans. Roads surrounding the Capitol are busy and heavily policed, and it can be hard for those who arrive by car to find a safe, legal place to temporarily park and drop off passengers.
“Just having designated areas with handicapped parking lets people know that not only is it a safe place, but that people with disabilities are welcome there. They’re not an afterthought,” Ansley said.
Annesley said the initiative sends the message that “people with disabilities are welcome like anyone else, they can meet with their legislators and discuss the issues that affect them, and services and supports are available to them.”
The new drop-off zone will be created on a small cutout section of First Street Southeast across from the Library of Congress. Further north on First Street, at the intersection of Maryland Avenue Northeast, a Senate side zone will be built across from the Supreme Court.
Currently, one place visitors can be dropped off is a roundabout near the Garfield Monument on the west side of the Capitol, according to information provided by the House Administration Committee. However, this area is also used by tour buses and is at the bottom of a hill. There is a taxi stand outside the Rayburn House Office Building where vehicles can pull up, but it’s less than ideal as cars often line up, especially if they need to go down a ramp.
“I think the current ADA accessibility to the Capitol is pretty inconvenient for a lot of people. There’s no easy way in and out. It’s kind of complicated to get into the building,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma Republican who sits on the House Legislative Appropriations Subcommittee.
Bice also chairs the House Subcommittee on Government Administration Modernization, overseeing efforts to modernize Congress, including projects to improve access to the Capitol grounds.
The new subcommittee was formed last year to take over the work of the now-disbanded Parliamentary Modernisation Select Committee (ModCom), which left behind an extensive final report with more than 200 recommendations, four of which were aimed at improving accessibility.
ADA drop-off and pick-up zones are one of them. ModCom also recommended providing more information to the public about what security checks people with disabilities may face when visiting the Capitol. The committee urged the installation of more automatic doors and suggested training House staff to update and maintain an accessible website.
Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., a former ModCom chairman and current subcommittee ranking member, said the new zones accomplish the first two goals, but the other two require more work.
“We’re hopeful that these won’t take too many years to implement, although we’ve heard that some of the issues related to accessibility of entrances and exits may be challenging,” Kilmer said.
The old, reverberant building presents other challenges: Handicapped-accessible bathrooms are still hard to find in most of the Capitol building, Ansley said, and mobility aids can sometimes have trouble getting around tight corners in crowded offices, especially on the House side.
As a result, meetings between constituents with disabilities and lawmakers and staff sometimes take place in hallways, Ansley said. Finding a place to eat in the Capitol cafeteria can be a challenge, especially if you’re visiting with a group of people who use wheelchairs, Ansley said.
These barriers remain nearly 35 years after the ADA was originally passed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and ensure public accessibility. Congress then applied these provisions to itself through the Congressional Accountability Act.
“It’s not happening as quickly as it could be,” Ansley said.
But Ansley said awareness has been heightened by the growing number of lawmakers with disabilities. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) both use wheelchairs, and Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., who has a rare condition called progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), became the first lawmaker to speak on the House floor using an assistive and alternative communication device, reigniting a larger debate about accessibility in Congress, The 19th reported.
Ansley said the very fact that the Moderation Committee held hearings on accessibility in 2021 and produced tangible results is reason for optimism.
“This is the first step. This is the piece of recommendation that I’ve been looking at in terms of modernizing the Legislature,” Bice said. “So if this wasn’t a recommendation from the Select Committee on Modernization, it may not be on our radar right now. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t consider it in the future.”
“I think we’re kind of taking a bite of the apple right now,” Vice said.