some sign-interpreted performances; a tape cassette sent with tickets containing a description of stage sets; and a special hotline with information on available shows for persons with visual impairment. Despite these advances, there is still a long unfinished agenda with respect to equal access to tourism and recreation facilities for handicapped persons. Advances have been made in equality of access to travel opportunities for those who are handicapped or ill. But these advances have not always kept pace with gains in other forms of equality. The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board has received 944 written complaints about barriers since it was established, and 822 have yet to be resolved. One-hundred-and-twenty-eight of those complaints were received this year alone. The most common complaints were about lack of curb cuts, ramps and automatic doors. Facilities in New York State, Washington, D.C., and California were the object of the majority - about 36% - of all complaints this year. Few restaurant menus are printed in braille. Few waiters and waitresses have been trained to tell blind patrons the location on the table of food items, for example, in terms of "12 o'clock". Rental cars with hand controls are not available at all of our major cities. The only commercial aircraft with wheelchair accessible restrooms are the new-generation Boeing 767s and Airbus Industrie's A-300. Few airlines will transport wheelchairs powered by wet-cell batteries. The State of Hawaii requires a 120-day quarantine for all dogs entering the state, including guide dogs. Many passengers who are sight-impaired may have special problems in coping with airport security devices and in comprehending in-flight demonstrations of safety features and survival equipment such as life vests, oxygen masks and emergency exits. Policies and practices for accommodating handicapped pasengers are not uniform. At least one trunk airline and some intrastate carriers will not transport wheelchairs. Treatment of the handicapped traveler often varies from airport to airport, even on the same airline and even if the carrier's corporate policy prohibits discrimination against disabled persons. Even the most fair and equitable policy doesn't always filter down to the operating level, and when it does, it isn't always uniformly administered and executed. One major U.S. carrier went so far as to produce a training film to instruct its employees in the application of its policy toward the handicapped traveler, and the policy was to accommodate the disabled passenger to the maximum extent possible. Yet, a handicapped passenger attempting to deplane from one of that carrier's aircraft at Dulles International Airport was informed by an airline employee that wheelchairs were not permitted aboard mobile lounges. The passenger waited in the aircraft for more than an hour after other passengers had deplaned before finally being assisted to the terminal. Even though the addition of onboard wheelchairs to 767s represents a significant breakthrough for the handicapped passenger, there is no existing standard, Federal or otherwise, which requires such wheelchairs to be equipped with a seat belt. In one incident I was informed of recently, a paraplegic passenger using a beltless wheelchair fell from the chair. Similar deficiencies exist in non-transport facilities designed for the disabled traveler. An official of the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, himself a handicapped person, recently described some which he encountered in traveling cross-country to assume his new post in Washington. He used a directory put out by a major U.S. motel chain which has made a conscientious effort to provide necessary facilities for handicapped persons. At one motel described in the directory as "accessible", and where he stopped for the night, there was an extra-wide bathroom door, permitting the entry of a wheelchair, and grab bars around the bathtub. There was also a grab bar around the toilet making it inaccessible by wheelchair. According to the Society for the Advancement of Travel for the Handicapped, wheelchair access motor coaches are in short supply and several dozen are needed immediately, nationwide. The celebrated Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman, partially paralyzed by polio, estimates that architectural barriers still deny 30 to 50 million handicapped Americans the right to enjoy the arts, a common reason for travel. Many barriers which impede travel by handicapped persons are most resistant to change in the less-expensive transport modes: - wheelchairs are not routinely available, as they are at platform to the curb, at many train stations and bus restrooms on interstate buses are generally not wheelchair accessible, nor are train or subway station turnstiles; - arrival and departure announcements and "all-aboard" calls cannot always be communicated in a timely fashion to rail passengers suffering from a hearing disorder. State governments have taken steps to expand travel and tourism opportunities for handicapped persons, and nearly every state has a "barriers" law requiring public spaces to be accessible. However, some handicapped individuals report that application and enforcement of the law often differ from state to state and even from locale to locale within a state. The American National Standard Institute has developed design standards to ensure accessibility to buildings, but there are no similar standards defining "accessibility" in transportation. These and similar problems affect large numbers of Americans. Although the reliability of available data has been subject to question, the data we do have indicate that the number of our handicapped citizens is not decreasing; it's growing larger every Today, there are more individuals with "activity year. |