If you live in, work in, or plan to visit Philadelphia — or if you’re simply interested in increasing taxi accessibility — you have a unique opportunity to make your voice heard.

The Philadelphia Parking Authority announced recently that it is considering new regulations to make all taxis in the city accessible by 2016. As a starting point, at least 300 taxis would be required to be accessible by the end of this year.

If you want to make your feelings known on this issue, please send an email to Charles Milstein of the PPA at cmilstein@philapark.org. Deadline is Feb. 3.

In addition, there will be a public hearing held on the issue at the PPA’s Taxicab and Limousine Division Headquarters, 2415 Swanson St., on Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. More info can be found here.
 

A Toledo, Ohio-based attorney and a disabled entrepreneur and motivational speaker have announced a new campaign to broaden the rights of people with disabilities facing discrimination by airlines.

The “Let ’Em All Fly” campaign, spearheaded by Johnnie Tuitel and attorney Mark Skeldon, seeks to amend the Air Carrier Access Act to allow people with disabilities to sue on their own behalf in cases of discrimination. Currently, Skeldon says, complaints must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which then may fine airlines up to $11,000 per incident of discrimination. “That is not a strong enough deterrent,” Skeldon says. “People need to be actually able to sue.”

Tuitel, of Grand Rapids, Mich., made national news in September 2010 when he was removed from a commercial flight because the determination had been made that he was too disabled to fly. He had been flying for many years prior to that and had never been barred from a flight before [see “Denied Boarding,” January 2012].

Skeldon describes “Let ‘Em All Fly” as a grassroots effort to build momentum for amending the ACAA. Among the supporters of the campaign are the Ability Center of Greater Toledo and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.

Meanwhile, issues surrounding the rights of disabled air travelers continue to flare up around the globe. In the United Kingdom, a businessman who uses a wheelchair was barred from a flight on the budget carrier EasyJet on Jan. 16 because he was unable to walk to the emergency exit. In France, however, a court fined the same airline 70,000 Euros ($90,000) for discriminating against three disabled passengers in 2008 and 2009. And in Australia, a 78-year-old woman who uses a wheelchair lost her lawsuit against Jetstar and was ordered by the court to pay a substantial part of the airline’s legal costs. The outcome of the case has prompted calls from disability activists for changes to the country’s anti-discrimination laws.

Alleging that certain housing complexes built with federal and local funds were inaccessible to people with disabilities, three advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Jan. 13 against the city of Los Angeles and the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

The suit was brought by the Independent Living Center of Southern California, the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley, and Communities Actively Living Free and Independent. Representing the plaintiffs, attorney Michael Allen told the Los Angeles Daily News, “The CRA and city were asleep at the switch ... They handed out money [to developers] without requiring the minimum number of accessible units.”

Allen is also representing Mei Ling, a wheelchair user who is alleging that accessible units were unavailable at CRA-funded apartment buildings in her home community of North Hollywood.

The lawsuit was filed amid a U.S. Attorney’s investigation into whether the CRA complied with disability-rights laws in projects receiving federal funds. The suit also arrives as the CRA itself is ceasing operations. Under legislation passed last year, California’s 400 redevelopment agencies are scheduled to close their doors by Feb. 1.

A 21-year-old undocumented immigrant, deported from a Chicago-area hospital after an on-the-job accident left him a quadriplegic, died Jan. 1 in a Mexican hospital that advocates say was ill-equipped to handle his injuries.

Quelino Ojeda Jimenez was injured in a 20-foot fall on his construction job in August 2010. When his family became unable to pay his medical expenses, a battle ensued between Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., and immigration advocates. He was deported to Mexico in an air ambulance on Dec. 22, 2010. The small hospital where he was sent was not equipped to properly treat high-level SCIs, and over the course of one year, Ojeda suffered two cardiac arrests and developed a septic infection before being transferred to a larger hospital in Mexico on Dec. 19, 2011. He succumbed to sepsis and pneumonia less than two weeks later.

“He never even made it to his home,” Jesus Vargas, a friend of Ojeda’s in Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune. “He was always in the hospital stuck to that machine that helped him breathe.”

Following Ojeda’s death, Advocate Health Care issued a statement expressing regret and announcing plans to reexamine its policies for treating international patients, including undocumented immigrants.

In Indianapolis, site of this year’s Super Bowl, attorney Greg Fehribach has been working hard for accessibility both at the game and in the city hosting it. As co-chair of the ADA Disability Inclusion Committee for the 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee, Fehribach — who uses a power chair because of osteogenesis imperfecta — leads a group of volunteers striving to ensure the best experience possible for visitors with disabilities. "We've helped develop Indianapolis into a world class city for people with disabilities," Fehribach says. "At the opening of the Super Bowl festivities, I saw thousands of people walking and wheeling around. There are no barriers.”

An Indiana native, Fehribach has been an advocate for disability rights ever since his days as an undergrad at Ball State University in Muncie. In addition to his work as an attorney, he is studying the impact of public policy on the employment of people with disabilities and has taught courses on the legal implications of the ADA.

When the Yard House restaurant chain opened a new location in downtown Denver, wheelchair users found a fully remodeled eatery with a newly created main entrance — and a step keeping them outside.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Jaime Lewis, a community liaison with the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. Lewis was unmoved by the restaurant’s claims that it was in compliance with the law because wheelchair users could enter through the attached hotel — a side entrance halfway down the block with no signage. “You shouldn’t need a GPS to find the entrance of a restaurant,” Lewis said.

In a settlement reached with the CCDC on Dec. 29, 2011, the Yard House agreed to install a ramp at the main entrance. CCDC legal director Kevin W. Williams is optimistic that the ramp will be installed on schedule but points out that the whole dispute could have been avoided. “They didn’t have to build it so it was inaccessible to begin with,” he says.