I was thrilled when the ADA was implemented in 1992. After more than 25 years as a wheelchair user, I was sick of fighting stairways, inaccessible restroom stalls, and job discrimination. But it didn’t take long to discover that very few nondisabled people knew the law existed. And most of those who did know thought of the ADA as an optional “special consideration.”

One of those people was Paul Allen, the billionaire owner of the Portland Trailblazers pro basketball team. In 1993, Allen began construction on the Rose Garden, the Trailblazers basketball arena. Local disability advocates had pointed out prior to the beginning of construction that multiple ADA violations would follow if it went forward as planned. Allen, normally an agreeable man, ignored their warnings.

On my first trip to the Rose Garden I sat in the only space available — at the very top of the arena in the “gimp ghetto” — no restrooms or concessions, just a concrete pathway with rails. My daughter and I had to bend forward and peer over a clear plastic “safety railing” just to see the postage stamp-sized court hundreds of feet below. I was angry.

A local attorney, Bob Pike, also a wheelchair user, was angrier. He had bought season tickets — excellent seats at $100 a pop — but couldn’t see the game when everyone stood up and blocked his view whenever something exciting happened, meaning almost the entire fourth quarter. Pike sued, as did the Department of Justice, and eventually Allen had to spend tens of millions retrofitting the arena.

About the same time, I took in a movie at a newly remodeled multiplex and found that my only choice of seating was in the first row, about six feet from the screen. I could not even physically watch the movie or read the subtitles. Like Allen, the theater chain’s owners ignored warnings and complaints. I sued, along with others, and after years of appeals the Supreme Court forced compliance. Prior to the trial, I wrote a story about the blatant disregard of the ADA and our civil rights and sent it to the only magazine I could find that was interested in both disability discrimination and quality production. That was my first NEW MOBILITY story as a freelancer.

A year later I wrote my first cover story, an exposé of a wealthy coastal community in Oregon whose mayor and city council refused to acknowledge a disabled resident’s complaints about inaccessible sidewalks and businesses, one of them owned by the mayor. The resident sued, and the city council chose to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to combat the suit rather than spend the money to remedy the lack of access. Their defiant position was supported by the national Chamber of Commerce.

It is an understatement to say the ADA encountered rough sledding in the beginning. Even now, as then, the struggle is not only about access, it is also about good will. Persistent advocacy has won many battles, but the true victory will come when we win the hearts and minds of the public.