Been going on for some time here Bob.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Hachey
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 7:18 AM
Subject: [blind-democracy] A Fight for Justice at Detroit Airport
Hi all,
I first heard of this discrimination over a year ago. Seems that the Detroit
Airport is asking PWD to be inconvenienced due to so-called "safety concerns."
Looks more like an attempt to make life more convenient for the wealthiest
among us at the expense of PWD. PWD are forced to traverse a distance over 100
yards farther than was the case before 2014. Now, it looks like their solution
is yet more discrimination.
Bob Hachey
Disabled Flyers Try To Block Detroit Airport Bus Stop Move - Law360
http://www.law360.com/articles/769014/print?section=consumerprotection
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By Jacob Fischler
Law360, Washington (March 9, 2016, 3:55 PM ET) -- Disabled individuals suing
Detroit's airport and Delta Airlines Inc. asked a Michigan federal court
Tuesday to block the airport from enacting a new intercity bus stop regime that
separates disabled riders from those without disabilities, saying the move
would amount to illegal segregation.
Plaintiffs Paul Palmer and Donna Rose asked for a temporary restraining order
against the Wayne County Airport Authority and the airport's primary carrier,
Delta, to halt the agency's plan - set to go into effect March 14 - to reopen a
bus stop closer to the terminal solely for disabled customers.
Operating
separate accommodations for disabled passengers at a facility that receives
federal funding, like the airport, violates the Americans With Disability Act
and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the flyers said.
The separate stops would illegally force disabled passengers to notify
third-party bus operators of their disabilities, which may not be obvious,
Palmer and Rose said. The move would further stigmatize disabilities, which is
a symptom the ADA specifically sought to remedy, the flyers said.
"Defendants will gladly put plaintiffs, and those similarly situated, at risk
of ridicule and mental anguish simply to avoid their obligation to operate
their facilities in an accessible way," they said. "This is the very attitude
that contributed to this country's dark history of institutionalization and
exclusion of disabled individuals. This harm is real and identifiable, and
defendants' willingness to subject plaintiffs to this type of humiliation shows
why judicial intervention is necessary."
The WCAA's proposal to operate two stops follows 18 months of litigation over
the agency's moving the stop at Detroit Metropolitan Airport's McNamara
Terminal from a curbside location to an inconvenient corner of the terminal,
according to the flyers' attorney Jason Turkish of Nyman Turkish PC. For the
previous five years, the airport allowed all passengers to disembark intercity
buses at the curbside location, Turkish said in a Wednesday phone interview.
Citing safety concerns, the airport in 2014 had moved the stop to a more
distant section of the terminal, which the flyers allege was incompatible with
the ADA and inconvenienced all passengers.
"The fact that in 2016 we're going to go into federal court in a case over
segregation on buses is embarrassing," Turkish said. "And it's embarrassing
only to the airport, because everybody else in Michigan, [Gov. Rick Snyder, the
director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, members of Congress],
everyone else has condemned the airport. And yet they push forward with these
absurd regulations."
The WCAA's response to the TRO bid is due Thursday, an attorney for the
agency told Law360. The airport had sent a letter to customers Tuesday, saying
the move was meant to augment and improve services for disabled flyers. In the
letter, the agency's director of
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Disabled Flyers Try To Block Detroit Airport Bus Stop Move - Law360
http://www.law360.com/articles/769014/print?section=consumerprotection
landside services, Matt McGowan, categorically denied that riders who
preferred the closer stops would have to disclose a disability, and said family
and caretakers of disabled passengers would be free to disembark with them.
"These new options are intended to enhance proximity and access to our
terminals for any customer with a disability, on any mode of ground
transportation, who chooses to use the additional service," McGowan said. "We
are implementing these changes because we care about our customers with
disabilities. We expect our ground transportation operators to care as well,
and share our commitment to providing service with compassion and respect."
He also criticized the effort to characterize the move as an attempt to
"segregate" disabled passengers, saying it was no different than handicapped
parking spaces or special designated seating at sports events or movie
theaters.
But the companies that operate the buses serving the airport from East
Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan, have also opposed the proposed regulations.
The
companies, Indian Trails Inc. and Michigan Flyer LLC, issued a statement
Thursday echoing the arguments in Palmer and Rose's TRO bid.
"Our passengers view the airport's plan for what it is - discrimination,"
said Indian Trails Vice President Chad Cushman. "How would you feel if you
were on a bus that let off all the so-called able-bodied passengers first, and
then made another loop around the airport before you were allowed to get off?
You'd feel like a second-class citizen. No wonder many Michigan Flyer
customers with disabilities are distressed by the airport's plan."
An attorney for Delta did not respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Rose and Palmer are represented by Jason M. Turkish, Melissa M. Nyman and
Ryan T. Kaiser of Nyman Turkish PC.
WCAA is represented by Gary K. August and Jamie J. Janisch of Zausmer August
& Caldwell PC. Delta is represented by Timothy H. Howlett of Dickinson Wright
PLLC.
The case is Palmer et al. v. Delta Airlines Inc. et al., case number
2:15-cv-13567, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
--Editing by Edrienne Su.
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3/9/2016 8:16 PM
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