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THE GOVERNOR’S DISABILITY Page 1 of 4 THE GOVERNOR’S DISABILITY Will Paterson help improve quality of life for other disabled New Yorkers? By Susan M. LoTempio / NEWS STAFF Updated: 03/30/08 7:18 AM Buffalo State College sophomore Emmanuel “Sporty” Watson and New York’s new governor, David A. Paterson, have some things in common: Both are African-American and both are disabled. Paterson is legally blind. Watson deals with the physical limitations of cerebral palsy. The similarities between the two New Yorkers pretty much end there. While he’s governor — and assuming his spate of questionable character revelations leaves him politically unscathed — whatever barriers Paterson may face in his new job likely will be dealt with by his staff. If he travels upstate, all necessary accommodations will be made. If he needs the latest reading technology to keep up with state business, he’ll get it. Watson, on the other hand, negotiates life far less smoothly. His off-campus transportation is usually a ride offered by a relative or friend. Conducting the daily business of classes and studying is difficult in the scooter he uses. Though the campus is billed as accessible, he says it is far from welcoming, with problems ranging from public bathrooms his scooter can’t fit into, to elevators that don’t work, classroom buildings with only one accessible entrance and snowy ramps that aren’t shoveled. “You’d think a state school would be [fully] accessible,” Watson says. “It gets state funds.” The 21-year-old and New York’s other citizens with disabilities — there are about 3.8 million of them — wonder if having Paterson in the Executive Mansion will make any difference in the quality of their lives. Some believe that just the fact that he’s governor is enough. “It has served as a great source of inspiration to the blind,” the Associated Press reported earlier this month. Others are hoping for more — a lot more. They point out that the laws already on the books — including the Americans with Disabilities Act — haven’t solved the deep-rooted problems that keep people with disabilities out of school, out of work, out of their homes and out of the mainstream of everyday life. Still, there are questions about how much attention Paterson will pay to disability issues, and how much he can http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=THE+GOVERNOR%26%2... 4/21/2008 THE GOVERNOR’S DISABILITY Page 2 of 4 actually affect change. When his press office was contacted by e-mail to respond to this story, there was no reply. Hopefully it was the budget fracas, not his disinterest, that prompted the silence. Paterson once told the New York Times, however, that he “disparaged efforts to make him a ‘disability’ case. “Every single white political consultant that I ever worked with likes to promote my disabilities,” he told the Times in December 2006. “And I suspect it’s to mitigate race — to give me, in their eyes, an honorary white status.” “Sporty” Watson believes the new governor “knows the difficulties of being blind and African- American, though no one should be defined by their disability or their color.” But when asked which presents the thorniest problem for him, Watson says: “Sometimes I don’t know which — race or disability — is worse.” Kevin Horrigan, director of public affairs for People Inc., believes the new governor is well aware of the needs of New York’s disabled citizens, though Horrigan fears the current budget problems might curtail needed programs. Perhaps the best Paterson can do is use the governor’s office as a bully pulpit, some suggest. Not since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was New York’s first disabled governor (1928-1932) has there been an opportunity to shine a light on the problems of citizens with disabilities. Paterson, at least, doesn’t hide his disability from the people like FDR did. “He doesn’t identify himself much as a person with a disability,” says Todd Vaarwerk, disability rights advocate at the Western New York Independent Living Project. “Does he have the confidence of the disability community? We’ll see.” While there was no substantive mention of disability in his “inaugural” address, Chris Hilderbrant, director of advocacy for the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, says Paterson has mentioned the employment challenges of the blind and deaf in other speeches. “Will he only concentrate on [the issues] of the blind and deaf?” Hilderbrant asks. “Access means different things to different people.” Still, it is “a unique opportunity,” Hilderbrant believes. “We have put pressure on other governors. Hopefully, this governor will be more receptive.” So, what’s on the minds of New York’s citizens with disabilities? “Housing is the No. 1 issue,” says Douglas J. Usiak, executive director of the local Independent Living Project. “Either there’s no access, or it’s a disability ghetto.” Watson lives in a campus apartment because the dormitories aren’t considered accessible, he says, but the apartments cost more than dorm rooms. Affordable and accessible housing — on and off campus — are lacking all over the state, according to disability activists. And that, explains Melanie Shaw, executive director of the New York Association on Independent Living in Albany, keeps citizens with disabilities from being fully involved in the community. New Yorkers want “full integration into [their] communities, but support [services] are needed to do that,” Shaw says. “It’s not just about the money, it’s about policy.” “People need to get to their jobs, to school, to services,” Shaw adds. But, in both cities and rural areas, transportation services just aren’t there. Watson is not alone in avoiding public transportation because either the bus ramps don’t work or the space inside the bus is too tight for his scooter. Other potential riders say drivers won’t stop to pick them up at the bus stop. http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=THE+GOVERNOR%26%2... 4/21/2008 THE GOVERNOR’S DISABILITY Page 3 of 4 Paratransit systems are available in most counties, like Erie, but have to be scheduled in advance. And most cities around the state have just a few, or no, accessible taxis. Even though they are ready, willing and able to work, many New Yorkers with disabilities can’t get to the job. “The unemployment rate for people with disabilities who say they want to work is 70 percent,” says Vaarwerk. “If that was true of other minorities, they would form commissions. We need to find a way to get jobs for people with disabilities and help them keep them.” The unemployment issue is a complicated one, but Vaarwerk points to the business community’s resistance to work site accessibility requirements as a big part of the problem. Also, many of the jobs available are entry level, Vaarwerk says, and “if there’s a requirement to work a weekend day, there’s no transportation” to get them to work. Transportation issues also have an impact on the right to vote. Currently, the federal government is suing New York State because of inaccessible polling places and voting machines. Traditionally, either the voting sites or the voting machines — or both — have been inaccessible even though federal law mandates they both be accessible. “There are 3.3 million voting-age New Yorkers with disabilities, and in 2000, only 1.3 million of them voted,” says Brad Williams, executive director of the New York State Independent Living Council. “That means 2 million did not vote,” which underscores the level of disenfranchisement, adds Williams, who has been working on voting access issues for years. On this issue, there may be some progress. “Come September and the primary, the disabled and anyone else who would like to try it [the ‘optical scanning’ system] can use it,” Lee Daghlian, spokesman for the state Board of Elections, told The News in February. “But by ’09, in time for the local elections, there will be no more levers. It all stems from the Help America Vote Act of 2003, which grew out of the Florida voting crisis of 2000 as well as the need to make voting machines accessible to those in wheelchairs, the blind and all disabled people.” Williams says he heard Paterson speak last year about his own voting experiences. “He said he never voted privately or independently in his life; he always had to go into the voting booth with someone else, like his wife or daughter.” Paterson told his audience, according to Williams, that “he doesn’t want to do that anymore. He wants to vote by himself.” With improvements in access that the lawsuit is supposed to bring about, that just may happen. But why it took the federal government to force New York to provide accessible voting is anyone’s guess. There are so many other problems in the state affecting disabled citizens that if Paterson were to try to tackle them, it would become overwhelming. Medicaid is one of the most critical and costly problems, and activists would like to see the state end the county- by-county disparities in benefits. Also at the top of their priority list is getting people out of institutions and nursing homes and into independent housing with the support care they need. Parents of children with disabilities need help getting school districts to supply the necessary accommodations so the students can reach the state education standards. One governor can’t do it all, even though his predecessor, the disgraced Eliot L. Spitzer, changed “dramatically the need to address the issues of the disabled in all policy discussions,” says Shaw.

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