Connection
News and views promoting independence for people with disabilities
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DRS
Connection News and views promoting independence for people with disabilities |
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DRS is glad that the Maroney team is in the Loveland office, doing its best to help others along the road to independence and full participation in all areas of society, including employment. Since 1991 Don Maroney has served as the manager of the Loveland Office of Disabled Resource Services, where he has been ever since. Kathleen has always been Don's helper and driver, and in the mid-1990's DRS was pleased to receive funding to hire Kathleen as Don's assistant. Don was born prematurely and spent six weeks in an incubator. Those six weeks saved his life but cost him his sight from being given too much oxygen. He has been blind since then. |
The first student in Long Beach, Calif. to attend regular schools, with help from resource teachers, from elementary school through junior college, Don had intended to be a history teacher. Job prospects for a blind teacher were poor, however, so he switched to sociology and anthropology with a minor in psychology. Earning his degree from Whittier College took longer than the average because he needed to use tapes and braille machines to study. Don had just married Kathleen, who used to read for him in college. Kathleen had two sisters who had macular degeneration in their teens, so she understood the problems faced by people with visual impairments.
DRS is glad that the Maroney team is in the Loveland office, doing its best to help others along the road to independence and full participation in all areas of society, including employment.
Since 1991 Don Maroney has served as the manager of the Loveland Office of Disabled Resource Services, where he has been ever since. Kathleen has always been Don's helper and driver, and in the mid-1990's DRS was pleased to receive funding to hire Kathleen as Don's assistant.
Don was born prematurely and spent six weeks in an incubator. Those six weeks saved his life but cost him his sight from being given too much oxygen. He has been blind since then.
The first student in Long Beach, Calif. to attend regular schools, with help from resource teachers, from elementary school through junior college, Don had intended to be a history teacher. Job prospects for a blind teacher were poor, however, so he switched to sociology and anthropology with a minor in psychology. Earning his degree from Whittier College took longer than the average because he needed to use tapes and braille machines to study. Don had just married Kathleen, who used to read for him in college. Kathleen had two sisters who had macular degeneration in their teens, so she understood the problems faced by people with visual impairments.
Social work jobs were also hard to land, so Don earned a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Southern California. It was 1972. Don finally was allowed to work as a rehabilitation counselor, but only with blind people!
A father who needed the work to support his family, Don stayed in that job for nearly four years. He left the high-pressure job, and Kathleen worked as a substitute teacher's aide to support them while Don had no job.
In 1979 Don began working as Assistant Director of the Office for Disabled Students at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. When UNC's funding ran out, the Maroneys moved to a job in Washington. They returned to Colorado in 1990.
Of his struggle to achieve successful employment, Don said, "It has never been easy. You have to prove yourself more and go the extra mile. A positive attitude goes a long way, and I haven't always had one."
Don got tired of being jobless and being told after interviews that he placed, second, or fifth, never first. He encountered blatant discrimination but says you can't legislate attitudes.
In his 10 years in Loveland, Don Maroney, with his secretary, Kathleen, has been an active advocate for people with disabilities. For example, Don was instrumental in getting the Loveland Library computer which can do many things for blind people. People can scan in a publication and hear it read, record it on the tape recorder, or have it printed out in braille. They can also type something and have it printed in braille. Don also will teach people braille. He has been working to get braille ballots provided again, as they have been before.
A member of the Handicapped Advisory Council, Don has helped lobby for the audible traffic signal at 29th and Garfield and the braille plaques in the sculpture park (a work in progress). Don helped start the Disability Information Group, which meets once a month at the Chilson Center to discuss subjects of interest. He is proud of the Beep Baseball Team, only the second such team in Colorado after Denver's. He advises on Loveland's Barrier Awareness Days, started by Vic Beebe, a former DRS Board member.
The initial paperwork for architectural barrier removal funded by the City of Loveland is completed by staff at the Loveland Office. Recently, Loveland Housing Authority earmarked seven Section 8 vouchers for DRS clients. These were all quickly allocated!
For services or to assist voluntarily in the work of the Loveland Office, call Don at 667-0816.
Traveling by plane is never easy for a person with a disability, particularly for someone who uses a wheelchair.
First you have to get to DIA, and almost the only way is by automobile because the shuttle buses are not lift-equipped. Airport Express will carry a person onto the bus if they have a folding wheelchair but cannot accommodate a power chair.
What happens when you reach the airport is governed by the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). The original law was signed in 1986, but the regulations governing its implementation were not published until 1990. Its provisions covered only American airlines and were not as strict as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some issues were left unresolved. In 2000 the act was strengthened and extended to include foreign carriers doing business in the United States.
The regulations forbid carriers to limit the number of people with disabilities on a flight. Airlines must provide assistance with boarding, deplaning and making connections.
Boarding small planes can be a problem since planes carrying less than 19 passengers do not have to have a mechanical means, such as a lift, to help people board the plane. If there is no level entry and you cannot walk up the steps, you may be unable to use that plane. Airline and airport personnel may carry a person on board, but are not obliged to do so. Recently, one DRS client did not fly from Grand Junction to DIA because she didn't want to be carried onto the plane!
Guide dogs and service animals with appropriate identification may accompany a traveler with a disability to any seat in the plane unless the dog obstructs the aisle. "Appropriate identification" may include the "credible verbal assurance" of the passenger using the animal.
Under the ACAA, airlines must train employees about the rules, the procedures to be employed when assisting a person with a disability and how to respond appropriately to people with different disabilities. This includes people with mobility, sensory, mental and emotional disabilities. Some complaints have been about employees' ignorance of the rules as well as of the needs of their passengers with disabilities.
Several lawsuits have been filed against airlines for failing to comply with the act. Continental Airlines was charged with failing to provide adequate assistance to wheelchair-dependent passengers and also with failing to stow collapsible wheelchairs in the passenger compartment, which is required in order to minimize damage and inconvenience. Recently, Delta was fined $25,000 for stowing a wheelchair in the cargo hold, where it was damaged.
The wheelchair of a DRS employee was so badly damaged by United Airlines in 1998 that the airline purchased a new wheelchair for her! By law there must be a Complaints Resolution Official (CRO) to receive a passenger's complaint. In this case the CRO did all the paperwork and the new chair arrived qickly. The Department of Transportation must annually report to Congress on complaints received under ACAA.
Traveling by air is getting easier and more accessible for people with disabilities, but people need to know the regulations to make sure they are enforced.
If you are dissatisfied with how an airline complies with ACAA, see the CRO. A fact sheet on the the provisions of the ACAA can be found at www.dot.gov/ost/docr/DISABLED.PDF, or call DRS at 482-2700 for a copy.
Summer will soon be with us. Some people may be lucky enough to visit relatives or take a vacation. Access-Able Travel Source is a wonderful web site full of useful information for travelers.
The site was founded in 1995 by Bill and Carol Randall of Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
Carol has MS and knows first hand the difficulties faced by travelers with disabilities. The web site has data bases on transportation, including van rentals; accommodations; attractions; adventures (how about scuba diving?); travel resources, such as access guides; and equipment rental and repair. It provides information about travel agents, airports and cruises.
Call Access-Able Travel Source at (303) 232-2979, e-mail them at carol@access-able.com or visit the site at http://www.access-able.com.
Go to the TravelAbility web site at http://www.travelability.co.uk for information about accessible vacations and travel in Great Britain.
University Park Holiday Inn Assistant General Manager, Paul Knight and Director of Catering, Lou Ann Hoehne are working enthusiastically with the Wine Fest Committee to improve this year's Wine Fest, so mark your calendars and please tell others about this DRS fund-raising event, which last year raised nearly $33,000.
Wine Fest XIX will be Friday, May 25 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the University Park Holiday Inn, 424 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins--a new location for this event.
Over 300 wines will be poured. Foods to complement wine tasting, such as grilled vegetables, roast beef and cheeses, to name a few, will be provided by co-sponsor Alfalfa's Market.
The evening includes a silent auction and a raffle. Purchase raffle tickets ($5 each) from DRS Board members or at Wine Fest. You need not be present to win. Wine Fest tickets are $35 and can be obtained through May 25 at the various ticket outlets in Fort Collins, Loveland, Berthoud and Greeley or by mail using the ticket order form. Call DRS at 482-2700 for more information.
This year's Wine Fest Committee members are Steve Kershner, Phil Pringle, Sharol Enockson, Ginny De Herdt, Mark Gronstal, Jim Corr, Jean Batchelder, Jack Skjoldager, Debi Schwartz and Nancy Jackson.
In conjunction with Wine Fest XIX, the newly renovated University Park Holiday Inn will celebrate its first annual Winemaker Dinner Friday, June 1. Patrons can enjoy selections from the Robert Mondavi Winery paired with award-winning culinary excellence. Cost is $70 per person, which includes tax and gratuity. Reservations required. Call Lou Ann Hoehne, 482-2626, ext. 2020.
To top of pageUnder the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Act of 1999, the Social Security Administration has awarded $8 million in grants to 43 non-profit organizations and state agencies in 26 states.
The grants provide benefits planning, assistance and outreach for persons with disabilities trying to return to work.
Of the $8 million, $219,224 has been awarded to United Cerebral Palsy of Colorado, Inc. Their Benefits Planners will provide direct assistance and advice to SSI and SSDI beneficiaries about returning to work.
Mark you calendar! On July 26, 2001, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Chilson Center, 700 E. 4th St., Loveland, Peter Pike of Project WIN will give an overview on Project WIN Colorado.
Through this five-year effort, the state is attempting to expand employment opportunities for individuals with mental disabilities, physical disabilities or both. It is also trying to create positive systems change, examining work disincentives written into policies, procedures and practices at federal, state, and local levels.
People who use wheelchairs can get into Carmike Theaters nationwide free, and one companion can also go in free!
Get there early, especially on opening nights or for popular movies. DRS Board of Directors treasurer Laura Dow told DRS Connection about this bonus!
Winter 2001 Newsletter Spring 2002 Newsletter Go to DRS Home
