Znet "Disability Rights Watch"

[Marta Russell]

>At 11:39 AM 7/25/2002 -0700, michael wrote:
>>Wouldn't that be because some disabled have difficulty in getting around,
>>making them invisible?
>
>
>Visibility and mobility can be tricky things.  A disabled friend 
>from Bulgaria who visited me  a couple of years ago was absolutely 
>amazed by the many things available in this country to improve 
>mobility of the disabled (ramps, lifts, public restrooms, 
>transportation, etc.) - none of which could be found in Bulgaria. 
>OTOH, public transportation, and public sphere in general, are very 
>much limited in this country - people tend to live and move around 
>alone in "bubbles" aka cars.  So it is not necessarily the obstacles 
>to mobility (in this respect the US is probably better than most 
>countries) but the compartmentalization and privatization of the 
>public sphere  that makes the disabled "invisible."
>
>wojtek

Yes compared to Bulgaria the US does a better job - because the 
disability rights movement has fought to improve our lot.  But some 
areas here remain as backwards as Bulgaria when it comes to access. 
It depends on how active the disability community is in any given 
area and how the courts are intepreting the ADA and how much the DOJ 
is enforcing the civil rights laws aside from other reasons.
marta
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