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Uneasy access
By EVE BYRON, Independent Record - 01/06/08

Eliza Wiley IR Photo Editor - Maureen Garrity maneuvers her walker in traffic on Last Chance Gulch in search of a curb cut that will provide access to a sidewalk.
Maureen Garrity strides up the ramp, her right foot slightly lagging behind the left, her body steadied by her arms holding on to a walker.

She's a stylish, 40-ish woman who pauses at the industrial-size Helena Middle School door, wishing for a blue button to push that will open it automatically.

No such luck.

Instead, Garrity balances for a moment and grabs the door handle, pulling it back far enough to wedge herself against the door and wheel the walker inside. As she enters the school, the door pushes her forward more quickly than she'd like.

For most people, a door provides an entryway into a building. For Garrity, it's often a barrier to fully participating in life.

"I'm more limited by access than by my own physical ability," she says wryly.

The words are becoming a refrain for this funny, articulate Helena native more used to hiking in the woods than hauling around a walker.

Later, at a coffee shop in the 400 block of Last Chance Gulch, Garrity stashes the walker in a corner and sits back in an easy chair. She doesn't want pity, nor does she seek the spotlight. However, she's angry - not just with her diagnosis and her prognosis, but at the obstacles she faces now on a daily basis, while she tries to hang onto some semblance of her previous world.

"I have ALS, a progressive terminal illness, and I've really thought a lot about this - the one thing I want to be an advocate about is access," Garrity says. "I want to let you know some of the barriers that I'm encountering."

Maureen Garrity leads an active life. She's a wife, the mother of two children, and a professional community development consultant. She attends school events, shops with friends downtown and flies on work-related trips at least once a month to conferences throughout the United States.

For most people, Helena is an easy town to navigate. Finding a convenient parking spot downtown is frustrating, but not impossible. Flying out of the Helena Regional Airport has become more difficult in recent years - instead of showing up five minutes before a flight, passengers have to come an hour early and pass through security screening - but it's still a relatively simple process. Attending a school play is time consuming, but usually only because of the length of the production.

Yet since being diagnosed last year with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease - a neurodegenerative malady, Garrity is learning that the little things most people take for granted can pose almost insurmountable obstacles.

"Many nondisabled persons consider access a convenience and something they'll get to when they have time on their calendar," Garrity says. "For a person with a disability, access is the way to participate fully in life as they are able.

"My disability is not something I can just leave at the door when it is inconvenient. It is part of who I am."

Garrity isn't alone. In Montana, 54,371 people have some type of physical disability, according to U.S. Census Bureau information. That includes 3,294 adults in Lewis and Clark County.

It's been 17 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, a measure that was supposed to ensure equal access, employment and other rights to those with disabilities. But as Garrity is finding - and others already know - the act doesn't always equate to accessibility.

Ken Christensen, an independent living counselor for the Montana Independent Living Project, has been dealing with accessibility issues for 50 years, after losing his arms in an accident when he was 23 years old.

"The average person on the street doesn't have a clue - I'm not being judgmental … but people who aren't disabled, or know friends who are, just don't know what we go through," Christensen said.

He believes communities have made great strides since the ADA's passage in 1990. However, Christensen said people with different disabilities have different needs, and the bill also has numerous caveats that exempt certain businesses. So access remains an issue, as does adequate handicap-accessible housing and transportation to and from outlying areas.

In addition, adhering to the letter of the law doesn't always equate to accessibility.

"People have good intentions, but they just don't understand," Christensen said. "We have a gentleman who was downtown and wanted a taco, but he couldn't get into the business. So he asked someone going inside to order it for him while he waited on the sidewalk."

Today, to get to the downtown Helena coffee shop, Garrity eases her Honda Civic into a regular two-hour parking spot, since there aren't any designated handicap slots in the 400 block of Last Chance Gulch. Her doctors at Johns Hopkins advise her not to lift her walker over the curb - they're afraid she might fall and injure herself - so she walks in the traffic lane about 75 feet to the curb cut at the corner of Last Chance and Fuller in order to get onto the sidewalk.

Even where there is a designated place for her to park, that doesn't mean it's safer. One block south, she can pull into the handicap parking spot near the Career Training Institute, where she's slated to facilitate a workshop later this month. But again, she has to walk down the traffic lane to get to the curb cut - and when she goes inside CTI, the varying floor heights at the street level creates problems.

"When I'm in a wheelchair, I can't come down here. It's not safe," Garrity conceded.

Accessibility is a priority for Helena officials, according to City Manager Tim Burton, who notes their buildings generally adhere to ADA laws and says they have projects planned to deal with identified problem areas.

"But being in compliance with the law doesn't mean there's not more that we can do," Burton says on a recent walk down Last Chance Gulch. "We can and should go beyond the minimum."

He readily acknowledges there are some significant shortcomings in a city built during the past 150 years, pointing out crumbling sidewalks, crosswalks that go off at odd angles - posing a hazard to people with sight problems - and icy patches around sewer grates.

And he hadn't taken into consideration the less obvious obstacles pointed out by Garrity.

For example, the newly created curb cut and handicap parking space at the Base Camp are right in front of the store, seeming to invite inside customers with disabilities.

But the handicap access ramp is down the street. The curb cut also is to the right of the designated parking spot, so Garrity again has to walk into the street to get onto the sidewalk, then walk down the sidewalk to get to the ramp.

While it might not look like much of a problem to some people, it's another barrier to those with limited energy and abilities - and something relatively easy to fix by moving a sign or even moving the handicap parking space and curb cut closer to the ramp.

"It's humbling when you think you're complying with the law and doing good things, then something so simple is pointed out," Burton says, eying the ramp. "When I looked at the Base Camp, I thought it looked really nice and didn't see any issues at all."

Rearranging the handicap parking signs so drivers exit near the curb cut is something Burton is considering. However, that means a passenger in a vehicle who has a disability would have to walk in the street.

Moving the curb cut to the end of the ramp is a more expensive fix, with a price tag of around $2,300, plus another $1,800 to fill in the old one, according to Allen Cormany, the city's neighborhood transportation coordinator. Sidewalk costs usually are borne by the property owner.

Garrity's observations also surprised Base Camp manager Tim Lynch, who says they gave significant consideration to meeting the needs of all their customers when laying out the store and its entrance.

The ramp is wide, with railings for safety reasons. The flat pad at the front door is large enough to accommodate both people walking and a person in a wheelchair. The interior aisles provide plenty of room to navigate between clothing racks and other goods, and the bathrooms are ADA compliant.

"We spent a fair amount of time and financial investment trying to develop a plan that was adequate and accessible to all of our customers," Lynch said, adding that he wants to talk to Garrity about alternatives that might improve access. "Her concerns are well taken and it's something we can look at in providing accommodations."

Garrity notes that access isn't just an issue at a few stores or on sidewalks. She likes to swim, but steps lead to most of the pools at Helena's health clubs, making them off limits. She's chosen not to return to the local pulmonologist's office because it's difficult to go inside due to the door configurations. To reach the Independent Record's newsroom, she either has to call ahead so someone can open the back door, or ride a freight elevator upstairs.

And even though the state Department of Health and Human Services has two handicap parking spots in close proximity to the offices, they're usually in use and the drivers often have parked in front of the curb cuts.

She points to the national chains like Target, Safeway and Wal-Mart, which typically designate eight or so handicap parking spots right in front of the automatic doors and have wide aisles. They're not always where Garrity wants to shop, but they know how to provide adequate access, she said.

Flying presents another range of difficulties for Garrity, who has had a couple of bad experiences at the Helena Regional Airport. In one incident, the security screeners didn't correctly fold her walker and broke it. She's filled out paperwork, yet hasn't been reimbursed for the $200 piece of equipment.

Her simple request for a wheelchair to bring her to and from the planes is fulfilled sporadically. Recently, when she asked for help getting to her seat after her walker was packed away, she said the boarding agent responded "It's not that far. Can't you do that?"

"I said no," she said.

Then there are the schools.

Garrity tried to attend a Helena Middle School noon meeting at the beginning of the school year, only to feel like a second-class citizen when she was told to park in the back, walk through the cafeteria crowded with students and take an elevator to the second floor.

She let school officials know that this was unacceptable. The school responded quickly, outlining two handicap parking spots in front of the building. But there still aren't automated doors out front, and parents dropping off students often park in the handicap zone - even though the school resource officer practices zero-tolerance, handing out $100 parking tickets.

A study performed two years ago shows that almost all of the Helena School District's 20 facilities need ADA improvements. While the district is chipping away at the list, John Carter, the facility manager, said they estimate it will cost about $2.5 million to bring the schools and offices into compliance.

Just installing ramps and electric doors at the main entrance to Helena Middle School - something slated for construction next summer - will cost from $50,000 to $75,000.

"The truth is we are not 100 percent accessible. We have buildings with multiple floors that need elevators, and several schools, just by their vintage, have ramps too steep to meet ADA codes," Carter said.

Their focus, he added, is to first get people with disabilities onto the site, then into the building and to centralized services and to provide handicap accessible restrooms.

But these improvements will take a minimum of five years to accomplish, due to the large number of needs and the price tag.

"It's a very long list," Carter said. "I believe the school district has really given focus to this and is making a concerted effort, but we are struggling with our general funds and other school funding, and it's a balancing act.

"I'm not saying it's not doable, but we have a long list of needs and the average age of our buildings is about 50 years old."

Garrity is trying to be patient with the slow speed of improvements, but with ALS, time is a luxury she can't afford. She's been admonished by some people for her outspokenness; they say she should offer praise first, then gently seek change.

But that advice is hard to heed when she needs access now.

A friend who uses a wheelchair recently told Garrity that being disabled means "either you suffer in silence, buy your way into being accommodated or become a ***** that ruffles feathers," and that she's guilty of all three.

Those words ring true for Garrity.

"I have learned to pick and choose my battles - not because I'm not justified in battling 99.9 percent of the time, but because I just want to live and not have to fight all the time over everything," Garrity says.

That means asking children to keep parents from parking in the handicap spots. Calling, e-mailing and meeting with school and airport officials to push for accommodations, and requesting aid when mailing a package.

"Most people really do want to help and they do care. It makes me feel pretty wonderful when I ask for help and people are so wonderful giving it to me," she said. "The kindness of strangers is really powerful."

Garrity also is taking her business to those that will accommodate people with disabilities.

Shortly before Christmas, Garrity made her way over the stamped cobblestones of Helena's walking mall to the Dancing Lotus Studio's evening yoga class. Her classmates watched for her and opened the door as instructor Kelly Baraby laid out class materials for Garrity.

They've created a welcoming environment, where Maureen Garrity can be just another woman practicing yoga, stretching her new boundaries in a comforting atmosphere.

"May there be peace in heaven and peace in the sky. May there be peace on earth and peace in the water," Garrity says during class, reciting a traditional yoga mantra. "… May that peace, real peace, be mine. …"

Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com
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