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UCP Affiliates Respond to Chattanooga Times and Free Press Editorial Critical of Tennessee v. Lane Decision

The following letter was published in the Free Press on Saturday, May 22, 2004:

May 20, 2004

Lee Anderson
Editorial Page Editor
The Chattanooga Times and Free Press
400 East 11th Street
Chattanooga, TN 37403-4200

Dear Mr. Anderson,

Your May 19 editorial, Carrying an Issue to an Extreme, fails to recognize every citizen’s fundamental right of access to the courts, including the 1.2 million Tennesseans with disabilities.

Fortunately, five U.S. Supreme Court justices recognized that right and reaffirmed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in Monday’s Tennessee v. Lane decision.

Ninety-five Tennessee courthouses do not comply with the ADA, fourteen years after the law was signed by President George H. W. Bush. Thousands of people with disabilities need access to Tennessee courthouses everyday, and anything less than ADA compliance is a violation of their right to access the courts.

Being carried up a flight of stairs to a courtroom is not "reasonable assistance"; it is dangerous and humiliating. An elevator or a ramp to an individual with a disability is no different than stairs to a person without a disability. Recognizing this, UCP and our partners have built well over 200 home wheelchair ramps in the Chattanooga area.

The Free Press would better serve its readers by advising our great state of Tennessee to spend taxpayer money on elevators and other accommodations, rather than federal court appeals that attempt to scale back the rights of citizens with disabilities.

Sincerely,

Deana Claiborne
Executive Director
United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee
1200 9th Ave, Suite 110
Nashville, TN 37208
www.ucpnashville.org
(615) 242-4091

Diana Reid
President and CEO
United Cerebral Palsy of the Mid-South
4189 Leroy Avenue
Memphis, TN 38108
www.ucpmemphis.org
(901) 761-4277

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