Columbia SC: Change Comes Slowly

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Columbia, South Carolina: Change Comes Slowly

By Jacqueline Kravetz

Columbia, SC (July 22, 2000) - The Spirit of ADA Torch Relay pulled into Columbia for the last stop on its tour of the south before heading up to Washington, D.C. for two days of events.

The Relay began in West Columbia at the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation's barrier-free model home where South Carolina's Commissioner of Vocational Rehabilitation P. Charles LaRosa passed the torch to the first of 54 torch bearers. The Relay, covering a 14-mile route, traveled through West Columbia into Columbia proper where a closing ceremony was held at Finlay Park in mid-town.

In an interview prior to the kick-off, Maris Parmerter, Executive Director of the South Carolina Independent Living Council and local relay coordinator said the main issues facing Columbia were programmatic and physical architectural access.

"Basically," she said, "when the ADA was enacted ten years ago some cities went out right at the beginning and made curb cuts and every new building accessible. In other cities especially older, more historic cities they weren't doing quite so much building; the cities were already in place."

"Now you're having to do retro-fitting, much more complicated, much more expensive, and people are less willing to make those changes," Parmerter said.

Columbia's State Capitol and City Hall have been retro-fit to make them accessible, but there is still much more to be done in this arena.

Programmatic access for people with developmental disabilities is the area that is met with more resistance, according to Parmerter.

For example, under Title III of the ADA, a hearing impaired individual is entitled to a qualified interpreter for anything other than an ordinary daily transaction. This includes, among other things, visits to the dentist, the doctor, a lawyer or a bank. But compliance has been slow in coming, Parmerter said.

Cathy Pelletier, the Executive Director of the Disability Action Center (DAC), an Independent Living Center serving twenty-three counties, agrees with Parmerter. "The challenge in South Carolina is overcoming physical and attitudinal barriers,the biggest thing we're doing now is trying to educate the public about disabilities in an effort to decrease barriers," Pelletier said.

Pelletier's organization runs ADA training sessions at least twice monthly throughout South Carolina's Midland and Upstate regions, administers awareness programs in the public school system, and is currently focusing on making the transportation system more accessible, which includes the installation of curb cuts.

She said DAC is also trying to make hospitals more accessible, this includes providing interpreters for hearing impaired patients. South Carolina recently had a successful outcome in the Greenville county hospital system to make interpreters available and advocates are now concentrating on doing the same in Richland county hospitals.

"Columbia is a southern city; change comes very, very slowly," Parmerter, a native New Yorker, explained.

"What I've found since coming here is that people were very used to being thankful for whatever crumb they were give, in terms of building advocacy and empowerment, we're just starting to see people saying I deserve more…we’re hoping our ADA raises awareness about rights and responsibilities," she said.

Speakers at the Columbia event included, among others, Mayor Mac Rish of West Columbia; P. Charles La Rosa, Commissioner of the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department; and Susan Daniels, Deputy Commissioner for Disabili ty and Income Security Programs at the Social Security Administration.