Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507280117
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
To get to the Roanoke Comedy Club, his customers and comics have to climb a daunting set of stairs. That makes it hard for people with physical disabilities to get there.
It's an old building. When they moved the Comedy Club to Williamson Road five years ago, Butler and his partners at the time spent a lot of money to buy and renovate it - nearly $650,000. They were so tapped out, he says, they couldn't afford another $75,000 to put in an elevator.
"I don't even want to try to defend myself," Butler says. "I feel bad about it."
For the club's 10th anniversary earlier this year, he brought in Brett Leake, a good friend and one of the funniest stand-up acts around. Leake also happens to have muscular dystrophy. To get him up to the show, Butler had an employee piggy-back Leake up the stairs.
But a group of disabled folks who wanted to come to the show decided the stairs were too big an obstacle. Butler offered to have his employees carry them, too, but they turned down the offer, fearing someone might get hurt.
The Comedy Club is not alone. Many businesses in the Roanoke and New River valleys are hard or impossible to get into.
Karen Michalski, who directs the Blue Ridge Independent Living Center, a Roanoke-based advocacy organization for the disabled, says lots of progress has been made since the federal Americans With Disabilities Act became law five years ago. But "I think there is a lot more that needs to be done."
Critics, however, say the far-reaching civil rights law has already gone too far. They say it puts a burden on small businesses.
Bill Corbitt, chairman of Blue Stone Block Inc. in Roanoke, says the ADA was poorly written by Congress and has done little to help truly disabled people. Instead, he says, it's helped lawyers clog the courts with lawsuits and hurt businesses like his.
The law makes hiring decisions so treacherous, he says, his company has decided not to expand. It also brings the danger of more lawsuits, he says.
"It has drastically changed the way we do business," he says. "All it takes is just one ADA suit and a small business like us, we're out of business."
Michalski argues that many business people's fears about the law are unfounded.
"There's just so many people scared about this whole thing," she says. "Really there's a lot of things that can be done without a lot of cost."
A recent Louis Harris survey of corporate executives found most support the ADA. Just under half the companies said their costs to accommodate the disabled have increased "a little" under the act; 32 percent reported "no change," and 7 percent reported that their costs increased "a lot."
Under the ADA, businesses must make reasonable attempts to accommodate disabled people - as long as the changes don't create an undue financial burden.
In many cases, Michalski says, there's a creative, common-sense solution.
For example, a two-story antique store might make a video of the items on the second floor and people who can't get up the stairs can sit and watch and decide if they want the owner to bring something down for closer inspection.
Restaurants don't have to put all their menus in braille - they can simply record them on tape or have a waiter read the menu to a customer.
She says the city of Roanoke is working to improve accessibility around downtown Roanoke, and downtown still needs more handicapped parking and curb cuts. And, she says, many businesses housed in older buildings - like Butler's Comedy Club - are still inaccessible.
Michalski's organization does accessibility checks for The Roanoke Times' restaurant reviews. Nearly one-third of the new restaurants the newspaper has reviewed over the past five years have failed the center's test.
The center gave downtown's most popular nightspot - Awful Arthur's - a failing grade. The restaurant has a ramp out front. But, according to the center, it's too steep and people in wheelchairs will roll backward if they try to open the front door. And its bathroom stalls are too narrow.
"It's totally my fault," Awful Arthur's owner Todd Lancaster says. He says he he made the mistake of assuming the building was accessible when he moved in. He says he hopes to fix the bathrooms soon.
Jimmy Butler's restaurant downstairs from the Comedy Club, Groucho's, is handicapped accessible.
But Butler says he still can't afford to do much about the club. "That's the hard economic reality of it."
If people are willing to be carried, Butler says, "I have a commitment we will get them upstairs."
The independent living center's Michalski says there's too much chance of injury and a hazard if a fire breaks out once someone's upstairs. And some people think it's an indignity to be toted up the stairs.
Brett Leake, the headliner of its 10th anniversary show, says he understands "the dignity issue." But Leake also says Butler has worked hard to make things accessible for him.
"Jimmy works very hard at making sure people can get in and out," says Leake, who lives in Louisa County. "Jimmy really does kind of let it weigh on him that it's tough to get to."
Michalski realizes it might be too costly for Butler to get an elevator. But she says he's missing out on a source of business, because "there are a heckuva lot of people with disabilities who sure would like to get in and hear the comedians."
She adds that the federal government offers tax credits for businesses that renovate to provide greater accessibility.
Many businesses have opened up.
Terry Winborne, who uses a wheelchair, works as a senior computer programmer at the the Atlantic Companies in Roanoke County. He says the company has worked hard to provide access. "If I do have any problem, they make accommodations quickly."
He's had problems outside of work, however: He loves to go out to eat and shop, but he often finds obstacles at businesses around the Roanoke Valley.
That included the Pizza Den in Salem, which is not far from his office. It didn't have a ramp outside or accessible bathrooms. He says he called and talked to several managers, but nothing was done.
"I wanted to spend my money there," he says. "I felt like it was something that would not take a lot to take care of."
He filed a complaint with the federal government and a Justice Department attorney contacted Luke Waldrop, who owns the building and rents it to the restaurant's owners.
Waldrop said he's "100 percent in favor" of helping the handicapped, but "there's a limit as to what somebody can do" in terms of how much a business can afford to spend.
Waldrop said that after some negotiations with the Justice Department, he had a ramp and handicapped restroom put in. "I tried to what was right," Waldrop says.
But the building was at least 25 years old and "it cost me a potful of money" to make the changes. Waldrop says he spent about $5,000 in lawyer and architect fees and construction costs.
Corbitt, of Blue Stone Block, says the ADA has also been costly for his company - not so much in dollars spent but in the way it's been forced to change the way it operates.
He supports the ADA's intent, but says it was written too broadly. "It had the potential to be a great act," he says.
Corbitt believes, for example, that it left too much room for nondisabled people such as drug addicts to claim protection.
Corbitt's workers - the company employs 17 people - do a lot of heavy lifting. Hiring people with a histories of back or knee problems puts them at risk of further injuries -- and puts the company at risk of costly worker's compensation claims.
But, Corbitt says, the ADA makes it illegal to ask applicants about previous injuries.
"We're literally flying blind when we hire employees," he says. As a result, "we've just basically stopped growing our business. We're going to hire only if we have absolutely no choice left."
ILLUSTRATION} PHOTO: Cindy Pinkston. One of the businesses that have opened up include the Atlantic Companies in Roanoke County, where Terry Winborne works as a senior computer programmer. He says the company has worked hard to provide access. "If I do have any problem, they make accommodations quickly." color.
by CNB