In the News - ADA Special Report

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ADA Special Report: Fitting In

Over Labor Day weekend 2000, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a series of articles on the 10th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The coverage also included The DisAbility Project and many of the people from the group.

The special report is no longer available online, but you can still visit the Post-Dispatch HERE.

Post-Dispatch ADA Special Report: Fitting In

Sunday, September 3, 2000

Theater group gives disabled actors a stage and a voice

By Lorraine Kee
Of The Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Sept. 3, 2000

Joan Lipkin, the director of the DisAbility Project gives a massage to Ana Jennings before a rehearsal at Washington University's Occupational Therapy building, at 4444 Forest Park Avenue. (Jamie Rector)

The DisAbility Project also works with nondisabled actors, but its main goal is to let able-bodied people know that people with disabilities really aren't that much different.

Somewhere along the journey from obscurity to simmering celebrity -- after director Joan Lipkin's mind first lit on the idea for the DisAbility Project four years ago, but well before the theatre company landed for the first time on an honest-to-goodness stage this spring -- the Sharing Circle evolved.

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10 years after landmark law, gains are made, barriers remain

Over the next three days, the Post-Dispatch will examine the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act: the progress and the problems.

A law signed on July 26, 1990, barred discrimination against people with disabilities. Like the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act launched the country a long way toward equality -- in this case, for those with disabilities.

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Many local businesses still aren't compliant with law

Local businesses still have work to do when it comes to making their facilities more accessible to people with disabilities.

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Monday, September 4, 2000

People with disabilities don't want to be defined by them

By Lorraine Kee
Of The Post-Dispatch
Monday, Sept. 4, 2000

Andrew Lackey races through his house with friends Stephanie Sleeper (center) and Beth Heger at a party celebrating Lackey's graduation from Horton Watkins High in Ladue. (Jamie Rector/P-D)

"We're not only going to act and say things, we're going to do things with our bodies." -- Katie Rodriguez, in rehearsal for the DisAbility Project.

Some "walkies" see the chairs on wheels or the awkward crutches or the cumbersome braces. They get impatient when the conversation comes out haltingly or hard to understand. Or they notice the limp or the way the muscles have curled hands into clenched fists, and that's all they see.

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The DisAbility Project
As printed in the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Sept. 4, 2000

Read the text from one of the performances done by members of the DisAbility Project.

" Go Figure"

(Rich is alone onstage)

RICH: You may not be able to tell, but I used to be quite the Barbie girl. Oh yeah, I always was a traditional little girl at heart. I enjoyed dressing up and all that went with it. From my first pair of panty-hose to my bouffant hair, shellacked in place with half a can of Aqua-Net. Remember how popular big hair was in the 80's? The bigger the hair, the closer to God - and with the make-up to match. The trick was to go to that border-line Barbie look without being sickening; I'm not so sure I always succeeded. God, I can remember my college girlfriends and I dressing to go out for the night with the boom box blaring, "No Parking On The Dance Floor."

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By Jennifer Lafleur
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Sept. 4, 2000

Travis Everett enjoys his new cubicle with a view of the tree-lined parking lot at Union Pacific Technologies, where he is a computer programmer.

"They just moved me down from the third floor," Everett says, pulling his motorized wheelchair into position. In front of his computer monitor is an enlarged keyboard that allows him to type letters with his right thumb rather than with his fingers.

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By Jennifer LaFleur
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Sept. 4, 2000

While the Americans with Disabilities Act opened the door to independence for people with disabilities, technological advances are helping them walk through that door into the community and the job market.

Motorized wheelchairs have given more independence to individuals with limited mobility. Voice-recognition software opens the computer to those who cannot use their hands to type. Other software reads the computer screen to those with low or no vision.

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Tuesday, September 5, 2000

Troupe commands the stage with a repertoire to shift public perception

Joan Lipkin, the director of the Disability Project goes over some last minute directions before their final performance before haitus. (Jamie Rector/P-D)

The show won't go on for at least an hour.

But members of the DisAbility Project have arrived early, at the urging of director Joan Lipkin, for a performance at the 8th annual International Post-Polio and Independent Living Conference at the Marriott Pavilion hotel. Tonight they will perform in front of their biggest house yet -- about 200 people. In the audience will be polio survivors, health professionals, support group leaders, family and friends.

The gig marks the end of a productive winter-to-spring run for the Project, perhaps a turning point too for the troupe. The ensemble, which consists of actors with disabilities and without them, has evolved from an idea to gigs. Now it has to make some decisions about the future. But that's a matter for their potluck supper in two days. First, the ensemble has to get through tonight.

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By Jennifer Lafleur And Lorraine Kee
Of The Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2000

Despite the hour, light from a single window glows in the darkened Maryland Heights apartment complex.

The clock says 4 a.m., and Robyn Wallen has been up for an hour, getting ready for work. Inside Wallen's apartment, her son, 12, sleeps in a back bedroom. Her mother, wearing a duster, watches a rerun of Montel Williams' talk show.

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Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2000

When talking to a person with a disability, use a normal voice and look at and speak directly to that person rather than a companion. Introduce yourself and anyone else who might be present. When introduced, it is appropriate to offer to shake hands.

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Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2000

The Post-Dispatch compiled a list of local and national resources for information on the culture of disAbility and organizations who provide assistance.

For more resources, visit our Links section.

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