Opening doors for all

Woman who helped craft ADA sees more work still to be done

By Doris Wedge

For Therese Fitzhugh, seeing the Americans With Disabilities Act become reality in 1990 was an enormous accomplishment that literally opened the doors of opportunity for millions of others who have disabilities.

"No one wanted to listen to us," she recalled of the days when President Lyndon Johnson appointed her to the task force which wrote the Act, and of the 25 years before it was enacted.

Her appointment was no surprise to those who knew her as an outspoken advocate for the rights of those with disabilities. Her own abilities were a bold statement as to the potential of those with disabilities. But it was a surprise that she was the only person with a disability named to the 12-member task force.

Fitzhugh knew only too well the many barriers that the handicapped faced, even though she had accomplished much. She was 12 years old and visiting family members in Oklahoma when she became ill. It was polio, and when she recovered she had lost the use of her legs.

While society didn't think she could accomplish much, nor even expect her to accomplish anything, she had an attitude about her, she admits. "I was stubborn and had a mother who worked with me," she said. "She believed I could do anything."

"I was referred to ADL (Activities for Daily Living) classes, but I knew the world wasn't going to come to me. I had to go to the world."

Fitzhugh preferred to learn on her own, and with her mother's help and encouragement she became independent.

With a degree in psychology from Southern Illinois University, she developed a career as a consultant in communications. Living in New Jersey she volunteered with the Easter Seals, including planning events to help the able-bodied recognize the needs of the disabled.

"The older I got, the more loud-mouthed I got, so to speak," she muses. "I stood up for what I believed in."

It wasn't a surprise to those who knew of her efforts with Easter Seals and her abilities that President Johnson named her to the 12-member task force to write the Americans With Disabilities Act. When the committee met, she realized "I was the only one who had a disability."

The scope of the ADA had to be broad, she said, to recognize the needs of so many forms of disabilities. Special interest groups had expectations for ADA to address their needs.

"And like is typical, some wanted everything, but I knew we had to take a middle of the road approach ... get inside the door ... compromise." Her approach was to think "we couldn't expect a hotel to make all rooms accessible, but one or two rooms could be accessible."

Special interest groups resisted the cost of the modifications to facilities, but the first priority was to require modifications to public buildings "so that people with disabilities could conduct their business like everyone else." The Act calls for others to make modifications when remodeling occurs.

Always, she said, the eye was on the goal. "We needed to at least get ADA to the public and get a bill signed."

Nearly 20 years after it was signed into law, there are still frustrations. For instance, manufacturers have begun producing toilet seats that are divided, leaving a gap at the front. Many wheelchair bound people have to use a board on which they slide from the wheelchair to the toilet seat. The board can slip into that gap and the person can fall, or a leg can get caught in the gap.

"I would like to get hold of the person who invented that divided toilet seat," the feisty advocate said, acknowledging that most people don't realize the problems that little gap presents for some users.

She sees ramps too steep to be negotiated safely in a wheelchair, and she says that some seem to think that putting up a sign denoting handicapped parking makes it compliant with ADA.

"When the parking space is normal size, there isn't room for a person to get a wheelchair out and get out of the car," she said, adding the parking space should be one and one-half times wider than the normal parking space.

By the time ADA became law, Fitzhugh had suffered a debilitating back injury in a car accident, an accident she recalled by saying "it took my career."

It also took her away from participating in her athletic passions, the Wheelchair Olympics. She competed in bowling, javelin, ping pong, precision javelin, discus, shot put and the 60-yard dash.

"I hold 21 gold medals, 12 silver medals and two bronze medals," she said.

And that's not all. She has 21 first place medals in bowling and holds the international record in wheelchair bowling with a 253 game. As a young woman she was Miss Handicapped Indiana and went on to win the Miss Handicapped America title. She sang lead soprano in two choirs, one a branch of the Metropolitan Opera. Always an active volunteer with Easter Seals, she was elected to the Easter Seals House of Delegates.

Twelve years ago she came to Norman to care for her parents, and is the fourth generation of the Whalen/Fitzhugh family to live in the home on Miller Avenue. Two days after her mother's death a year ago, Fitzhugh broke a leg and has been bed-ridden since then. She is confined to bed, but not confined to inactivity.

Fitzhugh is an artist, working in pencils, oils and acrylics, and makes ceramic pieces. She also is accomplished at paregamio, a 16th century French art of paper piercing, using sharp needles, from one to nine at a time, to make designs. Typically used to produce a decorative edge on paper, she said "I call it lace edging."

Reflecting on having played a significant role for men and women who, like her, have found barriers to living full lives, she said "I am proud of having given handicapped people the freedom they deserve, the right to live their own lives."