Request for Comments by US Access board

[Lily Kerns]

Just in case you didn't see this:

Disability.gov Community Life News & Events Update: Access Board Seeks Comment on Access to Shared Use Paths - Comment Deadline June 27

The U.S. Access Board seeks public comment to develop accessibility guidelines for shared use paths which provide a means of transportation and recreation for various users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters, and others, including people with disabilities. The new guidelines will provide technical provisions for incorporating accessibility into the construction or alteration of shared use paths covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act and, in the case of those federally funded, the Architectural Barriers Act. Comment deadline is June 27, 2011.

[Lily Kerns]

I was in the city today so I stopped at the district office of the MDC to see if they had new application forms for special use permits (which is what I have been battling over for the last two years.) They do! the application makes absolutely no mention of disabilities, EPAMDs, OPMDs or Segways or that it applies to any of these. So far, so good.

So I asked about Segway use and the guy at the desk said I needed to talk to one of the two people in charge. I waited and waited. A very pleasant district officer talked with me, but guess what? He had no idea that there were new ADA laws that needed new rules, etc. We had corresponded briefly over the last two years but had never met. He did recognize my name, however. <G>

He promised to tell their chief counsel that I had stopped by and send her the relevant material I just happened <G> to have all printed out. Of course, I had notified her of these back in July when they first came out.... and in January had requested that I be notified when their new rules were ready... No such courtesy has happened.

I made it quite clear that I am not a happy customer--which I had also made clear over the last two years....and that if nothing has changed, I will be filing a complaint immediately.

We shall see what we shall see!

[Lily Kerns]

Originally Posted by Lily Kerns

Just in case you didn't see this:

Disability.gov Community Life News & Events Update: Access Board Seeks Comment on Access to Shared Use Paths - Comment Deadline June 27

The U.S. Access Board seeks public comment to develop accessibility guidelines for shared use paths which provide a means of transportation and recreation for various users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters, and others, including people with disabilities. The new guidelines will provide technical provisions for incorporating accessibility into the construction or alteration of shared use paths covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act and, in the case of those federally funded, the Architectural Barriers Act. Comment deadline is June 27, 2011.

Just realized that the link for this did not come thru when I copied the notice
http://www.access-board.gov/sup/anprm.htm

[Lily Kerns]

Originally Posted by Lily Kerns

I was in the city today so I stopped at the district office of the MDC to see if they had new application forms for special use permits (which is what I have been battling over for the last two years.) They do! the application makes absolutely no mention of disabilities, EPAMDs, OPMDs or Segways or that it applies to any of these. So far, so good.

So I asked about Segway use and the guy at the desk said I needed to talk to one of the two people in charge. I waited and waited. A very pleasant district officer talked with me, but guess what? He had no idea that there were new ADA laws that needed new rules, etc. We had corresponded briefly over the last two years but had never met. He did recognize my name, however. <G>

He promised to tell their chief counsel that I had stopped by and send her the relevant material I just happened <G> to have all printed out. Of course, I had notified her of these back in July when they first came out.... and in January had requested that I be notified when their new rules were ready... No such courtesy has happened.

I made it quite clear that I am not a happy customer--which I had also made clear over the last two years....and that if nothing has changed, I will be filing a complaint immediately.

We shall see what we shall see!

I have had no response from the MDC's counsel in response to Chapter One of this saga... So...

On my way home from Iowa this evening i stopped at another Missouri Department of Conservation district office to see if they had any new information on compliance with the new ADA law.

The woman I talked to knew nothing, could find no mention of regulations for disability usage in her reference notebooks. She finally called the district office I had talked to earlier and was told that they are enforcing the old regulations and have no changes in place to comply with new rules.

That means that they are still requiring a doctor's prescription stating whether your disability is permanent or temporary to get a Special Use Permit, a separate one for each site you want to visit and good for only one year. You must also display their permit, since they have refused to recognize the state's disability tag. They also hold you to a 3 mph speed limit and access is denied in certain areas during hunting seasnon (although no one else is denied access if you are dumb enough to want to be in the woods at that time...)

Since they have classified Hoveround wheelchairs and mobility scooters as EPAMD's, that means that these still have the same restrictions making the MDC in violation of that area of the ADA 2010 also.

I have notified Hoveround's legal department of this issue and I'm now trying to sort through my own options at this point...

[Lily Kerns]

Originally Posted by Lily Kerns

I was in the city today so I stopped at the district office of the MDC to see if they had new application forms for special use permits (which is what I have been battling over for the last two years.) They do! the application makes absolutely no mention of disabilities, EPAMDs, OPMDs or Segways or that it applies to any of these. So far, so good.
.....

She finally called the district office I had talked to earlier and was told that they are enforcing the old regulations and have no changes in place to comply with new rules.

A Sunshine Law request brought me this information:

This will acknowledge receipt of your request for information regarding
regulations relating to Segway usage. The Missouri Department of Conservation ("MDC") has no regulations directly related to Segway use on MDC areas. The MDC will waive its standard search fee in providing this information to you.

Since I was told via a District office that they were applying their old rules, there would seem to be a communication problem... of some kind....

Hmmm...given what happened when I requested documents regarding my first DOJ complaint ("I'd have to ask the MDC") I have a sneaking suspicion that they are not making all this available to the State Custodian of Records which is where the MDC told me their regulations were available to the public. On second thought, I'll bet the problem is that these are "rules" not regulations...so they figure they don't have to be published for the public.

When friends told me that the MDC operates on its own rules, I guess they knew what they were talking about...

Back to the Custodian of Records to ask about rules...

[Bob.Kerns]

Originally Posted by Lily Kerns

A Sunshine Law request brought me this information:

This will acknowledge receipt of your request for information regarding
regulations relating to Segway usage. The Missouri Department of Conservation ("MDC") has no regulations directly related to Segway use on MDC areas. The MDC will waive its standard search fee in providing this information to you.

Since I was told via a District office that they were applying their old rules, there would seem to be a communication problem... of some kind....

Hmmm...given what happened when I requested documents regarding my first DOJ complaint ("I'd have to ask the MDC") I have a sneaking suspicion that they are not making all this available to the State Custodian of Records which is where the MDC told me their regulations were available to the public. On second thought, I'll bet the problem is that these are "rules" not regulations...so they figure they don't have to be published for the public.

When friends told me that the MDC operates on its own rules, I guess they knew what they were talking about...

Back to the Custodian of Records to ask about rules...

Rule #1: All rules are secret.

[Lily Kerns]

Originally Posted by Bob.Kerns

Rule #1: All rules are secret.

We shall see. I got a note back from the Keeper of records today (with in the required three days) on my revised request for information from the Missouri department of conservation on how they are "regulating" the use of segways saying that they were gathering the pertinent information and would get back to me... we shall see what she can get her hands on..