the pervasiveness of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and found the leadership to organize themselves to pursue access to those opportunities afforded the rest of society. Over these last ten years, these people have done what they could to get State laws passed and State regulations changed, statute by statute, program by program, to overcome restrictions and limitations. Some major battles have been won, in particular, in November of 1984 Connecticut's Constitution was amended to include people with physical or mental disabilities as a protected class. More often than not, people with disabilities have small battles here and there only to find their rights eroded somewhere else. It has been a frustrating experience. It is no wonder that self-advocacy groups have sprung up all over Connecticut. It is also interesting to note that Connecticut Developmental Disabilities Council Funds are being used to promote self-advocacy and people with disabilities are being trained in the strategies and tactics of the civil rights movement of the 60s and 70s. People with disabilities are finding it necessary to march in the streets, block stairs, take sledgehammers to curb cuts, chain themselves to buses, go to jail and stage sit-ins almost as far as the Chamber and Halls of the U.S. Senate. The next powerful movement is the rising of people with mental retardation locked up in institutions and sheltered workshops.

The time is long overdue for a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against persons with disabilities. The Americans With Disabilities. The Americans With Disabilities Act will provide a tool for already-existing activists, encouragement for the downtrodden and an opportunity to reach the most segregated members of our society.

I ask Congress, particularly the entire Connecticut delegation, to support the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Thank you very much.

Mr. OWENS. Thank you.

Mr. Knight, I thought there was a great shortage of specialists in therapeutic recreation.

Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir, there is. But I found it difficult in getting employment. One of the things that disheartened me most was I wanted to be as honest as I could when applying for jobs. So, when I first started calling for interviews, I explained that I was blind. I got very few calls for interviews that way.

So, in the future, I did not say I was blind and went to interviews and still had problems. Most people were very subtle about why they would not hire me, such as that I would create an insurance liability. There were some who blatantly said that they-or more blatantly said that my blindness was definitely a contributing factor in them not being able to hire me.

Mr. OWENS. Are you employed now?

Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir, I am. I am the Information and Referral Coordinator for Independence, Northwest, an independent living center in the Waterbury area.

Mr. OWENS. Mr. Preneta, what problems do children with mental illness face in getting an education?

Mr. PRENETA. Well, it is not just kids with mental illness. I think you may be aware that recently Connecticut was ranked sixth from the bottom in terms of integrating kids with disabilities into public schools. So, it is persuasive amongst kids and parents have struggled through fair hearings to try and get their kids into their neighborhood public school, not just one segment of the population. Mr. OWENS. And how long have you been there?

Mr. PRENETA. In Connecticut?

Mr. OWENS. Yes; as director.

Mr. PRENETA. Well, I have been with Development Disabilities Council for 10 years, 6 years with the United Cerebral Palsy Asso

ciation of Greater Hartford. I have been a Connecticut resident for 35.

Mr. OWENS. Thank you very much. I want to thank all of you for testifying.

The next panel is Mr. Bill Dorfer, Stratford, CT; Cindy Kappe, Bridgeport, CT; Shelly Teed-Wargo, Chairman, Connecticut Union of Disability Action Groups. You may begin, Mr. Dorfer.

STATEMENT OF BILL DORFER, STRATFORD, CT

Mr. DORFER. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for this opportunity to appear this morning to share with you some of my personal experiences with discrimination because of my physical disabilities.

My name is Bill Dorfer. I am from Bridgeport, CT. I am assistant director of the Center for Independent Living of Southwestern Connecticut and Stratford.

Thirty-four years ago, I was diagnosed as having limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, a progressive disease. And for the past 13 years, I have needed leg braces, a cane, and most recently a wheelchair to maneuver around. I strongly feel that attitudinal and architectural barriers within our communities, more than illnesses and accidents, are the primary reasons for the inaccessibilities that cause us to be labeled handicapped or disabled. And earlier today, I believe it was Mr. Kennedy who also touched on that.

I would like to touch on an area that I do not think has been brought up. And that is these particular attitudes force some of us persons with disabilities into attitudes. Attitudes of dependency, of being forced to remain in relationships, marital or family or personal that perhaps are just as unhealthy as our illnesses themselves.

I rely on public transportation or paratransportation to go to my job each day. And in a city of 140,000 people, in a metropolitan area of half a million, there are only a half a dozen buses that are equipped with wheelchair lifts. And many of these buses quite often bypass men and women in wheelchairs or with crutches, walkers, because they do not want to take the time, quite frankly, to stop and to assist these people on the buses. I rely on paratransit and we have two buses in the greater Bridgeport area that accommodate wheelchair people. And this is in a population of nearly half a million people. And I believe you will hear further testimony this afternoon in regard to that.

Also, an area that is very important to me is that of life insurance. And, ironically, I live in the life insurance capital of America. And, because of my muscular dystrophy, I am lumped into a category: disabled with muscular dystrophy. There are approximately 40 neural muscular disorders that come under the classification of muscular dystrophy. Each person deals with their illness in their own way. Some people deteriorate rapidly, other people deteriorate quite slowly. But none of us are looked at as individuals. And none of us are taken at face value and are given insurance or any other benefits based on our ability. We are simply lumped into a category and therefore we are turned down, or our premiums are

so high that we simply cannot afford life insurance. To this date, I do not have life insurance because I simply can't afford it.

And, yet, I am 44 years old and I have had muscular dystrophy for 34 years and, except for the inability to get up out of my chair or to drive a car, I am as healthy as anybody else in this room and I fully expect and my doctors fully expect me to live a very productive life. Yet, I am turned down.

I just feel that until we address this particular issue, which, by the way, is not covered in the Americans With Disabilities Act, that we are not equal, in insurance, we are not all equal under the eyes of the law.

Thank you for your time.

[The prepared statement of William Dorfer follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM DORFER, JR.

Dear Members of the Committee on Education and Labor: My name is William Dorfer and I am from Bridgeport, CT. I would like to express my gratitude for this opportunity to share with you today some of my personal experiences with discrimination because of my physical disabilities.

Thirty four years ago I was diagnosed as having Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. For the past thirteen years I have needed leg braces, a cane and most recently a wheelchair to maneuver around in a world that is more inaccessible than most people realize. I strongly feel that the mental attitudes and physical barriers within the community, more than illnesses and accidents themselves, are the primary reasons for the inaccessibilities that cause us to be labled "handicapped" or "disabled". One area this is most prevalent in is public transportation.

Because of my illness, I am unable to drive a car or van, even with specially equipped devices. As a result, I must rely on a paratransit system that transports me to and from work five days a week. There are currently seven such buses for the disabled in the Greater Bridgeport Area but not all have hydraulic lifts for wheelchairs. These buses carry upwards of ninety people a day out of an overall population or more than 300,000 residents in the six-town area served. It is accurate to say that without this particular paratransit system, there is simply no way I could continue to remain self-supporting and relatively independent.

To talk about the importance of a paratransit system is not to detract from the equal importance of an accessible mass transit system. The city of Bridgeport has a number of buses equipped with wheelchair lifts that are supposed to make mass transit available for the disabled. However, the reality is that many of these lifts are continually inoperable, in dire need of repair but not a priority of the transit company. I have personally witnessed bus drivers purposely bypass obvious wheel. chair passengers waiting at a bus stop or in a shopping mall with no regard as to how the disabled will return home. Such blatant disregard and disrespect only encourages people with disabilities to shrug their shoulders in despair and remain prisoners in their homes.

Another major area of discrimination in my particular case is that of personal life insurance. Because of my Muscular Dystrophy, I am lumped into the general category of "Disabled-with Muscular Dystrophy". There are currently forty known neuromuscular diseases under the classification of Muscular Dystrophy. Each person's body responds to the illness in its own manner; for some, the muscle deterioration is slow and for others the deterioration is rapid. In some instances a person's life span is shortened by the illness and in others the life span is normal. The same, of course, can be said for other illnesses, not just Muscular Dystrophy.

Until this generalization of illnesses and diseases is removed and persons with disabilities are treated as individuals, not as categories, discrimination against the disabled will continue to deprive an ever increasing number of men, women and children the necessary services and benefits that all of us are entitled to in a nation where we proudly proclaim that all are equal under the eyes of the law.

Again, members of the committee, I thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today to share these personal experiences with you and hopefully stress the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1988.

Mr. OWENS. Ms. Kappe.

STATEMENT OF CINDY KAPPE, BRIDGEPORT, CT

Ms. KAPPE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Cindy Kappe and I am here to speak on discrimination of the disabled. I would like to bring up two points, if I may, that happened to me.

In 1984, I and my late husband were working at Goodwill Industries of Bridgeport, CT. We asked for our 6 months' leave of absence prior to our wedding that year. But they said no. Their reasons were they could not spare us for that length of time. As a result, we were forced to leave permanently.

Point No. 2 is on transportation. In November of 1987, I called People's Choice of Bridgeport, CT, for transportation for an appointment that I had at 12 noon. But on that day, they picked me up at 9:30 in the morning, instead of 11. When this error was pointed out to the company, they refused to change times. Therefore, I was forced to sit in the cold for 11⁄2 hours prior to my appointment. Thank you very much.

Mr. OWENS. Thank you. Ms. Wargo.

SHELLEY TEED-WARGO, CHAIRMAN, CONNECTICUT UNION OF DISABILITY ACTION GROUPS

Ms. WARGO. My name is Shelley Teed-Wargo. I am the executive director of the Connecticut Union of Disability Action Groups. Bill Knight, who you heard a few moments ago, is the chairman.

The Connecticut Union of Disability Action Groups is an organization made up of grassroots groups working on disability issues. Our involvement with our member organizations include supporting and assisting these groups to make positive changes for persons with disabilities both on local and State levels.

Since the issues we involve ourselves with are issues chosen by our members, our work is indicative of the priority issues of a large number of persons with disabilities in Connecticut.

Let me relate to you some of the work that we have been involved with over the last year. One of the groups we work with is a statewide group known as Citizens for Accessible Transportation, CAT. For many years disabilities groups in Connecticut had been trying to convince the Connecticut Department of Transportation to make the public transportation system in Connecticut completely accessible, including making all buses lift-equipped. When Citizens for Accessible Transportation was established in 1987, they took up those talks and arguments with the State Department of Transportation. It was not long before Citizens for Accessible Transportation realized that negotiating with the department of transportation was getting us nowhere.

The next step was to go to our State legislature. Last fall more than 200 people, most of them people with disabilities, marched on the State capitol demanding that the public transportation system in Connecticut be lift-equipped.

Through the work of Citizens for Accessible Transportation, a bill was passed in the last legislative session requiring that all public buses bought or subsidized with State funds will be liftequipped. All of our buses should be lift-equipped by 1996. Through 1996 still seems like a long time, we still thought we had won a substantial victory.

A few weeks ago, we received information that the southwestern regional planning agency in Connecticut had applied for a UMPTA entrepreneurial services program grant from the Federal Government to put an express bus in place from Selton Trumble to Stanford, CT. Because these funds would not be from the State, they are reasoning that they do not have to adhere to the new State law and plan to purchase a bus without a lift. Once again, we stopped some discrimination and more discrimination appears.

Another of our groups that we work with has been involved with another issue regarding a building in Hartford. About 3 or 4 years ago, a beautiful new office building was built in Hartford. A special feature of this building was a skywalk that would take people from the office building to the civic center right next door without having to go outside. When the office building and its skywalk opened to the public, it was discovered that everyone could travel from the new office building to the civic center via the skywalk, except anyone with a mobility impairment since there were more than a dozen steps at one end of the skywalk.

While everyone else stays out of the snow and rain, someone with a mobility impairment must go outside and across the street. Again, we are discriminated against.

Just this past summer, another one of our groups worked on another issue regarding the Waterbury Library. One of the members of an organization tried to take out a video tape out of the local library. He was told he could not because he lives in a group home. He would need to return with a staff person from the group home or with a permission slip from a staff person in order to take out a video tape. This member is a man with mental retardation. He is an adult and was being treated like a child. The group that this man belongs to returned to the library with him the following week to speak to the library board. They told the library board that this was a discriminatory policy against people who happen to live in group homes. The board agreed that it was a discriminatory policy, but that people who live in group homes destroy their materials and, therefore, the material must be protected. The board was also told that the library was architecturally inaccessible and needed some renovations.

Three weeks later this disability organization held a demonstration in front of the library. The media covered it well, the following week we again attended the library board. A electronic door was being put in and their policy was changed. We do not know if other libraries in our State discriminate in this manner, but as other groups become involved in the disability-rights movement in Connecticut, we hope that we will change those practices as well.

Each time we feel we have made gains toward stopping the discrimination against people with disabilities, someone finds another way to segregate, separate, and discriminate against us. We need the Americans With Disabilities Act to help us fight against further discrimination and to assist us as we demand our rightful place in this country. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Shelley Teed-Wargo follows:]