Madison Austin Threadgill: Modesto a tough place if you’re disabled

I am writing about the accessibility issues the city of Modesto is facing. Everyday people who have been labeled “disabled” are underrepresented and necessary changes have failed to be made. Accessibility issues include lack of ADA compliance in schools, hospitals and more. Some essential places are not accessible for the thousands of people that live here.

Knowledge and action needs to change. We need to inform more people of different disabilities and how to handle and effectively communicate with these people. It is not difficult to teach basic ASL to employees. Another action we can take is to budget school money better. My high school football team kept getting new uniforms but, at the same time, they cut the drama program and they haven’t fixed a very dangerous ramp that takes you to a wheelchair classroom.

We need to enforce ADA compliance, highly fine non-compliance and encourage basic communication skills for different situations that people could encounter. The Modesto Bee could show its support by writing more articles and inspirational stories so the community can become more knowledgeable about the wonderful people here.

“The disability is not the problem. Accessibility is the problem.” – Mohamed Jemni

This story was originally published December 5, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Madison Austin Threadgill: Modesto a tough place if you’re disabled."