Time Machine: The evolution of accessibility in Iowa

The blue and white sign depicting a stick figure in a wheelchair, known as the International Symbol for Accessibility, first appeared on buildings in Cedar Rapids, not on parking places.

The signs were used to indicate a building was accessible to people who did not have full mobility. Even then, the buildings may not have had fully accessible restrooms or elevators. The sign simply meant people with mobility issues could get into the building.

The signs were created at the urging of the Cedar Rapids Employment of the Handicapped Committee and the Governor’s Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped.

The Iowa Senate voted, 38-0, on Feb 23, 1972, to add protections for physically and mentally handicapped persons to the state’s civil rights code. The bill passed the House, and Gov. Robert Ray signed it into law March 22.

State law only required ramp access for public buildings, but legislation to include new or remodeled private businesses was pending, according to Morris Johnson, who represented the governor’s committee. He encouraged cities to get the ball rolling on their own.

That’s what Cedar Rapids did.

Cedar Rapids was first

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Evelyne Villines of Urbandale, executive secretary of the governor’s committee, addressed an April 18, 1972, meeting of the Cedar Rapids Citizens Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, headed by William Pohorsky, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Cedar Rapids.

Villines, who wore a leg brace and used crutches, brought with her the blue plaque used to designate accessible buildings. She told the committee that people with disabilities were routinely denied jobs, refused service in restaurants, could not use public restrooms and faced barriers when trying to vote.

She said a disabled person would even have difficulty filing a complaint at the Civil Rights Commission in Des Moines because the office was on the second floor reached by a narrow stairway.

Johnson, representing the governor’s committee, asked the Cedar Rapids City Council on April 26, 1972, to adopt provisions requiring ramp access to new buildings and to existing buildings undergoing remodeling.

The Cedar Rapids building code was being updated at that time, and Building Department Director Ed Winter said adding the provisions would be simple.

“Included in the code are provisions for ramps in and out of all new buildings which are primarily public structures and toilet facilities designed for people using wheelchairs, The Gazette reported the next day. ”Drinking fountains, railings and steps that can be used by the handicapped are also included.“

It was the first building code in the state to make those provisions mandatory in new and remodeled buildings.

“Cedar Rapids building officials and members of the City Council all earn a salute for reasonable and compassionate action that will help to make the whole community more livable for all,” The Gazette said in an editorial.

Davenport followed Cedar Rapids’ lead in December 1972. But in February 1973, Bettendorf’s Mayor Don Kucharo balked and refused to sign an ordinance to remove architectural barriers to the handicapped.

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State’s position

In November 1972, an opinion written by Iowa Assistant Attorney General Roxanne Conlin said failure to provide access for the disabled to places of employment, public places or housing could be considered illegal and discriminatory.

Failure to provide access to buildings built with public money was a violation of state law, she wrote.

In 1973, the federal government chose the Iowa Governor’s Committee for a pilot project to make sure government buildings built after 1968 complied with Public Law 90-480, passed in 1968, that required structures built with federal money be accessible to disabled individuals.

Downtown survey

In May 1973, the Cedar Rapids citizens’ committee notified businesses in a 20-block downtown area of the committee’s intent to survey street level entrances for accessibility.

Tom Aller, the city’s intergovernmental coordinator and a member of the committee, said, “We’re not going to be harassing anyone. The survey will be done in a nonthreatening way to simply find out what barriers there are to the handicapped.”

If a business was accessible — 77 of the 175 surveyed were — it would get a blue and white decal to display. Some businesses that didn’t qualify asked what they could do to merit a decal. Sometimes only minor modifications were necessary.

Parking spaces

On Jan. 27, 1977, the first four handicapped parking signs were installed in downtown Cedar Rapids. A city permit was required to use the spaces.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 — championed by Iowa’s U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin — refined the disability parking rules and made them uniform across the nation. The signs would be blue and white with the universal symbol created in 1968 by Susanne Koefoed, a Danish design student.

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As more parking spaces were marked with the blue signs, the problem of able-bodied people parking in the reserved spots began.

Police issued tickets to those who parked in public parking spaces marked with the blue signs. Violations in private parking lots were less enforceable.

In 1995, the Iowa Legislature increased the fine for illegal parking in a handicapped space from $50 to $100.

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