tzippy@dasys1.uucp (Tzipporah BenAvraham) (03/16/90)
Index Number: 7195 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Using their arms or whatever movement they could, dozens of people crawled out of their wheelchairs and up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to dramatize their demand for rights for people with disabilities. "I'll take all night if I have to," said the youngest, 8-year-old Jennifer Keelan of Denver, as she pulled her small body up the steps. "Come on Jenny, you're almost there," said Michael Winter of Berkeley, Calif., who was making his own difficult journey up the 83 stone steps of the Capitol's West Front. They were among 60 or so people who put on the demonstration Monday following a rally at the base of the Capitol steps by about 1,000 people supporting legislation to extend rights to people with disabilities. "We're not asking for any favors," said I. King Jordan, president of Gallaudet University and the first deaf person to hold that position at the school for people with impaired hearing. "We're simply asking the same rights and equality any other American has." The focus of the protest was the Americans with Disabilities Act, which passed the Senate last year but has bogged down in the House, despite widespread predictions of its ultimate passage. The measure would outlaw discrimination based on physical or mental disability in employment, access to buildings, use of the telephone system, use of public and private transportation and in other uses. The Capitol building has ramps for wheelchair access to two of its entrances and ramps and elevators inside to enable people confined to wheelchairs to get around. "What we did for civil rights in the '60s, we forgot to do for people with disabilities," said Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo. Although the bill is supported by the Bush administration and congressional leaders, some have begun questioning the admin- istration's commitment in recent weeks. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater denied the support was slipping and said the administration was negotiating with key members of Congress. "We do support the legislation," Fitzwater said. "We're very supportive of their rights and their cause. President Bush has spoken out on that in the past." Jennifer Keelan, a second-grader, began crawling up the Capitol steps as soon as the speeches ended. Her mother, Cynthia Keelan, said Jennifer suffers from cerebral palsy and the girl decided to crawl the steps herself after joining the group Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, or ADAPT. A friend of hers in that group, 5-year-old Kenny Perkins of Denver, died in January. "I'm doing it for Kenny," Jennifer said as she reached the top." "I'm proud of her," her mother said. "That was hard work."