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How landmark Americans with Disabilities Act changed 3 lives

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act 25 years ago on Sunday expanded opportunities and accessibility for millions of people with disabilities. These three suburban residents saw the act as a starting point and have committed their lives to building upon the historic legislation.

<h3 class="leadin">Dale Spencer, Bartlett

An accident put Dale Spencer in a wheelchair just before the ADA became law.

In December 1988, as a junior at Northern Illinois University, Spencer and some friends took a shortcut to a house party near campus. Walking over railroad tracks, he slipped on a wooden tie and fell between the tracks to a river below.

The accident shattered Spencer's vertebrae and caused paralysis from the waist down. It also opened his eyes to a different world.

“I had a lot of barriers in terms of accessible spots and the quantity of accessible spots,” he said. “Classes needed to be move because of the lack of elevators to get to the actual building.”

Spencer, now a Bartlett mortgage consultant, in 2005 became the first Elgin Area School District U-46 board member to use a wheelchair.

“I remember sitting down with (U-46 administrators) and actually going over places I was able to utilize my wheelchair and (where) I wasn't,” Spencer said, noting some of the schools in the state's second largest district are “well over 100 years old.”

As a motivational speaker since 1994, Spencer brings his message to thousands of students.

“Since the advent of the ADA, I still deal with issues in the bathroom. Not only is there an accessible bathroom, but the education piece to have able-bodied people understand that these stalls need to be bigger and not to use them,” Spencer said. “A lot of it is understanding that there are a significant number of people who have disabilities.”

Spencer says he generally “feels spoiled” in Chicago and the suburbs, where access usually is good for people in wheelchairs.

Other places, he's found, aren't as easy to navigate. While speaking at a recent conference in Birmingham, Ala., Spencer said he ran into many problems getting around town and found himself “holed up” in his hotel room.

Spencer said he's never shy about speaking up about what he needs to get around.

“The squeaky wheel gets the oil,” he said.

John McGovern, Gilberts

A nearly 40-year career working to increase access for the disabled began unexpectedly for John McGovern in 1976.

McGovern was working for the city of Albuquerque, N.M., directing a recreation center. One afternoon, he attended a meeting where employees were putting forth new ideas about programs that should be funded with a federal grant.

“I said, 'We don't have any programs for the handicapped' - that was the word we used then,” McGovern, now of Gilberts, said. “My boss pointed at me, and said, 'You're in charge of that.'”

That single exchange changed the rest of McGovern's life as he embarked on a path to increase accessibility for the disabled at playgrounds, sports fields, swimming pools and other sites.

Illinois, where he moved in 1979, has nearly 400 autonomous, tax-supported park districts. McGovern says they often can be better providers of services for people with disabilities than parks departments that remain under the governance - and budgets - of municipalities.

  John McGovern of Recreation Accessibility Consultants, LLC, shows examples of his consulting work at the Prairie Stone Sports and Wellness Center in Hoffman Estates. Showing a chair lift to access the pool. Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com

Working at suburban special recreation associations in Oak Park and Highland Park, McGovern attended night school at Loyola University in Chicago at the same time the Americans with Disabilities Act was being debated and passed. His combination of skills helped land him on a committee charged with developing regulations for recreational areas under the then-new law.

“The difference between today and 1990 when the ADA was signed is remarkable if you look at playgrounds,” McGovern said. “In 1990 it was hard to find an accessible playground.”

Still, problems remain, says McGovern, who has formed his own consultant group specializing in accessible recreation.

“There are still some accessibility and inclusion loose ends. I'd like to have some more clarity on what makes a playground accessible,” he said.

Edward Bannister, Bolingbrook

Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.comAs the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaches this month, the Daily Herald profiles a number of suburban residents who talk about how the legislation has changed their lives, including Edward Bannister, a disabled Bolingbrook resident who's been instrumental in making a number of suburban facilities wheelchair accessible.

As a child, Edward Bannister could roller skate and run like other children he knew. Later, he learned he has familial spastic paraplegia, a hereditary disease that progressively stiffens the lower limbs due to nerve damage.

Using a cane at first, then a scooter, followed by a wheelchair, Bannister joined the Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities of Illinois' after having difficulty navigating the steps up to his Bolingbrook condominium complex.

Bannister, a longtime IBM marketing executive who retired because of his disease in 1988, put his professional skills to use in growing the coalition's ranks through outreach to local businesses, canvassing neighborhoods and advocating a message of people with disabilities gaining access by being “visible, vocal and vigilant.”

In 2000, Bannister was named president of the Illinois chapter of the coalition and has traveled to Washington D.C. and worked to get laws passed to improve accessibility. He was appointed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the state rehabilitation council and by Attorney General Lisa Madigan to her Disability Advisory Council.

Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.comAs the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaches this month, the Daily Herald profiles a number of suburban residents who talk about how the legislation has changed their lives, including Edward Bannister, a disabled Bolingbrook resident who's been instrumental in making a number of suburban facilities wheelchair accessible.

“It's allowed us to get things done,” Bannister said of the ADA. “People kind of overlooked people with disabilities before. Now they pay attention, and that's important.” Bannister recently has worked to expand accessible housing in Bolingbrook and around the state and wants to help make local ice rinks and sports fields accessible to children in wheelchairs.

“I'm very intense about what I do when I do it,” he said. “People with disabilities need a voice and need respect. And I think I (have been) that voice.”

About the Americans with Disabilities Act

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