Editorial: Disabled access is atrocious

When Quinn, who must use a wheelchair, arrived in the arena parking lot that Saturday evening, there were no curb cuts near the tunnel entrance to enter the arena. This meant that friends -- Jeff Guinn and his son -- had to lift Quinn and the wheelchair, which weighs about 350 pounds, over the curb. But that's not all. Once inside, arena employees refused to let Quinn take his wheelchair onto floor level to get to his seat, which was four rows above the court. Instead, he had to walk through the tunnel on his own and halfway around the court before he was finally carried to his seat.

It is disgraceful in this day and age, when federal laws mandate reasonable access for the physically disabled, that an arena run by a public university doesn't treat disabled customers with the same respect as those who are able-bodied. To gain an even deeper understanding of the arena's insensitivity to the physically disabled, consider this: Parking for the VIP boosters actually is closer to the arena than it is for the handicapped parking.

t's not as if these complaints suddenly appeared. Before the arena opened in 1983 there were warnings that the arena wasn't accessible for the handicapped. Under the 1973 federal Rehabilitation Act, there should have been enough spaces to accommodate 190 wheelchairs, according to Suzanne Thomas, a consultant for the Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. Instead there are just enough spaces for 30 wheelchairs at basketball games, and they're only in two locations, both on the concourse level. This failure to provide enough spaces for wheelchairs means that families often must split up when going to an event, Thomas says.

Thomas & Mack officials say if they had to comply with that wheelchair provision alone it could cost as much as $50 million. Of course, this ignores the fact that if the arena's operators at the time had listened in the first place and done the right thing, the more costly retrofitting never would have become an issue. Thomas & Mack Director Pat Christenson, who has been in the job since 1992, and UNLV's interim administrative code officer, Marc Cardinalli, told the Sun they'll try to do more to accommodate handicapped parking and add directional signs for those who are disabled. As it is now, there are no signs showing emergency exits for the disabled. Even worse, the disabled who sit close to the north entrance would have to use an exit with stairs during an emergency because there are no elevators or ramps nearby.

Fortunately for Stephen Quinn, he had friends who could assist him to his seat. But what about those who go to the arena on their own? Shouldn't there be reasonable accommodations that allow them to watch a university-sponsored event, too? University System Regent Mark Alden, who witnessed Quinn's plight, believes UNLV should review access for the entire campus. He's right. UNLV President Carol Harter should promptly address this and do whatever is necessary to correct this intolerable situation. It is unconscionable for a university's arena, especially one so financially profitable, to continue to sit on its hands regarding the issue of access for the physically disabled.

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