Michigan Disability Resistance

Q. The power in my apartment building went out yesterday, for about the fifth time in the past three months. It came back on this morning, but our elevator still does not work. This building has a parking garage on the ground floor and the accessible apartments are located on the main floor above it, so people who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices need the elevator to access the main floor. The past two times the power has gone out, the elevator was out of service for about five days — trapping the wheelchair-using and elderly residents, like myself. 

I have multiple sclerosis and require the use of a power wheelchair, so walking or crawling up and down stairs to access my home is not an option. We have called the building manager several times whenever the elevator has been out of service, but nothing happens for hours, sometimes for days. Because we are simply renting or leasing our apartments, we have no homeowners association to represent us formally. What can we do to expedite this repair? Who can we contact about this situation, and what can we expect to happen afterwards? Are there laws or regulations that require these types of buildings to be accessible?
— Feeling Trapped

A. Property owners receive building permits based on their compliance with state building codes and federal architectural guidelines, with the expectation that a building will be maintained in that condition throughout the life of the building. When property owners fail to maintain those features, they are obviously out of compliance with whatever law governs; in your case it would appear to be the Fair Housing Act and possibly state disability civil rights laws of a similar nature.

The ideal situation is when the property can be designed and constructed with level access to the building and dwelling units. There are exceptions made for buildings like the one where you are living that have parking or retail spaces below the lowest level of the apartments. In those cases, it is permissible to have an elevator as part of the accessible route, but obviously that route is no longer accessible if the elevator does not work.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has the primary responsibility for enforcing the Fair Housing Act and its amendments. They count on local building officials to assure that newly constructed facilities are constructed in compliance with applicable building codes. It has been over 20 years since the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines were adopted, and most state building codes have been updated in line with those guidelines.

Larry Nassar was never in contention to win a Heisman Trophy. He did not coordinate a national title-winning defense or work alongside a revered Hall of Fame coach for decades, either.

So if you paid any attention to the Nassar story many months and years ago when it began to surface through traditional newsroom investigative reporting you had to be told to care. Anyone who shared the story usually accompanied it with a comment like that. You know, we should be making a bigger deal about this. It was a B-movie with no star power.

The short version of the script - and most people didn’t read any of it - was that Nassar had used his reputation (Associate Professor of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University) vocation (MSU Sports Medicine clinician and lead doctor for numerous organizations, including USA Gymnastics) and location (unfettered access to the bodies of female gymnasts, most of whom were children) to pleasure himself.

A bad doctor had been molesting his patients for years. As often as he could, as often as possible. 

The vocal ones who told their parents weren’t believed, because - and this is an asset child molesters use to their advantage - it was all too unreal. Many of his assaults took place with parents in the room. Nassar would just obstruct any view of the molestation with exam room furniture or his own body.

Since both of them have ducked out of the room, the glare has shifted toward MSU’s revenue sports bosses Tom Izzo and Mark Dantonio, both of whom run programs where sexual assaultshave quietly been disposed of over the years through means that in light of the revelations around Nassar appear to be institutionalized.

What is institutionalized are the priorities for what is policed by large cash machines like Michigan State.

Eleven Warriors interacts with every Big Ten school regularly for media credentialing purposes. We also have had an extensive, ongoing dialogue and mutual understanding with Ohio State’s athletic department and lawyers as to what our role in their universe is and should be, an experience which allows me to make the following statement without flinching or blinking.

NCD’s study found that students with disabilities are not “on the radar” of colleges in their sexual assault prevention efforts, policies, or procedures for response and support after an assault. This includes the absence of procedures to communicate with victims who are Deaf or hard of hearing and inaccessible support services for students with mobility disabilities. Similarly, NCD’s study found that students with disabilities are invisible in federal research and grant programs on campus sexual assault. These findings are against the backdrop of a recent study by the Association of American Universities that revealed that 31.6 percent of undergraduate females with disabilities reported nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or incapacitation, compared to 18.4 percent of undergraduate females without a disability. 

It’s not a headache. It’s not “getting your bell rung.” You don’t have a bell. It’s a traumatic brain injury. Every single concussion is a new traumatic brain injury. In addition to the torn ACLs and MCLs, in addition to all of the horrible broken bones, the NFL diagnosed at least 281 traumatic brain injuries this season. And no document has ever quite displayed the horror of it all like “Concussion Protocol,” a film by Josh Begley and Field of Vision.