City of Buffalo ADA coordinator

Independent Perspective 1728 with Todd Vaarwerk about efforts to prompt the City of Buffalo to fill the ADA coordinator position.

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Todd Vaarwerk, Chief Policy Officer of WNYIL. And I’m your host Ernie Churchwell. Welcome to the program Todd.

Guest:  Always good to be here.

Host: It's our pleasure. You are our man knows all there is to know about what's going on with people with disabilities and different levels of government. And what brings us to this point, the radio station WBFO-FM, which is the National Public Radio station, did an extensive investigative piece on ways that the city of Buffalo is not totally compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). And you are quoted in it extensively, wondering if you could tell us what some of the issues are that we're dealing with?

Guest:  Well, I think this is a really great opportunity to let listeners know when we as advocates have success when we have positive impact. So to kind of give you a little bit of background this started in March when the advocates who are meeting with the mayor, talking about the ADA position that's been vacant since the previous coordinator left in January, asking the mayor when it would be reappointed with the mayor telling him it would happen before the end of the year. Now any of our regular listeners know I'm the ADA guy and I absolutely can tell you that there has to be a Title Two ADA 504 coordinator for any government entity that employs more than 50 people. So, saying that the position will be vacant for almost a year would be a thing that wouldn't necessarily be considered acceptable. So that's when advocacy with the city started. It got a little bit more urgent after the Tops incident on 5/14 where interpreters weren't available for critical press conferences talking about things that the neighborhood needed to know in response to the tragedy. Now, also regular listeners will know that interpreters at press conferences especially during COVID is a well-established legal precedent. They sued President Trump and he was forced to include them, they sued Governor Cuomo he was forced to include them. There shouldn't really be any reason why the city of Buffalo didn't do it in those circumstances. And the reason why it didn't happen is because the ADA Coordinator wasn't there because there wasn't anybody to do the job to make sure that those interpreters were provided.

Host:  Todd, just a quick clarification for our listeners, when you say interpreters, you're not talking about Spanish or Polish or whatever you mean sign language interpreters for the deaf, correct?

Guest:  Correct, ASL (American Sign Language) sign language interpreters.

Host:  Very good. And what's the next step?

Guest:  Well from there, we had a meeting with Common Council President Pridgen, who, out of out of a sense of wanting to be able to do the right thing by us immediately got on the phone with city government to see what the answer was. And we were led to the chief disability officer being a temporary appointee. We met with the chief disability officer who clarified for us that she wasn't the appointee, which kind of becomes a problem because if that's what the deputy mayor is telling the common council president it becomes problematic. The advocates at that point did something kind of unusual. They went to an individual common council member who serves on the Civil Service Committee. And the advocate did a walkthrough with this common council member to talk about inaccessible things in his neighborhood that the ADA coordinator would have helped with. This led to a proposed resolution in the Civil Service Committee about exploring an ADA advocates position which is above an ADA coordinator because it's a full-time job that advocates for people with disabilities. The city, after the BFO investigative report was published, decided to go one step beyond the resolution and actually encumbered money and created a job description for a position called equity and inclusion coordinator or director, director of equity inclusion, which will be the ADA coordinator for the City of Buffalo when the position is hired.

Host:  Todd, it sounds like you've made, the advocates have made, wonderful progress with the City of Buffalo. But would you believe our time is up? I'm sure people will have questions. How can they get ahold of you?

Guest:  You can always call me at 836-0822 extension 101 or email me at tvaarwerk@wnyil.org

Host:  Thank you so much.

Guest:  You're welcome.

Host:  You've been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest today was Todd Vaarwerk, chief policy officer of WNYIL and I’ve been your host Ernie Churchwell.