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A Fight Over Image and Tactics
This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion
Daily Express International Disability Rights News Service.
Lee says her crown was taken away after she confronted Hackel over a series
of anti-discrimination lawsuits Hackel had filed
We writers love stories with clear battles between good
and evil, where it's easy to pick out the "good guys" and the "bad guys".
Two of Wisconsin's largest newspapers have managed to frame the recent Ms.
Wheelchair Wisconsin controversy in simple terms, while pitting people with
disabilities against each other and avoiding the larger, more important
issues they ought to be addressing.
In this story, the good guy -- or in this case 'gal' -- would be Janeal Lee,
a high school math teacher who has muscular dystrophy and uses a motorized
scooter most of the time. Lee was crowned 2005 Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin in
January. She was recruited to campaign last winter by none other than 2004
Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin, Gina Hackel -- who was cast as the
villain in this tale.
The pageant's board of directors, led by state coordinator Hackel, took
Lee's crown away last month after the Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent published a story with a
picture showing her standing up in the classroom she teaches. The board
pointed to pageant rules that require Ms. Wheelchair to always use her
mobility device in public.
Lee said Hackel, the board, and even national pageant officials had known
full well that she sometimes stands and can walk for short distances. She
said she saw no reason to hide her level of disability or ability for the
sake of appearances.
Lee has a valid point. People with disabilities struggle every day with
society's narrow views of disability.
Coverage of Lee's removal has renewed a global discussion on the Internet
and in email disability groups about what is 'disabled enough' when it comes
to such competitions, Special Olympics and Paralympics included. I've found
that most people are lining up to condemn the pageant for apparently
discriminating against Lee for simply being who she is.
But it's important that we not allow that discussion to divert attention
from the bigger issue most of the media missed:
Lee says her crown was taken away after she confronted Hackel over a series
of anti-discrimination lawsuits Hackel had filed against 26 local businesses
for allegedly violating the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Hackel
said she filed the suits when she got no relief from those businesses over
her concerns that they were not accessible to patrons with disabilities.
Lee said Hackel's lawsuits were making it difficult for her students to
raise money from those businesses for her to travel to the national
competition in July. She also said the suits also made it more difficult for
her to be an effective advocate for people with disabilities in her role as
Ms. Wheelchair.
Local editorials and columnists have described this as a petty kind of
'grudge match' with Lee and businesses as victims on one side, and Hackel
and the Ms. Wheelchair pageant on the other.
A Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial went so far as to describe Lee's conflict with
Hackel and pageant officials as being made worse by a heroic 'battle' with
her own disability. "Lee's struggle is no less inspiring because she hasn't
succumbed totally to muscular dystrophy," it read.
But Lee is no victim in this. While the pageant's rules may be out-dated and
may even compromise its own stated mission of advocating for women with
disabilities, she nonetheless should have known what those rules were when
she agreed to the competition and volunteered to represent the organization.
The businesses are not victims, either.
The newspapers have portrayed Hackel as a kind of ADA bandit, holding up
innocent, law-abiding businesses. Mike Nichols of the Journal-Sentinel wrote
that Hackel "blindsided" the businesses by filing "all sorts of federal
lawsuits".
If the businesses were blindsided, it's their own fault. It's not as if the
ADA has been a secret weapon that people with disabilities have kept in
their legal holsters for the past 15 years.
The truth is, people with disabilities have been in the unfortunate position
of having to take businesses to court -- or threaten to do so -- in order to
get them to comply with federal law. Hackel and her attorney sought no money
from those firms. They just wanted changes made so people with disabilities
could spend their money and do other business there like everyone else.
Last month, 13 of those businesses agreed that it would be in their own best
interest to make changes to their premises if only to avoid lengthy and
costly legal battles.
In my book, both Hackel and Lee are heroes because each advocates in
her own way for her rights and those of other people with disabilities.
Let's not let the media further divide the disability community or turn
either woman into villains in a story that is not so simple.
Related: Posted April 22, 2005
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