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Sunday, May 05, 1996     Page: 3A

Working toward solutions
   
One reason Bobby Jabers lost his job as chairman of the Wilkes-Barre Zoning
    Hearing Board is because he failed to abide by the rulesSomeone who makes
laws should obey laws.
   
But for four years he has refused to comply with the Americans With
Disabilities Act that requires him to make his restaurant accessible to people
with disabilities.
   
Partly for that reason, Mayor Tom McGroarty refused to reappoint Jabers to
the powerful city position.
   
Now, though, Jabers has taken the initial steps necessary to bring his
business into compliance with federal accessibility standards.
   
Jabers should feel secure knowing that he has strong support in this
project.
   
Linda Anthony and Keith Williams want to help.
   
As heavy-duty advocates for the disabled, they’re very interested in the
well-known businessman.
   
On April 10, Anthony wrote Jabers a polite, yet pointed, letter giving him
10 days to respond to her in writing.
   
“I would like to know that you are addressing the issue and what corrective
action you intend to take to come in compliance,” wrote Anthony, the
wheel-using executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Citizens With
Disabilities in Harrisburg.
   
Then, as nice as she is, Anthony threatened Jabers with a Justice
Department complaint and a civil lawsuit.
   
“This means, Mr. Jabers, that someone could indeed sue you for
discriminating against people with disabilities, if you choose to continue to
ignore your responsibilities as a businessman,” Anthony wrote.
   
“Please understand that people with disabilities don’t want to put you out
of business. Quite the contrary, they just want to come inside and spend their
money! In order to do that, they must be able to get inside … with their
dignity intact!” Anthony said in her letter.
   
“I would also like to remind you of the federal tax credits and tax
deductions that are available to everyone who removes such barriers in their
place of business,” Anthony said.
   
Anthony also referred Jabers to Williams, assistant director of the
Northeastern Center for Independent Living in Scranton.
   
“Mr. Williams will be able to provide technical assistance on removing
barriers to people with disabilities in your establishment,” Anthony wrote.
   
Not only is Williams willing to help Jabers, but the 35-year-old mechanical
wheelchair user would like to have supper some night in Jaber’s Saber Room.
   
“I’ve never eaten there,” he said. “I could never get in.”
   
Williams refuses to be carried up the stairs like so much dead wood — the
current dangerous Saber Room practice for customers in wheelchairs.
   
That’s pretty much what he and Anthony told the architect Jabers had call
them to talk about renovating the restaurant.
   
Williams said that despite the various problems Jabers’ architect brought
up in connection with building a ramp, he provided solutions.
   
Solutions are what it takes to show that a community cares about people
with disabilities.
   
Results require action.
   
Back when advocates were fighting daily for passage of the ADA, disabled
people literally crawled up the steps to the U.S. Capitol.
   
It was a difficult fight but they won.
   
Williams recalls the emotional crusade with particular pride.
   
“I was there for the signing of the law,” Williams said.
   
Dinner at the Saber Room seems to pale in comparison.
   
But it shouldn’t.
   
Defying the ADA isn’t just “some code violation,” Williams said. “We’re
talking civil rights.”
   
Williams has as much legal right to freely enter a restaurant as a black
person does to sit at a Mississippi lunch counter.
   
Something as simple as rolling into a restaurant is what civil rights law
is all about.
   
Steve Corbett’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.