FARMINGTON — An estimated 30 percent of adults age 21 through 54 living on the Navajo Nation have a disability.
In residents age 64 and older, that estimate leaps to 70 percent.
In numbers, that’s about 40,000 adults on the 27,000-square-mile reservation who are living with a disability.
Statistics like these are at the root of a report released this fall by the Native American Disability Law Center that found none of the Navajo Nation’s government buildings are fully accessible to individuals with disabilities, though some facilities are partially accessible.
This is in violation of the Navajo Nation Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1984, which requires public entities to provide accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
Lack of accommodations also is a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. But the Nation, as a sovereign entity, isn’t forced to comply with the federal standards, said Hoskie Benally, community and government liaison for the Native American Disability Law Center, in Farmington.
The law center plans to take its report, “Opening doors: Accessibility of public buildings on the Navajo Nation,” to the Tribal Council with hopes of motivating lawmakers to implement corrective measures.
“We’re hoping with this report we’re saying, Wake up, Navajo Nation,’” Benally said. “What we’re going to do is take it to the Health, Education and Human Services Committee and see if we can get some laws passed.”
The
report comes after the law center studied 15 public buildings in five major communities. It follows a 2007 comprehensive community study that found lack of access to public buildings as one of the top five issues facing the Navajo community.
“One of the primary issues facing Navajos with disabilities is difficulty getting into public buildings,” the report states. “People with disabilities report that they cannot get out of their vehicles because of muddy parking lots; they cannot get to a building because of gravel parking lots; or they cannot get in a door because it is too heavy, there is not a ramp or the door is not wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair.”
In a project that started in December 2010, the law center reviewed government buildings, including chapter houses, police departments and veterans centers, in five of the Nation’s most populated communities: Shiprock and Crownpoint in the New Mexico portion of the reservation, Tuba City and Chinle, Ariz., and the tribe’s Window Rock, Ariz., capital.
Teams of individuals with disabilities toured the sites and conducted surveys to determine the level of physical access to the facilities, parking areas, restrooms and conference rooms.
The report found “very specific barriers that inhibit Navajos with disabilities from accessing services and fully participating in the Navajo community.”
“Navajos with disabilities are more likely to miss needed assistance or lack benefits because they literally cannot get in the door of a Navajo office that is responsible for serving them,” the report states.
“If they cannot get in the door, then they cannot obtain necessary applications or provide required information. Navajos with disabilities have significant trouble obtaining needed services because of the lack of access to the buildings and offices that provide those services.”
Although the center only surveyed sites in five locations, it believes the findings represent accessibility of most government buildings on the reservation, Benally said.
“We focused on facilities that serve people with disabilities and those all people go to, like polling places,” he said. “We got a pretty good cross-section.”
The law center in its review of Shiprock found specific issues with the chapter house, the office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and the Veterans Administration Office.
Specifically, the report found parking lots are uneven, entrance doors are too heavy, knobs are difficult to grasp, restrooms are inaccessible and doors and hallways are too narrow.
In its study of facilities across the reservation, the law center found:
n parking lots had insufficient space for lowering wheelchair ramps
n knobs on entrance doors were difficult to grasp, making it “difficult to impossible for an individual to enter the building”
n public telephones were not within easy reach and did not have text capability or volume control
n water fountains were too high
n restroom sinks, mirrors and dispensers were out of reach for individuals in wheelchairs
n waiting rooms were too small for wheelchair use
n ramps were too steep or made of materials that were slippery when wet
n elevator controls were out of reach and were not marked with Braille
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Distributed by MCT Information Services
