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 is 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.
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal
