Mercer Post Office not open to all; disability group identifies barriers

By Matt Snyder
Herald Staff Writer

MERCER September 28, 2006 10:29 pm

— Local advocates for the rights of the disabled are targeting the Mercer Post Office as an example of inaccessibility.
While people walked up and down the four narrow granite steps into the building Monday, George Spons of the Center for Independent Living in New Castle and others passed out fliers.
Spons said the building was “totally inaccessible” for the disabled and “a lot of people don’t realize it.”
He pointed out the lack of a ramp leading into the building and a curb ramp that was rugged and potentially inaccessible by wheelchair.
He noted that the post office’s handicapped parking space is located on North Pitt Street, where a steep incline and an embankment between the street and the sidewalk pose barriers.
There were also no accommodations for hearing- or vision-impaired people inside the building, Spons said.
As part of a statewide initiative, the Center for Independent Living looked for a post office in Mercer, Beaver, Butler, and Lawrence counties with access problems.
“But this one in Mercer is the one that stood out as being totally inaccessible,” Spons said.
Besides a few parking problems in rural post offices, he found no other problem buildings.
Post offices and other public buildings are required to be accessible under federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, said Alan Dunfee of the Erie Center for Independent Living.
Dunfee said the disabilities act folds in with other civil rights laws, which say that citizens cannot be denied service based on things such as race, gender, or disability.
Discrimination, he said, “whether attitudinal or physical, is not allowed under federal law.”
The building needs a wheelchair ramp, curb ramps and accessible parking, he said. Some fixtures inside the building, such as tables or desks, are too high, Dunfee added.
Postal spokesman Steve Kochersperger with the Erie District of the U.S. Postal Service said if the office was built before 1961, it does not fall under the disabilities act and the Architectural Barriers Act “further inoculates public buildings from the ADA guidelines” if they were built before 1961.
The Mercer Post Office was built in 1938 and features a mural painted by artists from the depression-era Works Progress Administration.
Kochersperger also said there are laws protecting historic buildings that can come into conflict with disabilities act regulations.
The postal service provides options for people with disabilities, such as buying stamps by mail, fax, or Internet, and pickup services.
“We have alternate channels,” Kochersperger said.
In a letter to Spons, another postal service spokesman said that people were on hand to assist wheelchair-bound individuals who live nearby.
Monday, Spons pointed out that there were no buzzers, signs, or readily available phone numbers to contact people inside the office, a big problem for disabled persons stuck outside who must then rely on personnel for help.
The building was targeted as part of Barriers Awareness Post Office Day, a statewide effort coordinated from the Centers for Independent Living in Pennsylvania, Spons said.
He said their goal was to make people aware that some federal buildings still do not provide access to the disabled.
Post offices were chosen, Spons said, because they provide public services and some are inaccessible.
So far, Dunfee said, nobody has filed a complaint against the post office. The disabilities act waits until a complaint is filed to enforce its laws, he said.
“There isn’t a lawsuit,” he said, “but we’re just trying to make sure they understand their responsibility.”

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