The Traveling Wheelchair

Massachusetts State House
Carl Richardson
State House ADA Coordinator
24 Beacon Street
Boston, MA o2133
Phone: 617-727-1100
http://www.mass.gov/

The Massachusetts State House now provides full and equal accessibility for citizens of all abilities THANKS to Carl Richardson III, State House ADA Coordinator for the Bureau of State Office Buildings.

Yesterday, my mom, Scott, Kevin and I traveled to the Massachusetts State House to check out the new wheelchair lift for visitors in wheelchairs to access the historical Doric Hall where visitors begin their tour of State House. Carl Richardson and Kinley, his beautiful black lab Seeing Eye dog kindly showed me the new lift.

My friends and I previously wrote two wheelchair accessibility reviews of the Massachusetts State House which you can read by clicking on Massachusetts State House - a 3 star review on June 19, 2008 and  Massachusetts State House – Part 2 – a 4 star review on July 15, 2008. We also wrote a 5 star review on October 1, 2008 commending Carl Richardson on all the accessibility improvements he has made at our State House which you can read by clicking on Massachusetts State House – Carl Richardson, State House ADA Coordinator.

During my past visits to the State House I found it difficult to access Doric Hall because it has marble steps at the entrance and the previous wheelchair lift was unreliable; it was often broken; or not able to hold the heavy weight of my Power Chair. There was one time I was able to use the old lift in my manual chair yet found it awkward and difficult to operate.

Carl recently managed to get a more reliable wheelchair lift installed for wheelchair access to Doric Hall. This new lift is easy to access because it is keyless, so you don’t need to find an employee for a key; the operating buttons are conveniently located on the inside of the lift and the external upper and lower sides for a friend or PCA to operate; and the weight capacity of this new lift can hold 750 lbs vs. the old one which could only hold 450 lbs so visitors in heavy power chairs can now use this lift.

Carl told us the new lift has allowed many more visitors in wheelchairs to access Doric Hall :-)

Carl Richardson, a kind, sensitive man who is hearing impaired and legally blind was originally hired as State House ADA Coordinator in 2007 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed in 2005 by the  Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) on behalf of four handicapped plaintiffs who complained that the State House had no method of ensuring hearing-impaired citizens could participate in legislative proceedings. 

DPC’s mission is to promote inclusion, independence, and empowerment by guiding statewide development of policies that ensure that programs and services enable people with disabilities to participate in the political, economic, and social mainstream of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Since this time, Carl Richardson has made many improvements on accessibility for persons with physical disabilities or in wheelchairs; persons with visual impairments or Blind; and persons with hearing impairments or Deaf. These improvements include: new power door lifts, closed-captioning for webcasts of legislative debates; sign language interpreters available when requested for any proceedings; screens that can be placed in meeting rooms and that can display the text of a speaker’s words in real-time for hard of hearing; wheelchair access to all offices with permanent ramps installed at offices that previously were not accessible; power assisted doors throughout the State House; installation of ATMs with Braille; and printed training materials and training sessions for legislative staff!

Carl told us he still has other dreams of future improvements that will help make our State House the most accessible State House in the Country. I hope his dreams become a reality!!

As we were leaving, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet Bill Allan, Executive Director of Disability Policy Consortium, a wonderful advocate for equal opportunity for all individuals with disabilities.

Carl Richardson, State House ADA Coordinator deserves FIVE STARS PLUS for his kindness and sensitivity; for providing full and equal access to persons of all abilities at the Massachusetts State House; and for helping to make the world more sensitive, respectful, safer and accessible to all! Bill Allan, Executive Director and Disability Policy Consortium also deserve FIVE STARS PLUS for helping to make the world more sensitive, respectful, safer and accessible to all. Thank you Carl and Bill!