ACCESS DENIED: HADNICAP ACCESSIBILITY LIMITED IN CAPE GIRARDEAU

Miki Gudermuth used to like to attend Riverfest. But no more: It's just too difficult for her to maneuver downtown in her wheelchair.

Even without the crowds, even when she parks in spaces specially designated for the handicapped, Gudermuth has problems.

On Wednesday, she drove downtown, parked in the specially marked handicapped space at Water and Themis streets, then struggled to get her wheelchair out of the car. She then rode just beyond the back of her van and the sidewalk ended, so she had to struggle to push her wheelchair through the rocks. The corner of Water and Themis has no curb cuts, so Gudermuth was forced to maneuver her wheelchair down the street to a driveway to get up on a sidewalk.

"People say you don't see me when I wave at you, but I have to look where I'm going," she said.

Gudermuth, like many people who depend on wheelchairs, wants to live as independently as she can. But she finds barriers everywhere, especially in older parts of Cape Girardeau.

Crossing streets in wheelchairs is nearly impossible without curb cuts, and the city has provided few curb cuts on Broadway and other streets downtown. The major exception is Main Street, where downtown merchants installed curb cuts in the fancy new streetscape. But some of the curb cuts only run in one direction, so a wheelchair user who wants to cross Main at Merriwether has to go into Merriwether and then turn to cross Main.

At Broadway and Lorimier, the only curb cut is at the northwest corner next to Royal N'Orleans. So someone in a wheelchair can't cross the street without going a distance to the nearest driveway.

City policy is to install curb cuts whenever the city repairs a sidewalk, said City Manager Michael Miller. But it doesn't have a plan for installing curb cuts where it isn't already repairing the pavement.

Then there are doorways: Some have steps right at the threshold; some are too narrow for wheelchairs.

Even some places that have made efforts to accommodate handicapped people pose difficulties. Wheelchair users like Larry Easley often complain about the Missouri Department of Revenue fee office at 112 S. Spanish. It has a short, steep ramp going right up to the threshold.

"Imagine you're in a wheelchair and you're trying to open the door and keep from rolling down the ramp at the same time," Easley said.

Norma Wildman, manager of the license office, said state officials who inspected the office before allowing it to open said it was OK.

"They think that's accessible ... the people who make the decisions," Easley said.

Easley said many businesses do try to help out. He said he went to Holloway Carpet One a few years back and had to maneuver up a 6-inch step into the building. "I told Gene Holloway he had a big sign outside that said, 'We don't want your business,'" Easley said.

Holloway told him he'd take care of it and he did, Easley said. Next time he was there, Holloway had installed a ramp.

Wheelchair user Ed Snider said he rarely goes downtown. "The lack of accessibility eliminates it from consideration," Snider said. "What shopping I do, I do at the (West Park) Mall or at Wal-Mart. That's not good for small business, but they're accessible."

Gudermuth said Target is another good place for people in wheelchairs to shop.

But even the mall has its barriers. Gudermuth said the only automatic doors in the Mall are not wide enough to accommodate all wheelchairs, while the parking spaces marked for the handicapped aren't all near the only automatic door.

Jim Govro, manager of West Park Mall, said he wasn't aware of the problem with the door width, but if someone with a wheelchair shows him the problem, he will have it fixed. He said the mall just bought a new striper for the parking lot and may increase the number of spaces near the automatic door.

"We want to make sure everyone can shop here," Govro said.

The 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act requires facilities open to the public to be accessible. Existing privately-owned facilities like office buildings must remove barriers and increase access if it is "readily achievable and easily accomplishable." Government facilities have to comply unless doing so presents an "undue burden," which lawyers interpret to mean that government is held to higher standards than private businesses.

New buildings intended for public use must meet standards the federal government sets for accessibility.

In Cape Girardeau, the city enforces building codes that incorporate ADA standards, said Richard Murray, the city's chief inspector. For example, doors must be 36 inches wide so they can accommodate wheelchairs.

The city is trying to make its buildings more accessible, but "it seems like everything that you want to accomplish doesn't seem to move as fast as you'd like to see," said Dan Ward, the city's personnel director who is in charge of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

With no elevators in City Hall, people in wheelchairs can't make it to the second floor. To accommodate them, the city moved the services most used by the public to the first floor, Murray said. Plus, it plans to install elevators.

"It's still difficult to get in some places," Easley said. "It's better than it was 10 years ago."