Disabled Denver city councilman had to 'crawl' onto debate stage or lose '$125,000 in campaign financing'

On Monday , February 13, Denver City Councilman Chris Hinds, a Democrat, attended a debate event at a dance school in his city. Because the stage lacked a ramp, Hinds — who is disabled — was unable to get onstage using his wheelchair.

As a result, the Denver Post reports, Hinds "had to climb out of his wheelchair and crawl onto the stage" if he wanted to participate in the event. And this incident, Hinds says, underscores the need for public places to accommodate the disabled.

The Post’s Conrad Swanson notes that for Hinds, missing the event — a debate for a Denver City Council seat — would have meant losing "$125,000 in campaign financing from Denver’s Fair Elections Fund."

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Thirty-three years have passed since Republican President George H.W. Bush signed the bipartisan Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 into law. But according to Hinds, there is still work to be done when it comes to rights for disabled Americans.

Hinds, who described the incident as "humiliating," told the Post, "It’s kind of hard really to say that this is excusable at this point. I really hope that this is a teachable moment of why it’s important to have a government that’s representative of all the people, and why it’s important to have disability representation on Council."

Hinds has been disabled since 2008, when a car crash left him paralyzed from the chest down.

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Read the Denver Post’s full report at this link.