Anna Zivarts

Monday, March 9th, Rooted in Rights will hold a press event to celebrate the new sidewalk connecting the Pierce County Election Center to the Pierce County Transit Route 57 bus stop, and highlight the need for the missing sidewalk connection to the Route 3 stop. 

“These improvements are critical to ensure that people with disabilities can safely access the Pierce County Election Center, a public building that has accessible voting equipment that allows people with disabilities to vote freely and privately,” said Blake Geyen in a video that shows him navigating the heavily trafficked streets directly surrounding the elections center prior to the building of the new sidewalk.

Some voters with disabilities cannot vote privately via paper ballot, and rely on the accessible voting machines at the election centers in order to cast their ballots. 

The lack of accessible sidewalks presented in Blake’s video has been a long-standing problem for voters with disabilities in Pierce County. In 2010, Disability Rights Washington reported the missing sidewalks in our 2010 Election Accessibility Report.

Blake’s video has over 16,000 views on Twitter and was featured in The News Tribune this past November. After the attention from the video, the City of Tacoma paved a new sidewalk to connect the Pierce County 57 bus stop to the Elections Center. This is the first election disabled voters will be able to use this new access point. 

“There is nothing more effective for advancing public policy than an authentic story of personal impact,” said Julie Anderson, Pierce County Auditor. “As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.” 

Downtown On the Go (DOTG), Tacoma’s transportation advocacy organization, is thrilled to support Rooted in Rights in their advocacy work here in Tacoma. Kristina Walker, executive director of DOTG,  said “Rooted in Rights is an incredible resource and we can all learn from them. I look forward to continued partnership and Rooted in Rights influencing additional safety on our streets for people with disabilities in Tacoma and Pierce County.”

“We must do everything we can to make sure everyone has the opportunity to vote – especially for those of us who are transit dependent,” said Anna Zivarts, Rooted in Rights Program Director. “There are real consequences to not having our votes count and having the transit services we rely on get cut or underfunded.” 

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This is exciting news – after our video with Blake Geyen led to a Tacoma New Tribune profile, Tacoma moved to build the section of missing sidewalk connecting the nearest bust stop to the Pierce County Elections Center.

Here’s an update from Gail Himes, the City of Tacoma ADA Coordinator:

Good news- despite the wet weather our City crews were able to pave a pathway from the crosswalk push button at the intersection of S 35^th and Steele Street to the Pierce County Voting Center parking lot. The pathway is within the landscape area and keeps pedestrians away from vehicular traffic. I have attached some pictures but did not include text within the pictures. Let me know if you need more of a description of this work. Also, once we get some dry weather, we will be restriping the crosswalks at this intersection. Pierce County staff will be striping a walking path in their parking lot that connects this new accessible pathway to the Voting Center.

If you live in Tacoma or Pierce County and are interested in working with Rooted in Rights on transportation and streets advocacy, let us know. We’re building a Pierce County action committee!

Click here to pitch a blog post to Rooted in Rights.

Access victory! The City of Seattle is changing the reimbursement rates for Wheelchair Accessible Taxi owners to get more accessible cabs on the road, especially at night. Read the coalition letter we sent asking for changes last fall, and for more context, check out this Seattle PI article which covers the challenges of trying to access wheelchair accessible cabs in King County.

Click here to pitch a blog post to Rooted in Rights.

Click here to pitch a blog post to Rooted in Rights.

On September 30, the Seattle City Council approved two resolutions to make our sidewalks and intersections safer and more accessible for disabled folks, and more usable for all pedestrians!

The first of the two resolutions to address problems identified by the MASS Coalition (in which Rooted in Rights participates) directed the Seattle Department of Transportation develop policy options for the maintenance of existing sidewalks, create a public education program on snow and ice removal responsibilities, and develop a program to enforce snow and ice removal requirements by private property owners.

The second resolution directed the Seattle Department of Transportation to develop a new signals policy to ensure that pedestrians of all ages and abilities can cross our streets safely.

These victories were a response in part to a Rooted in Rights initiative in which people like Dixin, Conrad and Carol shared their stories in advocacy videos, and the dozens of other folks who shared their stories online about their experiences with sidewalk access and in last winter’s snow emergency.

Thank you! Together we can make our communities more accessible, inclusive places!

Photo Credit: Dixin Yan @DixinYan

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