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The Power of One Person continued

Last summer, Marilynn Phillips of Westminster, MD, won her case against the Maryland State Arts Council – which has insisted it didn’t discriminate – and for the first time in history the National Endowment for the Arts took away a state arts agency’s federal funding. The arts group came into compliance, installing a lift to its historic rowhouse headquarters and making the restroom accessible. Phillips, a professor at Morgan State University, now says he’s determined to see that hundreds of programs the state arts group funds become accessible, too.

Though it was her biggest victory, Phillips has had others…

Together, these two people are changing the meaning of access in two states.

How do other disabled people feel about lone wolves like these?

"If we had a Greg Solas in every county in the country," says Bob Cooper, director of the Rhode Island Governor’s Commission and a fan of Solas’s, we would live in a country which would not have needed Congress to enact an American with Disabilities Act. Most states have similar statutes. But the vast majority (of disabled people) are unwilling to challenge authority. Solas is. He has yet to lose a complaint. He does his homework…"

Ironically, Solas and Phillips are people for whom the ADA will make little difference. They have found that current laws work fine – when used.

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