July 3, 2002

Mr. Jesse White
IL. Secretary of State
501 S. Second St.
Springfield, IL 62796

Dear Mr. White:

The United Voice for Disabled Americans is an organization founded to fight for persons with disabilities.

We want you to know that we feel, that just because we have the Americans with Disabilities Act that addresses disabilities and access, that it does not mean these laws are being enforced fairly and correctly. People with disabilities still have problems accessing a wide range of buildings. We feel discriminated against by our own government due to their seeming lack of enforcement of these laws.

Linda Stearns, a member of our board has been trying to get Christ Hospital, 4440 W. 95th St., Oak Lawn, to work with her regarding the handicap parking at their indoor parking garage. The handicap parking places according to federal and state law is supposed to be “sixteen foot parking space including eight foot wide diagonally stripped access isle.” We feel that the State of IL. is suppose to comply with this law and see that is enforced.

Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn is not in compliance with the law. We called the Village Hall of Oak Lawn and were told the engineering dept. was the one to talk to. The person in charge would not talk to us. We were told they had nothing to do with the law since the hospital was built before 1993.

We were told to file a complaint with the IL. Attorney General’s Office. This complaint is being filed with your department against The Village of Oak Lawn for not seeing that the handicap parking places, especially at a hospital parking facility do meet the regulation of “sixteen foot wide handicap parking places including an eight foot wide diagonally striped access aisle. Adjacent parking spaces shall not share a common access aisle.”

Sixteen feet will accommodate vans with lifts for wheel chairs and carts. Sixteen feet will also accommodate persons getting out of the passenger side of a car that have someone driving them that have to use a cane or walker. Christ Hospital does not have sixteen-foot wide handicap parking places. Instead they have eight-foot wide handicap parking places with shared four-foot wide access isle.

Mr. White, please view web site, http://bonewits.net/UVDA-0.htm. This web site was created so that we can demonstrate with actual photos the discrimination that we feel is being done against us. We feel we can actively do something to help change the situation. You will find pictures that were taken in Christ Hospital indoor parking garage demonstrating the problems there, as well as other places that we are concerned about.

We eagerly look forward to meeting with you or your representative soon and the other parties involved, so we may find a way to rectify this situation. It is amazing you haven’t been contacted about this before.

Please feel free to contact me at 847-357-8518 or Linda Stearns at 708-423-6556.

Cordially yours,

Rosemarie A. Botthof
United Voice for Disabled Americans

cc: Christ Hospital
      Village of Oak Lawn