News » Stories That Matter » Clay Henshaw Changed Life for Us All
Clay Henshaw Changed Life for Us All
By Sarah Overstreet
One of the most powerful men I’ve ever known lived most of his life in a wheelchair.
But put him in the arena of disability rights, and he could knock out Sugar Ray Leonard. Clay Henshaw, who had paraplegia since he was 19, served on state and local committees that changed life for us all. In 1975 he helped enact Springfield’s building codes for accessibility. There were few curb cuts then, no accessible parking spaces, no legally assured entrance for assistance animals, and no telephone service for people with hearing impairments. Yet as much as Clay and others tried to whack down barriers, they couldn’t make a dent without laws to enforce these changes.
So the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was a mighty explosion of sunlight through pitch-black clouds. The ADA, passed in 1990, guarantees equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, government services and telecommunications. Clay died in 1991 before he could see the ADA implemented. Throughout my years as a reporter, I knew Clay had helped put the gears in motion for this revolution.
Yet I didn’t know then that I would someday need the ADA. It has become progressively difficult for me to even walk short distances or stand.
In 2008, I bought front-row season tickets to the Missouri State University Lady Bears basketball games in the JQH Arena.
My seats are three floors down from the front lobby. Then I discovered that administrators wouldn’t allow me on the lower elevator – which is accessible – and wanted me to walk up a considerable flight of steep stairs to get to the second-floor elevator. I explained my problem to a JQH supervisor, and he said they complied with ADA requirements because they had a handicapped seating area on the second level.
They hadn’t asked me if I had a disability when I bought my expensive tickets. I filed an ADA complaint. It was easy, helped by a Southwest Center for Independent Living staff member. Within two weeks, federal attorneys contacted me and said they would pursue the case. After receiving a letter from a U.S. attorney, MSU administrators called me and asked that if they let all people on the lower elevator, would I withdraw my complaint?
Certainly. I simply wanted all people with disabilities to have access to accommodations they needed. When the elevators were opened to us, we came out of the woodwork: some using walkers, some in wheelchairs, and some with oxygen tanks. I wondered why no one else had filed an ADA complaint. My guess is that many of us have acquired a disability with age, and haven’t learned about the ADA or knew it applied to us. I hope through my story others will realize how easy it is to protect our rights. And as Clay Henshaw showed us, any step we take is one that lays the groundwork for those who come behind us.
September 2011
Sarah Overstreet is a former Springfield newspaper and television reporter, local columnist and nationally syndicated columnist.
