Personal Stories

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy Beverly Jones GeorgeLane' I. Ms. Beverly Jones: Good afternoon. George has informed me that I am to go first this afternoon, so I will take advantage of that. My name is Beverly Jones, and let me first of all thank you for allowing George and me to be a part of this symposium. It is my first appearance since March 17, 2005 after the case officially ended. My personal story in relation to Tennessee v. Lane 2 began in 1990, upon my completion of court reporting school. It was at that time that I found myself as a court reporter relying on individual attorneys across the state to hire me to go and report individual cases for them. On a regular basis when I reported trials, I would encounter courthouses that were inaccessible. Many courtrooms were on the second and sometimes the third floor of buildings that were not equipped with elevators. For many years in order to continue working in these particular counties, and these particular courthouses, I would have to ask for assistance. This often required me to allow people to carry me up the stairs. Most of the time, these people were 1Ms. Jones and Mr. Lane joined as plaintiffs in Tennessee v. Lane. Ms. Jones, who uses a wheelchair, is a certified court reporter. She was compelled to decline employment because of her inability to gain access to several courtrooms and related facilities in at least 24 Tennessee counties. Mr. Lane, also a wheelchair user, was charged with a traffic violation in Polk County. The courtroom in which he was required to appear on the appointed morning was located on the second floor of a courthouse that was not equipped with an elevator. Mr. Lane crawled up two flights of stairs in order to reach the courtroom, only to have the case postponed until the afternoon session. Having returned to the first floor, he refused to crawl up the stairs a second time and, as a result, was jailed for contempt of court. 2 541 U.S. 509 (2004). 1:4 TENNESSEE JOURNAL OF LAW & POLICY 503 complete strangers. The stairwells in these courthouses were very narrow and very steep, with many turns and flights of stairs to get to those second and third level courtrooms. As I became more familiar with the individuals I was working with in these courthouses, I began to talk to them along with others in county governments who ran the judicial programs. We all agreed that there was a need for access to the courtrooms. I started writing letters to individuals and making phone calls in hopes that we would find a solution and that I could find an answer to the problems that I was facing. I contacted the Governor's Committee for the Employment of People with Disabilities; I contacted the Department of Justice; I contacted the Legislative Action Network; and I talked with the Administrative Office of the Courts. I contacted Senator Al Gore's office and many, many others, and voiced my concern about the inaccessible courtrooms that I was encountering on a regular basis in the areas in which I was traveling as a court reporter. The responses from these individuals were usually similar in that they all recognized and acknowledged that there was a problem. Many of these individuals had their own stories of instances that they had witnessed where an individual with a disability could not access the courtroom. But no one was quite sure what to do to solve the problem. After many years of continuing speak with individuals in these counties, I did begin to see changes. I began to see courthouses installing elevators. I began to see sidewalks outside courthouses replaced with new sidewalks equipped with ramps. I began to see courtrooms being built on first floors. I began to see restrooms modified and made accessible, and I began to see new [signs] in parking lots designating accessible parking. Most of what were once entirely inaccessible courthouses were now becoming accessible. 1:4 TENNESSEE JOURNAL OF LAW & POLICY 504 A few courthouses remained inaccessible for as long as six years after January 26th, 1992, the deadline date of the Americans with Disabilities Act 3 for these courthouses to come into compliance. In August of 1998, I chose to personally sue the State of Tennessee about the counties that remained inaccessible. The adventure that followed the filing of this lawsuit will be spoken about by some of the other speakers later this afternoon. One of my most memorable recollections was being present at the Supreme Court oral argument and hearing Justices Rehnquist and Scalia describing being carried as a mere inconvenience rather than a form of discrimination. According to them, an offer to be carried provided access to the courtroom. I will never forget their comments. Seven years later, the few courthouses that remained have come into compliance by making structural changes, or by creating and implementing a policy on how to deal with a situation when a person with a disability needs assistance to the judicial program in th (...truncated)