Features

Daily Planet Staff 

The chair of the Commission on Disability was trapped for more than 20 minutes inside the elevator in Old City Hall two weeks ago. The incident was the impetus behind a resolution on tonight’s council agenda, asking that the city make Council Chambers completely accessible to people with disabilities. 

“It was frustrating,” said Commission Chair Miyo Rodolfo-Sioson, who missed the item she had wanted to hear at the City Council meeting that was taking place on the second floor. 

Rodolfo-Sioson operates a motorized wheelchair independently and has limited use of her hands. 

She was able to call the elevator by depressing the call button with her wheelchair, but once inside the elevator, she was unable to access the button to move the elevator to the second floor. 

Stuck inside the elevator, Rodolfo-Sioson had to wait until someone else called the elevator from the second floor. 

The solution for her is an elevator equipped with a mechanism that can be accessed with the footplate on her wheelchair. 

“A lot of people are like me,” Rodolfo-Sioson said. “They don’t have use of their hands.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington reacted to the incident by writing a council resolution, asking the city to make Council Chambers completely accessible, including the elevator. 

“It is very important for all disabled citizens to have equal access to the City Council meetings,” he said. 

The council meeting begins at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.