DISABLED AND HOMELESS? AMERICAN DISABILITY ACT - HOW ARE YOU TREATED AT THE LIBRARY? AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

We've been hearing about disabled elderly and homeless people who use the library most days being thrown out all around Los Angeles.  We've even heard of a legally blind person being thrown out.

We're really worried about this since it's true that the libraries do provide a place for people to stay indoors and use the toilets, exercise their minds, and stay out of the parks and out of trouble.  (A lot of libraries throughout Los Angeles are located near parks, senior centers, rec centers, etc.  There's only so much sleeping under trees you can do!)  Of course some of you are not actually street homeless.  Some of you are living in your van, or live in an SRO or room, and you just really need to get out of the house.  Or you live in a shelter where your room mates are unbearable.  Nowhere to go and no money...

We've been hearing about the removal of upholstered chairs in favor of really uncomfortable ones. You know how you have to "move along" and be a TRANSIENT even when you don't want to be.

We've heard about one snotty library "patron" complaining to management that they smelled a stinky person. 

We've heard of people being thrown out FOR ALMOST ANY EXCUSE AT ALL, even if they have become regulars and are generally mindful of themselves.

Rules posted mention noise or disrupting other patrons (but we know this rule is not applied fairly because we've seen how SOME PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO TALK ON THEIR CELL PHONES WHILE SITTING AT COMPUTERS but others are TOLD TO SHUT THE PHONES OFF.) 

ADA - AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT - THE PARTICULARS link here

We encourage you, if you are homeless  and disabled and thrown out of a LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY, or any other library - COUNTY, CITY OF BURBANK, CITY OF SANTA MONICA, CITY OF PASADENA, etc - to call your local enforcer of the AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT. 

IT'S A QUESTIONS OF EQUAL ACCESS.

Maybe you're hard of hearing, and you talk loud.   Maybe you can barely get up and out of that hard chair.   Maybe your mental illness makes you a little cranky.

Must they allow you to bring in your pet?  Yes, if it's a companion animal who guides you, reminds you to take medication, alerts you to a pending seizure.  And about being STINKY, well, perhaps you can engage your local librarian to get on the Internet and do some research for you.  WHERE ARE THE FREE OR LOW COST SHOWERS?

HERE IS CITY OF LA DEPARTMENT OF DISABILITIES:

LA CITY : DISABILITIES