The recent Disability Rights Advocacy Day at the state Capitol took on a new look for 2023 – one of their own is championing their cause from within. 

State Rep. David Ortiz, D-Centennial, is the first member of the Colorado General Assembly to use a wheelchair, and during the advocacy day, he wasn’t alone at the Capitol. About 120 advocates for people with disabilities, representing 11 different groups, came together to push for legislation on access to housing, the outdoors and public buildings, including at the state Capitol.

Ortiz was joined that day by Denver City councilmember Chris Hinds, the first city council member to use a wheelchair, and both advocated for individuals with disabilities to make the leap to elected office.

Access is a basic civil right, Ortiz said, adding that, for far too long, those with disabilities have been overlooked and many say they are “invisible” to the able-bodied. Ortiz knows the story from both sides: he lived as an “able-bodied” individual for his first 30 years, and then he was paralyzed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that put him into a wheelchair. 

Although he sacrificed much to defend his country, he said, he found himself barred from fully participating in the freedoms he fought for, such as access to housing or employment.

“We deserve and have earned the right to be more than a charity case for society,” he said.

Much of the the state Capitol remains inaccessible to people with disabilities. Ortiz noted he applied to be an intern in 2015, but the lack of accessibility made that impossible, he said.

When he was elected to the House, there were renovations to ensure he could get into the chamber, and later, an elevator was added so that he could chair what’s called the committee of the whole, when the entire chamber debates on a measure. 

But Ortiz said the Capitol remains far from being fully accessible.

The Senate has yet to make any changes to accommodate people in wheelchairs, and the House still has a long way to go, Ortiz said, adding he is relegated to only about one-quarter of the chamber. If he wants to talk to another lawmaker who’s on the other side of the chamber, he has to ask someone to find that lawmaker.

“A critical part of this job is being able to build relationships and talk to your peers and negotiate. I can’t do that. That hinders my basic ability to do this job,” he said. 

There’s even been instances when a lawmaker will step down a couple of steps, and there are four sets of stairs leading out of the House into back rooms, just to avoid talking to him, said Ortiz. (He wouldn’t identify those colleagues). 

In an emergency, getting out of the building is also complicated, he explained. Once, he had to plan a special evacuation route with state troopers, but that shouldn’t be the case, he said.

Committee rooms aren’t accessible either, most notably the Old Supreme Court Chambers or the Old State Library. So far, the temporary solution has been a makeshift ramp that is steeper than what’s allowed by the American with Disabilities Act. It’s also not particularly stable.

“They’re doing the best they can, but they have a long way to go,” he said.

There’s other issues, as well. For those who are visually impaired, there are apps for smartphones that can tell someone where they are in a building, but the state Capitol isn’t one of them, Ortiz said. 

Access continues to be a problem in transportation, housing, behavioral health services and many other areas outside of the state Capitol, according to advocates. 

Even enjoying the outdoors is a difficulty. Ortiz pointed to chairlifts that prioritize comfort over access for adaptive athletes, trailhead entrances too narrow for adaptive sports equipment or lack of access to adaptive sports limbs.

“We’re being isolated, excluded and left behind,” he said during the advocacy day.

“We see how powerful it is to have people from our community in elected office” at the city, state and local level, said Julie Reiskin of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition.

Reiskin said she’s spent much of her life begging people in her community to get involved. What doesn’t work is for “people without disabilities making decisions about our lives,” she said.

Denver City Council member Chris Hinds said when he was inaugurated in 2019, city council chambers and council restrooms were not accessible. But it took someone in a wheelchair to get elected to effect that change, he said. 

Hinds pointed to other successes. When he was elected, it was legal in Denver to pay someone with a physical disability 15% less than Denver’s minimum wage.

“We got rid of that at the city level,” he said.

In 2021, that was eliminated statewide. 

“We need more elected officials in office who have disabilities so that we’re at the table” at the beginning of the process, not at the end, he added. “Our democracy is stronger when it is representative of all the people.”

At a recent debate, Hinds couldn’t maneuver his wheelchair onto the stage because the venue didn’t have a ramp for him, forcing him to crawl onto stage in front of the debate crowd of several dozen people. The event itself had to be delayed during the process.

On Tuesday afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee will hear House Bill 1032, which will allow those with disabilities access to the courts in lieu of pursuing claims with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The bill allows a person with a disability to sue in civil court, regardless of whether they have filed with the commission. In addition, a person with a disability can obtain damages for emotional distress and attorneys’ fees.

Ortiz sponsored Senate Bill 36, which reduces the amount of paperwork a veteran with a disability would have to complete in order to obtain the state’s property tax exemption. The bill cleared the Senate on a unanimous vote and is awaiting its first House hearing.

House Bill 1136, meanwhile, deals with outdoor recreation. It requires health insurance companies to cover the cost of a prosthetic limb if the person is under the age of 26 and a physician determines it is necessary to allow the person to participate in recreational activities. The bill has been assigned to the House Health & Insurance Committee but has not yet had its first hearing, and with the session more than halfway done, that could be a sign that it may not move forward.