enior citizens and disabled residents of Nassau County on Long Island, N.Y., can thank progressive county officials and activist Donald Barbieri for the $40,000 worth of new disabled-friendly access equipment installed on all public pools in the county last summer.
They can also be thankful that a special Americans with Disabilities Act capital project fund was available. “We have a wonderful and progressive county that takes disabled rights very seriously,” says Don Dreyer, director of the Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged. “I hope other municipalities find [our program] useful and kind of emulate Nassau County.”
Soon after Congress adopted the ADA in 1990, county administrators implemented the special fund in anticipation of future needs. ADA funds are supported through the county’s overall capital project funds raised via bonds, according to Dreyer.
Dreyer emphasizes that the ADA fund is not part of the county’s general fund allocations. If not for this fact, the disability equipment could not have been purchased during the county’s current state of fiscal affairs, which is poor, to say the least.
Dreyer stresses that the county has addressed accessibility issues comprehensively, rather than on a reactive or piecemeal basis. “The purchase of adaptive equipment is part of that approach,” he says. “It’s above and beyond what had already been done on varying degrees.”
