“How about you get up from the wheelchair and we just lift the chair up?” organizers asked Denver City Council member, chris hindsgiven the lack of access for people with disabilities.
The event that was held in a dance school was conspicuous by the lack of consideration that the organizers had with Chris Hinds who He received as the first option to put him on stage with everything and chairbut he refused, arguing that his chair weighs 400 pounds and he weighs 200 more, which was not such an easy weight to lift.
“And they said okay, well how about you get up out of the wheelchair and we just lift the chair up? They gave me a chair that I could hold on to, so I was just lying on the stage. I felt like a circus monkey. Just out there on display for everyone to do whatever,” Hinds said in an interview with USA Today.
In social networks The video taken by filmmaker Vince Chandler has gone viral which shows Hinds trying to get his legs up on stage as people approach him, as well as his wheelchair to assist him.
The first attempt was unsuccessful, so the Chris Hinds went back to his chair while the organizers found a way to get him on stage.
“I was so bewildered at the time. My mom looked at the debate leader and said ‘I don’t even recognize you’. I was so different because it was so demoralizing,” Hinds said.
Hinds could not leave the place without complying with his participation since, as he well mentioned through a press release, if he did not participate in the debate “he would lose $125,000 in money from the Fair Elections Fund”.
Denver Secretary, Paul Lopez, apologized to Hinds through a press release “No one should have that experience, and I have personally apologized to Councilor Hinds.”
Source: La Opinion
