"Advocates from all over the country called and faxed letters to Virginia politicians and prison officials. Marjorie Rifkin, an attorney who is working with Capital Area ADAPT, guided advocate Lou Overstreet on legal strategy. Justin Dart, Jr. called Virginia's Lt. Governor, John Hagar."

The rule applies to other assistive devices as well. Airlines are allowed to ask you to verify the original purchase price with an original receipt.

"All we want is to be able to get into the same places as our neighbors," says Midtown wheelchair user Joanna Raver. "The law is the law -- and the law says we should be allowed to go where everybody else goes."

"Hopefully, after the Midtown Sweep, other businesses will take our civil rights seriously and obey the law," said ACT.

The three lawsuits filed in late July against Pasquale's, Midtown Tavern and Goldstar Video are all in the settlement phase, says ACT.

Rochester members of the group Not Dead Yet had tried twice, unsuccessfully, to get a restraining order to prevent the death. The judge "questioned why we hadn't got an doctor and a psychologist to support us in court. It was a disaster," says Bruce Darling, director of Rochester's Center for Disability Rights.

"The Protection and Advocacy Office of Western New York declined to investigate Bill White's situation and take the case to court," says Darling. "Had they done so, there would have been no question of standing in court, and Bill might be alive to learn what options he would have had available to him."

Media coverage portrayed White's decision as a reasonable medical choice. "This is a completely settled issue, ethically and legally," Dr. Timothy Quill had told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle when White first asked for the respirator to be turned off.. Quill was lead plaintiff in the 1997 Supreme Court lawsuit urging physician-assisted suicide. "These kinds of things have been carried out in all our hospitals."

"The Commission -- starting with the Chairman -- is committed to seeing that the Section 255 is implemented and enforced in such a manner that its original intentions are achieved," the FCC's Dale N. Hatfield told engineers at a meeting June 30. "In addition to benefiting persons with disabilities, accessibility holds the potential of benefiting everyone."

Between now and the July 26 ADA-signing anniversary the group, a joint public-interest project of the Maryland Disability Law Center, the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association and MCIL Resources for Independent Living, will file a series of suits targeting businesses that are not ADA compliant to draw attention to the fact that the law is continually being broken.