Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
From transportation snafus to issues with her American Disabilities Act tickets, a popular University of Miami student and influencer, Elle Yona, recently shared her experience at a football game, highlighting everyday struggles for people with disabilities.
The video, which has since gone viral on her account, opens with the college student in her wheelchair on a bus ramp that got stuck. Elle, who was paralyzed from the neck down as the result of a spinal cord stroke at 16, said that she was stuck for about five minutes “in front of everyone” while it was fixed.
She captioned the video as “just my luck” with accompanying emojis and tags.
“[This is] Everything that happened to me at Hard Rock Stadium during the parent’s weekend UM game as a wheelchair user,” Elle said.
She and her family encountered the second issue while trying to obtain her ADA ticket, which she claims in the video to have purchased beforehand. Eventually, it appears she was allowed into the ADA area with only two companion tickets, meaning that her mother had to sit separately.
The final event in the video shows Elle waiting to board the bus at the end of the night. In the video, a wheelchair user is already aboard the vehicle but there appears to be a disagreement about whether Elle can also board the bus.
“The bus driver didn’t want to let me on because he didn’t want to drive two people in wheelchairs, even though there were two empty spots and we had been waiting for 20 minutes,” she said in the video.
The University of Miami and the Hard Rock Stadium, which has acted as the venue for the school’s football games since at least 2008, do not appear to have released any statements following the viral video. Both the school and stadium’s facilities appear to be fully ADA-compliant, with major physical renovations occurring over the years to meet accessibility standards.
In 2019, the stadium responded to claims that there were extra costs and rules tied to securing an inner-lot ADA parking pass for those who require them. At the time, management clarified that they were not charging people with disabilities extra money for being disabled but that they may still be required to use different passes based on tiers/levels, because of space limitations.
Thirty-Six years of Protection Under the ADA
The struggles shown by Elle in her video display the everyday obstacles present for wheelchair users as they navigate daily life. This process, which most people don’t give a second thought to, can require near-constant planning for those with disabilities. An act as simple as going around the neighborhood with their dog can become impossible for a wheelchair user if sidewalks are broken or blocked. Public restrooms can be difficult to navigate if the stall is not large enough for wheelchairs or if they are missing proper grab bars. Even going to the movies, a concert, or a college football game can seem like a daunting task when proper precautions are not taken.
Elle’s video has since gone viral, amassing over 40,000 likes and hundreds of comments and shares.
“If only people knew that your life can change drastically QUICK,” said one user in the comment section. “Anyone can become disabled. Accessibility helps everyone.”
This line of thinking mimics the sentiment of people with disabilities and the organizations championing to protect their rights in public spaces such as writer, actor, and activist, Ryan O’Connell.
“Not only does society ignore us and make it hard for us to gather, it sends the message to us that the world is not built with us in mind, so we don’t matter,” he said.
This past July, the ADA celebrated the 36th anniversary of when it was signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush. This marked the strongest measure to protect civil rights for people with disabilities in the nation. Under it, discrimination based on disability is illegal. The act also guarantees equal access to public buildings.
More than one out of every four people has a disability in the United States, according to the ADA. Approximately 21 million people live with a mobility disability in the United States, making up about 12.2% of the population.
Leesfield & Partners: Representing Injured Clients Throughout Florida for 50 Years
As a personal injury law firm with five decades of representing clients whose lives have been forever changed due to the negligence of a person or corporation, Leesfield & Partners knows just how important accessibility is. In 2019, when e-scooter rental companies were moving in on Coconut Grove, where the firm has operated for four of its five decades from its South Dixie Highway office, Ira H. Leesfield championed against them.
“Like disease bearing mosquitos, E-bikes have taken over the safety and tranquility of the American modern city,” said the National Board of Trial Advocacy-certified attorney. “They are everywhere, left randomly on streets, sidewalks and alleys, littering our cityscape with unsightly and unusual dangers.”
Not only are these devices, still unregulated throughout much of the state, responsible for hundreds of preventable injuries and deaths every year, but they blocked valuable sidewalk space needed by wheelchair users. Ever since their rise in popularity following the pandemic, the rate of injury on these devices has continued to soar throughout the country. Mr. Leesfield has continued championing for safety regulations, insurance and minimum age requirements for micromobility devices.
Leesfield & Partners previously represented a family who lost their daughter and whose son was left with permanent neurological and orthopedic injuries after a tragic crash with a drunk driver. Then family was on their way to drop their daughter off at the airport when they were hit by a speeding, drunk driver who was going down the wrong side of I-95. The driver hit them head-on. Their son, 21, was left unable to speak and required a wheelchair and round-the-clock care following the crash.
A verdict of $95 million was returned, with $57 million awarded to the son and $38 million to the parents.
A jury awarded $24.1 million to a family represented by Leesfield & Partners in a traumatic birth and medical malpractice claim. In that case, the child was left unable to walk or talk due to a doctor’s choice to use a controversial birthing technique, which resulted in the rupture of the mother’s uterus and a lack of blood flow to the baby’s brain and a deprivation of oxygen. She was born with cerebral palsy.
Mr. Leesfield, the firm’s Founder and Managing Partner, represented then-27-year-old Todd Eimers against Honda following a tragic motorcycle crash. Todd was riding his Honda motorcycle when a design defect caused it to spin out of control. As a result of the crash, he was left paralyzed.
The defect lay with the motorcycle’s kickstand. The company refused to settle the defective product claim and faced Mr. Leesfield and the firm at trial. A jury verdict of $19.8 million was returned in favor of our client.
Leesfield & Partners previously represented a 35-year-old client who suffered a tragic spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the shins down after suffering a fall from a friend’s apartment balcony. Our client was standing on the balcony when the railing broke, causing him to fall from the second story to the concrete ground.
An exhaustive investigation conducted by our attorneys lent to the discovery that the owner of the condo repeatedly neglected tenant safety. The owner refused to make necessary repairs to balconies and railings, and failed to have proper inspectors and/or technicians on the property to address the issue.
The firm represented a client who was left paralyzed following a premises liability accident at a Florida home. A $5,075,000 recovery was obtained on behalf of the client.
Carlos A. Fabano, a Trial Attorney at the firm, recently obtained a jury verdict of over $5.6 million for a client who was hit by a car while crossing the street in his wheelchair. He suffered a below-the-knee amputations on his right leg as a result of his injuries.
