1. Farber , The Handicapped Plead for Entrance — Will Anyone Answer?, 64 KY. L. J. 99, 99–100 (1975).
2. The number of disabled persons in the United States is difficult to ascertain. The figures vary from 18 to 68 million nationally, depending upon who is being counted as disabled and for what purpose. Note, Access to Buildings and Equal Employment Opportunity for the Disabled: Survey of State Statutes, 50 TEMP. L.Q. 1067 n. 7 (1977). Other estimates are as low as 12 million for physically disabled persons. Farber, supra note 1, at 99 n. 2. Congress has found there are several million children and at least 28 million adults with physical or mental handicaps. Achtenberg, Law and the Physically Disabled: An Update with Constitutional Implications, 8 SW. U.L. REV. 847 n. 1 (1976). The difficulty in obtaining accurate and meaningful statistics is attributable to the inability of statisticians to measure the effect of a defined handicap on the capacity of the handicapped person to function normally in society. For example, the epileptic person may not be handicapped in his or her capacity to use public transportation
3. however, he or she is severely limited in ability to secure and maintain employment. Similarly, an individual with a spinal cord injury may be able to obtain employment but incapable of utilizing public transportation in order to seek and maintain employment. Thus, numerical statistics must be evaluated in terms of the resultant effect of a specific disability on participation in normal activity. Note, Abroad in the Land: Legal Strategies to Effectuate the Rights of the Physically Disabled, 61 GEO. L.J. 1501 n. 2 (1973) (citations omitted). Yet, figures vary widely even when estimates are made for a particular purpose. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare, using a broad definition of disability, has estimated that 29 million persons in America suffer from conditions which would be less handicapping without transportation and architectural barriers. Reed, Equal Access to Mass Transportation for the Handicapped, 9 TRANSP. L.J. 167, 169 n. 15 (1977). Another estimate places at one in ten the number of persons in this country who have some disability which prevents them from using buildings and facilities designed only for the physically fit. This nurnber does not include the many persons who become temporarily disabled. Note, The Forgotten Minority: The Physically Disabled and Improving Their Physical Environment, 48 CHI.-KENT L. REV. 215, 220 n. 31 (1971). The Department of Transportation made the highest estimate of those who would benefit from removal of transportation obstacles - nearly 44 million people. Reed, supra, at 169 n. 12. The Urban Mass Transportation Administration has estimated that there are 13.3 million disabled and elderly persons who cannot use or experience difficulty in using transit systems. Id. at 170 n. 17. Of those, 6 million are disabled and 7 million are elderly persons. Comment, Mass Transportation for the Handicapped and the Elderly, 1976 DET. C.L. REV. 277 n. 1. No matter which estimate is utilized, it is obvious that the number of persons affected by environmental barriers is substantial.
4. Note, The Forgotten Minority: The Physically Disabled and Improving Their Physical Environment, 48 CHI.-KENT L. REV. 215, 216(1971).
5. See Reed, Equal Access To Mass Transportation for the Handicapped, 9 TRANS. L.J. 167, 169-71 (1977)