ST PAUL, Minn. — After 30-plus years reporting news across Minnesota, James Walsh admits he covers less ground than he used to.
"I don't go anywhere fast anymore," he said. "I don't do well on stairs anymore. This is about the extent of it for me now."
After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014, he knew his body and mobility would deteriorate, so he focused on covering St Paul. And these days, even that would be nearly impossible without the use of his wheelchair.
"Your world shrinks, and I am an absolute witness to my world shrinking as this disease has progressed," he said.
The latest example of that came after he covered a late St. Paul City Council meeting in January.
"I wrote my story and I was done about 8:30... and I get out of the door and everything is dark," said Walsh. "And I go down to the skyway that I had come in earlier in the day and it was locked and blocked. I couldn't get out."
After taking the elevator to the first floor, he realized the nearest door was also locked.
"I rolled around and finally I went to the Kellogg Avenue entrance and there was a security desk there and there was a guard there, and I told him, 'Hey, I need to get out,'" Walsh said.
He says the guard eventually found a janitor, who unlocked a door and helped him get outside where he thought he could make his way across the street to gain access through the city hall annex.
"And that was locked too," he said. "So now I'm outside and I have to figure out a way, how to get back into the skyway system at 8:50 at night."
Eventually, he said, he flagged down a woman in an apartment lobby down the block who let him through another locked door to access the skyway and make it to his car.
"If it would have been snowy or icy, it would have been not even an option for me," Walsh said. "I might have been really stuck."
That's when this veteran reporter began asking questions — and realized the difference between ADA compliance and actual accessibility.
"They basically told me that that's one of those situations where, technically, the building is accessible," he said. "But I think the argument could be made that, without the skyway access, people in wheelchairs are probably less likely to go. And they're less likely to participate in going to city council meetings, never mind someone like me who has to cover it."
And that is why — with the encouragement of an editor — he is now covering his own story.
"If you don't know that something is lacking, then you can't fix it," Walsh said. "So maybe the best that comes out of this is, this highlights the things that they need to do and it makes them easier for them to find the way to do it."
And for the record, he believes the city's response will soon go beyond saying sorry.
"They recognized there there things that need to be improved and I think they want to do that," Walsh said. "I really didn't know how difficult it was, until I found out how difficult it is."
The City of St. Paul does have a new accessibility coordinator that started in December, and were among the officials that apologized to Walsh, adding that they are working with Mayor Melvin Carter and several departments on ADA updates.
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