Lesbian writer, activist and athlete Kathleen Rose Winter has seen one more step forward in her fight to make all of the city's 602 park district facilities accessible to people with disabilities.
Winter, who uses a wheelchair, was notified last week that the McFetridge Sports Complex, 3845 N. California Ave., has been renovated to make it fully accessible.
Winter said a Chicago Commission on Human Relations investigator told her that an elevator has been installed to increase access to the second-floor fitness center, a lift now goes to the indoor tennis court and the bathrooms and locker rooms have been made accessible.
A McFetridge staffer verified that the complex underwent an Americans with Disabilities Act renovation about a year ago.
Winter, who participated in last year's Paralympics in Sydney, Australia, filed a complaint against the sports complex in 1998 because of inaccessibility.
"As a person with a disability, you could not go in there to do anything," she said.
McFetridge has the only indoor tennis courts in the city, she said, and has the only facilities for sledge hockey, a game modified for people in wheelchairs.
Winter's crusade against the park district began in June 1997 after an incident at an inaccessible restroom at the Lincoln Park Conservatory.
She filed an inaccessibility complaint with the Commission on Human Relations, seeking monetary damages, the installation of a wheelchair lift in the Conservatory's Fern Room and an accessible stall in the restroom.
The bathroom was made accessible shortly after the incident, and the Commission ruled in her favor last year, awarding her $50,000, plus interest, in damages.
But many months after the settlement was announced, she has yet to receive any of the money, she said.
The park district has appealed the Commission's ruling, and Winter expects the case to drag on for at least another year.
She said her goal is to make all of the park district's 602 facilities accessible, and of the changes at McFetridge, she said, "I just have 600 more to go."