Community advocates for the disabled scored enough significant victories in the past year that the cake to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act went down easily yesterday.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette
	Dana Washington, whose lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Housing Authority led to greater disability access, sits at the Three Rivers Center for Independent Living rally in Market Square to celebrate the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the settlement of her lawsuit.

Dana Washington, plaintiff in a 2002 class-action lawsuit that charged the Pittsburgh Housing Authority with violating the ADA, came to an agreement in November with the authority to provide accessible homes for people with disabilities.

In Harrisburg, disability rights activists won an official Cabinet post and advisory committee to address issues faced by people with disabilities.

Paul O'Hanlon, attorney for the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania who represented Ms. Washington, said that while other tenants with disabilities had compelling problems, Ms. Washington's was extreme.

Ms. Washington, 43, has used a wheelchair since 1997, when she suffered an aneurysm in her brain that left her in a coma for more than a month.

She and her children lived with her mother for a time in Beltzhoover, but her mother died. She moved to public housing in 2001, to a unit in the Hill District community of Bedford Dwellings, where the bathroom door was too small to accommodate her wheelchair. For the first few years she was in Bedford Dwellings she had to use a potty chair.

"My chair could not get past the door and that's just inhumane," she said.

Since then she has moved to a unit where her chair can get into the bathroom, but she can't take a bath. Instead she travels to Beltzhoover to bathe in the roll-in shower at a friend's house.

The settlement agreement with the Pittsburgh Housing Authority calls for the authority to build 321 accessible units throughout the system.

"I keep telling people she's the Rosa Parks of Pittsburgh," Mr. O'Hanlon said.

Ms. Washington said she's not getting a lot of thanks from other tenants. Instead, she is hearing complaints from neighbors who have to move if their unit has been designated as potentially accessible and therefore slated for renovations.

Ms. Washington found out yesterday from Sandra Stewart, voluntary compliance officer for the authority, that her new apartment won't be ready until next year. Until then it's sponge baths at her house between showers at her friend's house across the city.

"I'm happy I'm going to get a new home," she said.

Ms. Stewart said the agreement has been good for the housing authority.

"Out of this we have a wonderful opportunity to meet the needs of our residents," she said.

She said the authority had built units that were supposed to be wheelchair accessible, but later found out they were far from it. Now, working with the Three Rivers Center for Independent Living, the architects can get a real sense of what will work for people who are disabled.

Ms. Washington was in Market Square yesterday with more than 100 others to share in the cake that was part of the anniversary celebration of the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Evelyn Stypula, 61, of Morningside, has been fighting for the rights of wheelchair users for years. She said she was there to celebrate Gov. Ed Rendell's Nov. 21 executive order creating the Cabinet-level agency for people with disabilities and an advisory committee on issues concerning the disabled.

"We're the first state in the U.S. to have a Cabinet-level position for people with disabilities," she said.