Rene Luna, 55, became a quadriplegic after a car crash in 1977. Now he gets around town in a motorized wheelchair.

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act as well as state laws aim to provide Luna and other people with physical disabilities equal access to businesses and public places. The City of Chicago includes accessibility guidelines in its building code. However, advocates such as Luna feel the city doesn’t uniformly enforce these standards. This is especially problematic in poorer, older neighborhoods that have seen less investment or renovation. Ironically, many of these same neighborhoods have higher concentrations of people with disabilities.