Harassment: San Diego Wants Navy Ship Simulator to be Wheelchair Accessible

Among the scores of items the city of San Diego is throwing in the path of a US Navy training facility: A demand that a ship simulator be made wheelchair accessible.

No ship in the US Navy is wheelchair accessible, and no naval ship simulator is, either. But San Diego is insisting that the training site, run on contract by Blackwater Worldwide, be accessible by wheelchair. That means that the ship simulator's gangways, hatches, ladders, and decks be unrealistically modified so that people in wheelchairs can use them - even though wheelchair-bound people are not allowed to serve in the Navy.

Brian Bonfiglio of Blackwater, who is running the San Diego operation for the Navy, says that city officials are trying to block a federal judge's ruling that the training facility proceed. He adds, "They have admitted that they realize that you don't have Navy personnel on wheelchairs on Navy vessels."