CEMETERY SETTLES SUIT ON WHEELCHAIR ACCESS; FOREST LAWN VOWS SITES WILL MEET POLICIES OF LAW FOR DISABLED AMERICANS.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

A lawsuit filed by the widow of a disabled activist claiming Forest Lawn Memorial-Park was not set up to handle wheelchair-bound mourners at her husband's funeral was settled with a commitment to improve access, lawyers for both sides said Thursday.

Judy Klein filed the lawsuit last year in Los Angeles Superior Court after she had problems reserving a Forest Lawn chapel for a funeral service for her husband, Thomas Klein, who died in 1996.

Klein's lawyer, Laura Diamond, said the terms of the settlement are confidential, but she believes the problems Klein encountered will not happen in the future.

``In the end there was a very cooperative effort to make the facilities more accessible,'' Diamond said. ``I think they will be able to provide a better service now.''

In a statement that included comments from both parties, Charles Haupt, Forest Lawn's senior vice president of operations, said the cemetery and mortuary chain has already started to improve its facilities in Glendale and at four other locations in the Southland.

``Forest Lawn has devoted a great deal of time and resources to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act since its passage in 1990,'' Haupt said. ``Forest Lawn's policies and procedures will now be even more clearly stated and special training implemented to assure a high level of sensitivity to the needs of persons with disabilities.''

Klein's lawsuit said her husband, who spent much of his life in a wheelchair because of polio, was one of the disabled activists who worked on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

She claimed Forest Lawn's chapel had a fixed microphone that was useless to a wheelchair-bound speaker, and that the space in front of the pews was too narrow for wheelchairs.