Mayor Francis Slay has appointed a new top adviser on disability rights issues: David Newburger, a Central West End attorney.

Newburger, who uses a wheelchair, replaces Deborah K. Dee, the city’s longtime Commissioner on the Disabled who was appointed in 1979, when Jim Conway was mayor.

With Newburger’s appointment, Slay says, will come a change in how the city ensures disability access. Newburger’s position will be part-time. Some of the responsibility for making sure structures are compliant will fall to inspectors in the building division.

Newburger, 64, is a veteran advocate for the disabled who was counsel to Paraquad, the disability rights organization. His former law partner is the late Steve Vossmeyer, who served as a state rep and aide to Sen. Tom Eagleton.

This is not the first time Newburger has been tapped by Slay - he also was appointed by the mayor to sit on the influential Tax Increment Financing Commission, for a term that runs through 2008.