Americans with Disabilities Act
Advocates say the trips are unnecessary in the first place, when other places require only a doctor’s note or at-home evaluation to qualify for the service.
Despite the distant due date, advocates mostly cheered the settlement, part of a long, multipronged push to make the transit agency comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Unreliable elevators continue to plague the system, disability advocates say — and the transit agency’s promise to improve overall access won’t come true for three decades.
Saheed Adebayo Aare has gone from unstable housing and a nightmare commute to feeling that anything is possible in the Big Apple.
The mayor, advocates for people with disabilities and even MTA board members have called the move unfair and questioned if the funding shift could worsen service reliability and accountability for Access-A-Ride.
StrataGen Systems Inc. was tapped to bring high technology solutions to Access-A-Ride scheduling problems, but hit more delays than the blue-and-white vans in rush-hour traffic.
The DOJ released a report in the fall that knocked Access-A-Ride for untimely drop-offs and excessive travel times. Now, transit officials say customer satisfaction is up.
Several bus lines are trying out reserving space for open strollers, but drivers fear conflicts among riders to come.
The MTA is assessing new goals and financial needs in a post-pandemic world. Riders with mobility issues remind the agency that serving them humanely is not only the law but “the right thing to do.”
Just over the city limits in Westchester and Nassau County, riders with disabilities aren’t forced to trek to out-of-the-way “assessment centers” to prove their physical capabilities or lack thereof.
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Victor Calise, one of the city’s longest-serving commissioners, will leave his post March 4 to take a job in the private sector. New Yorkers living with physical and mental challenges see the opening as an opportunity for the office to do more.
“Ramps are failproof,” declared Quemuel Arroyo, the MTA’s chief accessibility officer. But installing the slopes isn’t as easy as it might look, and in some cases elevators better fit the bill, some advocates say.
The rule forbidding a continuation of virtual public testimony limited participation by Access-A-Ride users with complaints about service problems, advocates for New Yorkers with limited mobility said. Meanwhile, MTA officials could still phone it in.
The demand for subsidized paratransit services is rising as the city emerges from the pandemic. But New Yorkers with disabilities are having a hard time finding rides due to the overall downturn in taxi and other for-hire vehicle drivers.
Saheed Adebayo Aare has received salvation from his hellish commute by way of a new position with the online retailer in the city and a bumpy ride to a more convenient homeless shelter.
The transit agency’s leaders want to tap more private developers to make more subway stations Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant. But critics warn that similar partnerships have a spotty track record.
The contactless payment system is supposed to be in place at all stations by Dec. 31. But it won’t be available for another year to commuters who use wheelchairs.
Saheed Adebayo Aare says he was placed in an inaccessible hotel. When he returned to Wards Island, two wheelchairs — including one for tennis — were gone.
Funding is set and bids are coming for a long-delayed platform lift at the step-laden park dedicated to the only U.S. president to use a wheelchair in office.
The first part of a nearly $18 million review obtained by THE CITY concludes that most of the 100 stops surveyed can be retrofitted with elevators.
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