IT HAS FAILED AND SERVES NO ONE
There is something
deeply symbolic and disturbing about the yellow caution tape signaling yet
another out of order MTA elevator in New York.
It screams
that in one of the most-diverse cities in America, people with disabilities are
barely second class.
It says that
decades of mayors – from both major political parties – have failed.
They have supported
tax breaks and cushy deals for billionaires – promising tax revenue to fix
problems.
Yet long
into the 21st century, only a fraction of train stations have wheelchair
access.
Half the
elevators I examined were roped off, non-functioning or otherwise out of service.
The subjugating,
ignore the problem answer for decades has been that the bus system has wheelchair
access, so that’s enough.
Ever try to
get from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side…for a business meeting, for a
restaurant reservation…for a timed ticket to a museum?
The train
takes 15 minutes max.
Busses take
two to three times that long.
And the
irony is, for a lot of people with disabilities – such as those with rheumatoid
arthritis that have joint pain – the endless bumping and listing of a bus right
produces pain, discomfort and danger of injury.
So the default,
substandard ride option is the more stressful and fatiguing one – along with
taking up time.
It’s like
the city doesn’t think, a third of a decade after passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, that people with disabilities are vibrant, firm-leading
employees that need to move about the city rapidly: to keep their highly
productive lives in motion.
Imagine a transportation
system that said only White Anglo-Saxon Protestant abled-bodied males reaped
the benefits of the underground and elevated speedy trains – but everybody else
had to stand in the rain and snow for a slow, inefficient ride on a bus.
News of this
discrimination would lead the local TV broadcast and top the newspaper
headlines for weeks. Boycotts would take place.
Politicians would lead rallies
to overturn to abusive treatment.
How is it any
different when subways and elevated trains could have added elevators and ramps
for half a century, but have not?
