Transportation Access

Advocates Sue City Over Emergency Preparedness

    Disability Rights Advocates has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of New York, charging them with failing to include people with disabilities in emergency planning.

    The lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York reflects on both Tropical Storm Irene and the 9/11 attacks. As the storm approached the city as a Category 1 hurricane, advocates say city officials’ televised announcements did not include sign language interpreters, evacuation maps were not usable to people with low vision and school buses that were used for evacuations did not contain lifts or seating areas for people with mobility disabilities.

Court Requires Accessibility of Co-op City Door

    John Rose has the right to enter his Co-op City home through the building’s front door, a Bronx Supreme Court judge has ruled, requiring the building’s management company to make renovations. However, the damages awarded to the tenant were far lower than what the New York City Human Rights Commission said he deserved.

    Rose, who has cerebral palsy, had asked River Bay Corp. to make the front door accessible in 2008. The company said it would make the side door accessible instead and Rose said that made him feel like a “second-class citizen.”

    Rose has lived in the building for 30 years. As his condition progressed, weakening his arm and leg muscles, he would sit outside the door waiting for someone to open it. When the company renovated the side door for him to use two years after his request for front door accessibility, Rose refused to use it.

    “I’m not going to give up my fight,” he said.

Obituary of Michael Imperiale

    Imagining New York City and the world without Michael Imperiale’s booming voice, friendly smile and firm opinions is to imagine a place that is blander, colder and less direct. Imperiale passed away last month at the age of 74. He lived on the Lower East Side and was the 34-year partner of the late Frieda Zames.

    Disability rights activist Anne Emerman said, “Michael was a quintessential downtown guy, riding a scooter, wearing a big Western hat and a poncho. Bus drivers said he was the mayor of the Lower East Side.”

    Imperiale was the lead singer for the Disabled in Action Singers and liked to play chess and sing in Washington Square Park. “Michael was a big, warm-hearted person. Children and animals loved him,” Emerman said.

    Nadina LaSpina and her partner Danny Robert said Imperiale was the first person they called for a civil rights or peace protest because he could convey a message with great volume and he was always ready to start a chant, which he enjoyed more than meetings. They knew him for 20 years.

    “He was irrepressible, once he got something in his head he didn’t care what anybody said,” Robert said. “Of course he had a really beautiful singing voice and he would break out in song at any time he wanted to.”

Taxi Accessibility Fight is On the Move

    The fight for taxi accessibility for wheelchair users in New York City is picking up steam. A series of recent events has thrown taxi access into the spotlight and a pending court decision could influence the future of the fleet.

    A class action lawsuit charging the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) with discrimination is winding its way through the federal court system with a hearing scheduled for November 22 before United States District Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York.

    Lawyer Julia Pinover of Disability Rights Advocates, the nonprofit legal center representing the plaintiffs said, “It could be a long oral argument. If the judge rules with either party, the lawsuit’s over at the trial stage.”

    [Photo: Jean Ryan and Nadina LaSpina pretend to hail a cab.]

The Impacts of Tropical Storm Irene

    During and after Tropical Storm Irene passed through the tri-state area, people with disabilities and their advocates reported lack of accessibility at some evacuation centers and insufficient disaster planning for the disability community.

    The City ordered evacuations from “Zone A” neighborhoods that are considered the most vulnerable to flooding. Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY) surveyed six of the shelters for those residents and found problems with accessibility. 

Judge Forbids City From Removing Emergency Call Boxes

    New York City must retain emergency call boxes with fire and police buttons on streets and other locations because it has not provided an accessible alternative, a judge said in August, settling a lawsuit filed on behalf of people with hearing disabilities.

    The City had sought to lift a 1996 injunction banning removal of the boxes and proposed using pay phones enhanced with a tapping mechanism as a replacement. One tap would indicate that the emergency was a fire and two taps would request the police.

Obituary of Fred Fay

    The independent living movement is mourning the loss of a powerful force last month when Fred Fay passed away. Fay was 66 and lived in Concord, Mass.

    Fay became an activist after being injured in a trapeze accident at 16 that damaged his spinal cord. Fay learned that he would never walk again and began using a wheelchair and then driving a car.

    When he was 17, Fay co-founded a counseling and information center with his mother Janet called “Opening Doors” and the Washington Architectural Barriers Project that fought for accessibility of the D.C. transit system.

    Fay developed assistive technology systems that use computers to empower people with physical disabilities. He was pivotal to the movement that achieved the passage of the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Kellner Offers Taxi Plan Approved by Industry

    Assemblyman Micah Kellner is presenting an alternative proposal to the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s (TLC) Five Borough Taxi Plan that would require all new yellow taxis to be accessible. Kellner’ proposal has support from the taxi industry but the TLC says it is sticking to its own plan, which calls for only partial accessibility of the new fleet.

    Kellner’s Access-for-All Taxi and Livery Plan (A4ATL) seeks to modify the “livery street hail” bill (A8496) that is pending in Albany. That bill was introduced in June and calls for 38 percent of 1,500 new yellow cabs to be accessible. The bill also proposes a task force to represent areas that are underserved by taxis and would issue permits to livery cabs to make outer-borough street pick-ups that are currently illegal.

Obituary of Harriet Findlay

    Harriet Phyllis Findlay, a longtime advocate for people with disabilities, passed away on July 2.

    Findlay was the director of the vocational rehabilitation program at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, New Jersey.

    She developed the office over a 30-year period and continued to work there until shortly before her death. A memorial took place at the institute on July 20. Findlay passed away at 73 and lived in Metuchen, New Jersey.

Special Olympics World Games Held in Greece

    Seven thousand athletes from more than 170 countries participated in the 13th annual Special Olympics World Games from June 25th to July 4th in Athens, Greece.

    The Special Olympics is the largest sporting event for people with intellectual disabilities, providing programs to more than 3.7 million participants. Three thousand coaches and officials attended the event along with 25,000 volunteers and 40,000 family members.

   Photo: Gerard Rich of Team USA jumped 3 meters and 73 centimeters in the M14 preliminary long jump competition and took the gold medal in the M20 finals, jumping 4 meters and 35 centimeters.