In New York City, old infrastructure and grudging compliance add up to only moderate progress toward accessibility. JDavidsonNYC writes
Sometimes that elevator works. Photo: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times It’s difficult to remember pain when you’re not feeling it, and harder still to imagine living with physical limits you don’t actually have. But all it takes is a brief stroll to see how badly designed the city is for those who are very young, old, short, heavy, frail, or in any way impaired.
The Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA, which President George H.W. Bush signed into law in 1990, emancipated millions and set a standard for the rest of the world. It meant that, legally, any public place must accommodate anyone who wishes to go there; wherever there’s a stair, there must also be a lift or a ramp.
Americans with disabilities are chronically underemployed — fewer than 20 percent have jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — which means that the nation is squandering an enormous talent pool. In a more equitable world, all the energy and tenacity that go into simply getting around would instead be devoted to starting businesses, writing plays, or combating climate change. When ordinary routines require constant, strenuous effort, the economy suffers.
Updating historic buildings to render them more usable is never an easy or inexpensive task, but it’s made even more challenging by thinking of accessibility as a sop to contemporary sensitivities. David Gissen had bone cancer as a teenager and was in architecture school when he underwent surgery to remove his leg. When he realized he wouldn’t be able to navigate construction sites, which aren’t covered by the ADA, he switched paths and became an architectural historian instead.
“My idyll would be to have the same independence you do, and have that so deeply ingrained in me,” she says. But people can adapt more quickly than buildings, buses, and streets. “When design is flawed, it’s an intergenerational project to fix it. In the interim we can deal with it through changes in the culture. We need to find a way of amplifying the voices of those who need assistance or would like to have the option of declining it.
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