Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams joined dozens of students with disabilities at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood this week, one of the city’s most accessible school buildings, to launch “Barrier-Free BK.”
The new initiative aims to improve accessibility for youth with physical limitations. According to the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), there are 342,000 young people in New York City who are living with disabilities, and about 10 percent of the nearly one million New Yorkers of all ages who have self-identified as living with disabilities are estimated to use wheelchairs.
Joining Adams at the school were State Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Boro Park, Flatbush, MIdwood, Bensonhurst), City Council Member Kalman Yeger (D-Boro Park, Midwood, Flatbush, Bensonhurst) and Democratic District Leader David Schwartz (D-Boro Park).
Adams and the group of lawmakers spoke with students about daily access barriers that hamper their independence and limit their ability to navigate the city.
“‘Barrier-Free BK’ is not groundbreaking; it is simply a call to action for greater accessibility, in a quicker fashion, to allow our young people and people of all ages to fully participate in society,” said Adams. “Our conversations with young people have generated important feedback on transit accessibility, open space accessibility, and the need to make our City-supported public events truly accessible. We hope to reimagine a City that works for all ability levels.”
“We are incredibly grateful to Borough President Adams for affording our students with the opportunity to voice their concerns and be agents of change in New York City,” said Allen Barge, principal of Edward R. Murrow High School.
As part of the initiative, Adams made several recommendations to expand access to mass transit, including on-demand ride needs, and immediate expansion of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-related upgrades, including elevator repairs.
“My daughter is a senior now and we want to go to the city more,” said Patricia Logan, a parent of two children living with physical disabilities. “With the trains not being accessible, it makes it very hard to do.”
Most urgently, the project is calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to immediately expand its e-hail pilot program to all Access-A-Ride users throughout New York City.
The program that launched in November 2017 with a limited population of 200 users, which allows riders to use Access-A-Ride as they would hail a cab for on-demand trip bookings throughout the city. It has proven successful according to feedback from stakeholders in the pilot program.
Adams is pushing the City Council to pass legislation introduced by Council Member Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan) that would permit Access-a-Ride vehicles to use bus lanes.
Additionally, the initiative is pushing for improvement of parks and public venues for better access for people with physical limitations. Adams noted that there are no destination parks in Brooklyn with accessible parking spaces or drop-off zones along their perimeters that allow residents with disabilities to easily visit.
Adams is asking that the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) and Department of Transportation (DOT) coordinate on allowing accessible parking near major park entrances to support parents who want to take their children with disabilities into the City’s parks to enjoy nature.
Adams is also pushing for park advocates to partner with disability rights advocates to develop barrier-free day(s) for youth with disabilities in all parks and for the City to investigate developing disability shuttle programs in parks.
“Our conversations with young people have generated important feedback on transit accessibility, open space accessibility, and the need to make our City-supported public events truly accessible. We hope to reimagine a City that works for all ability levels,” added Adams.
