Disability rights advocates say cities across the nation are ignoring their obligations under the ADA
New York City and its transit authority have faced repeated major ADA lawsuits, some alleging the same lack of accessibility for people with disabilities that was supposed to be addressed in a lawsuit that was filed in the 1990s and later settled.
The sheer number of noncompliant sidewalks, curb ramps, pedestrian signals and subway stations illustrates the challenges for people with disabilities. It also leaves cities in a legal and financial squeeze, with the average curb ramp costing between $9,000 and $19,000. When the court requires a jurisdiction to build thousands of them to catch up, budgets are often strained.
Yet by 1999 it was clear that many jurisdictions were ignoring the law. The U.S. Department of Justice began enforcement efforts, entering into settlement agreements withOfficials in Baltimore, New York and Los Angeles declined to comment for this article. Tony Snyder, manager of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s ADA program, says that siloed funding sources, strict regulations and costs have been among the hurdles over the years.
On top of the broader infrastructure issues, many officials don’t fully understand the ADA or its requirements, Lynch believes. And as the mother of a disabled son, she says there’s another big factor at play: “People still discriminate against people with disabilities.” Sometimes cities try to get cases thrown out of court by pointing to the 1993 appeals court decision and arguing there’s no evidence the road has been altered since then, so ADA requirements haven’t kicked in. In New York, the transit authority argues in an ongoing lawsuit that while wheelchair users can’t ride, say, three-quarters of the city’s subways because there are no elevators, they can instead take the bus.
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