New York's Public Transit Still Failing to Provide Access By Wheelchair

Eight years ago, Sasha Blair-Goldensohn was injured by a falling tree branch while on a jog in New York's Central Park. The damage to her spinal cord paralyzed her lower body, and she had to learn to use a wheelchair to get around the city. She writes of experience in navigating the city while in a wheelchair for a big, interactive feature by the New York Times.

As Blair-Goldensohn explains, her story, and those of others like her, show "how large, inflexible bureaucracies with a 'good enough' approach to infrastructure and services can disenfranchise citizens with disabilities, many of whom cannot bridge these gaps on their own."

The article reveals the many failings of public space and transportation infrastructure for people challenged by mobility disabilities. For instance:

New York’s subway is by far the least wheelchair-friendly public transit system of any major American city, with only 92 of the system’s 425 stations accessible. That means fewer than one in four stations can be used by people in wheelchairs when elevators are working — and they frequently are not.

The list of difficulties, bad practices, and bad design and engineering go on, revealing a public transportation system that falling fall short of its responsibilities in providing access and mobility for the entire city's population. And Blair-Goldensohn knows it's possible for the system to be improved—Boston's subway system, built in the same era, is 90 percent wheelchair accessible. Blair-Goldensohn also appeals to the demonstrated benefits to all of society when investments are made to accommodate its most vulnerable members—a phenomenon known as the curb-cut effect.

The article also includes this interactive video, which reveals a first-person perspective on the use of New York's subway system while in a wheelchair.