I had the great pleasure of meeting Frieda Zames at a Society for Disability Studies meeting. She was a wonderful person and a powerful advocate for all people with disabilities in New York. Here's the In Memoriam page set up after her 2005 death.From Newsday:
NEW YORK - A Manhattan street is being renamed in honor of an advocate whose work made New York City more accessible for the disabled. City officials will join family and leaders from the disabled community on May 2 to rename a section of East 4th Street "Frieda Zames Way."
Zames was a longtime resident of the block. The retired math professor died in 2005 but New Yorkers unknowingly benefit from her advocacy every time they use a street's curb cut.
Zames used crutches and braces as well as a motorized scooter as a result of childhood polio. She was among those who fought and won a campaign to make the Empire State Building's observatory more accessible to the disabled.
