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A wheelchair-bound polio victim says trying to get around the Bronx Zoo is just beastly.
Modesto Hernandez filed suit against the famed wildlife park June 24, claiming that "excessive slopes, cross slopes and lack of proper handrails" keep him from making his way around the animal exhibits.
The Manhattan federal court filing also says poor design keeps the Bronx man from using water fountains and bathrooms throughout the 265-acre retreat, and alleges "a lack of an adequate number of fully accessible parking spaces."
Hernandez' suit -- which charges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the state Human Rights Law -- seeks unspecified damages and an order mandating alterations so the zoo is "accessible to and useable (sic) by individuals with disabilities."
"Removal of the barriers to access located on the property is readily achievable, reasonably feasible and easily accomplishable without placing an undue burden on defendants," the court papers say.
Neither the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoo, nor the city Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns it, responded immediately to requests for comment.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From The NY Post:
