A database of news and information about people with disabilities and disability issues...
Copyright statement: Unless otherwise stated, all posts on this blog continue to be the property of the original author/publication/Web site, which can be found via the link at the beginning of each post.
Nearly 500 of the city’s yellow cabs violate the Americans with
Disabilities Act because they’re not wheelchair accessible, the state
attorney general has concluded.
By any common-sense measure, Toyota Siennas and Ford Transit Connects
are vans and must be able to carry wheelchair users under the federal
ADA, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office said in a letter last week .
Schneiderman is asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to adopt his opinion and enact clearer regulations.
The definition of van under the ADA is the subject of ongoing
litigation between advocates and the Bloomberg administration.
Schneiderman isn’t involved in the lawsuits but his opinion is “quite
significant,” Jim Weisman, general counsel at the United Spinal
Association, said. “He’s the chief law enforcement officer in the
state.”
The United Spinal Association has asked a federal judge to declare
Nisssan’s NV200 - the Bloomberg administration’s chosen “Taxi of
Tomorrow” - a van that must be wheelchair accessible under the ADA.
Schneiderman’s letter doesn’t discuss the NV200. But the Nissan model
has the same characteristics Schneiderman cited in evaluating the Sienna
and Transit Connect, including a “boxlike” shape, typically featuring
sliding doors on the side panels.
There are more than 13,200 yellow taxis. Only 231 of them are
wheelchair accessible, although the city is planning to add 2,000 more
in the next several years.
The current yellow cab fleet includes 472 Siennas and Transit Connects that do not have wheelchair ramps.
The Bloomberg administration has a deal with Nissan to be the sole
producer of yellow NV200 NYC cabs for a decade. The first nine are in
service. The city Taxi and Limousine Commission had no immediate
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.
