Accessibility Watch
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Following my recent post on the clash between historic preservation and universal design, we’ve decided to undertake a regular blog column on accessibility in buildings and cities. We hope to discuss examples from all over the world, but at first our focus will be where we are, New York City. I walk with a cane or, recently, with forearm crutches, and I find it difficult to go up or down steps or stairs. I often wonder what folks in wheelchairs do. Those of us with mobility impairments cannot easily use the subway system because there are so few elevators, and those that exist seldom are working. The bus systems are not much better, and only 239 of the city’s taxis have the necessary wheelchair lifts and ramps. (Admittedly, New York still has the largest fleet of fully-accessible taxis of any city in the nation.)
Metropolis has followed the story of handicap access since the Americans for Disability Act (ADA) was passed in 1990. The ADA was to be an enabling act to enhance and create innovative solutions. It was passed during a Republican administration. Metropolis worked with the Industrial Designers Society of America on an important conference and produced a white paper that was bound in our November 1992 issue. The conference received many awards.
Unfortunately, the administrators that wrote the regulations for the law treated the ADA as a national building code, which restricted creative and sensitive solutions. In fact, the Supreme Court later emasculated the law in a series of decisions. In 2008, Congress passed a revision of the law changing the portions that had been ruled unconstitutional. The net effect is that handicap access is limited except in new buildings. (The Fair Housing Act stipulates that new buildings with four or more dwelling units must be made accessible; there is no such provision for limited renovations in older buildings.) In New York City, with its extensive collection of historic structures and brownstones, there is no easy way to enter many of these buildings unless four able-bodied men come out and carry you in.
Some restaurants that lack elevators, or that have stairs without proper hand rails, train their staff to look out for the handicapped and help them enter. But, in my experience, most do not. I know of many clubs in wonderful older buildings, often ones that are landmarked, that have little or no access for any level of the disabled. I wonder if the general feeling is that a landmarked building is exempt from the ADA.
We are looking for comments and examples of accessibility issues from all who visit our site. Please remember that at any hour of any day, any of you could join us handicapped—temporarily, I hope—due to a sprained ankle, a bike injury, or other chance accident. Leave your public comments using the form below, or e-mail your examples to pov@metropolismag.com.
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NYC is exceedingly difficult to deal with in a wheelchair or even to find reasonable toileting options. My 25 year old son is wheelchair bound and needs help to use a bathroom. NYC literally has no rest stops for the disabled on any parkway within the city. Most gas stations have no place to park so using those facilities is difficult as well.
Recommendation: Remodel or build at least one rest stop per borough so people could have some confidence they can travel with wheelchairs.
1. Remodel Plum Beach to accomodate unisex Disabled bathrooms. Brooklyn
2. Area around Creedmor Hospital looks vacant, close to intersection of LIE , Cross Island and Northern State parkways, Build rest stop that has universal design. Queens
3. Area off the ramp exiting from Cross Bronx to Throgs Neck Bridge might accomodate a rest stop with universal dessign. Bronx
4.Staten Island need suggestions
5. Manhattan, Area down by boat slip on west 79th st.
Comment by G Morris — October 19, 2009, @ 10:37 am
One quick solution I have for all architects and architect schools. Stop designing into residences 2’-0” bathroom doors. They are too small and are typically the guest/powder room bathroom that do not provide accessibility to all guests.
Comment by Susan Welker, AIA, LEED AP — October 19, 2009, @ 2:13 pm
Your new blog is especially exciting evidence that accessibility and universal design are coming of age: they have their own blog on a major popular design site. Kudos to everyone at Metropolis. With the influence of design leaders like you and Michael Graves, universal design is making its way solidly into popular culture.
At AARP we’re working to popularize universal design, too. Why keep building homes that don’t serve everyone when 8 in 10 boomers say they want to stay in their current homes for as long as possible? Why not show our members that remodeling can also make their homes more user-friendly? AARP’s annual Livable Communities Award (http://www.aarp.org/homedesign), co-sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders, honors architects, builders, developers and remodelers for building forward-thinking home and community designs that serve everyone. And new this year, our annual room makeover contest helps a member remodel a room to be more user-friendly. This year’s contest was called the “Recession Remodel Room Makeover.” (http://www.aarp.org/family/housing/recession_room_remodel_contest/)
The remodel winners are just now reaching final design stage. (ASID and NAHB are collaborating with us on the design and construction of the remodels.) Here’s a link to a You Tube video about the winning North Carolina farm kitchen remodel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qyA41lybjc
Nancy Thompson
AARP Media Relations
Comment by Nancy Thompson — October 23, 2009, @ 12:04 pm
With all this talk about green design + sustainability, what has been often left out of the conversation is the challenge of creating accessible spaces that addresses the needs of the aging baby boomers,…76 million of them. Add to that number the current elder generation + we are talking a huge demographic shift for the next two decades. This is a huge social tsunami of change that goes beyond the ADA and the civil rights it protects.
Certainly creating green buildings sustains our planet + conserves resources, but what about the design of the built environment that will easily adapt to the changing needs of an aging population… i.e. wider doors, larger halls, level thresholds, curb-less showers, non-slip floors, more lighting, better indoor air quality, low maintenance materials. By consistently applying just a few basic principles of accessibility as a set of standard design features, we can create spaces that will sustain a high quality of life for generations of people. More importantly, there will be more choices for folks to choose where they want to be living, what kind of home they want, perhaps reside in a community that is already familiar to them, where family and friends still reside.
Now that is sustainable design!! And now is the time to broaden what it means to design sustainable environments.
Comment by Michael A. Thomas, FASID, CAPS — October 23, 2009, @ 12:14 pm