Tag Archives: Disability Pride Parade

New York City and Disability Infrastructure

New York City’s disabled are fighting for better wheelchair access on the streets. As such, they will participate in the third annual Disability Pride Parade. Problematic issues include: the subway (only 25% of 472 stations are wheelchair accessible); elevators in general (fix problematic ones, maintain existing ones and build new ones, while updating info on new app); fix and improve Access-A-Ride (which enables disabled users to get rides without making reservations/shared rides and is cheaper); continue to improve on cab-wheelchair accessibility (which is due to be halved in the next 2 ½ years) and more.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom.  According to the recently published Performing Disability. Dance. Artistry report, found that:

“the dance makers found New York City newly brimming with opportunity for disability arts, spurred in part by a growing advocacy movement, engaged government leadership, an expanding pool of interested funders, and effective promotion and program development furthered by Dance/NYC and partners such as Disability/Arts/NYC Task Force.”

However, there is still much work to be done since the report also found that:

“participants experienced significant barriers to successful performances, from inaccessible facilities and transportation options to extreme financial demands placed on disabled touring artists and subtleties of audience engagement.”