MTA hit with new suit on accessibility
Disability rights groups filed a major lawsuit against the MTA Wednesday, arguing the agency’s repeated decisions to complete major subway station renovations without adding handicapped-accessible features violates the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The suit specifically refers to the statute of the act requiring public entities make transit stations accessible to those with disabilities and those who use wheelchairs whenever it changes the usability of a station. It cites more than 40 examples of major station renovation projects the MTA has completed without adding elevators or accessible features since the legislation was enacted in 1990.
“The MTA for decades has egregiously violated the law by renovating stations and not making them accessible,” said Joe Rappaport, executive director of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled. “It’s long past time access is first among the MTA’s priorities, not an afterthought or not thought of at all.”
In March, Manhattan Federal Judge Edgardo Ramos ruled on a similar suit, filed by nonprofit Bronx Independent Living Services in June 2016.
The case highlighted that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority completed extensive renovations at the elevated Middletown Road station and replaced the stairs but did not add elevators.
The federal government intervened in that suit in 2018, and Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in March that Ramos’ ruling requires the MTA to install an elevator whenever it renovates a station.
Wednesday’s lawsuit is filed with the intention of holding the MTA accountable.
“In the Middletown Road suit, the judge’s ruling is specifically geared toward what happened at that specific station,” said Michelle Caiola, managing director at Disability Rights Advocates, which was behind the legal action, as well as the new lawsuit. “What this does is broaden this and say the MTA did not just violate the [disabilities act] at Middletown Road, but they’ve been doing it for many years across the system.”