WORK TO BE DONE: Olivia Richard, a member of the Boston Center for Independent Living, is sometimes frustrated by the lack of accessibility at some MBTA stations.
Photo by: Stuart Cahill
U.S. law (Rehabilitation Act) was in effect in 1973 requiring the MBTA to be accessible. It is only 41 years late. Hear the silence from human rights activists?
[From article]
“A lot of stations are still not accessible in a variety of ways,” including a lack of signs in Braille for the blind, announcements for the deaf and elevators and ramps for people who use wheelchairs, said the BCIL’s Karen Schneiderman. “The MBTA is required by law to provide equal access to its services for people with disabilities. It’s up to the T to figure out where to get the money. It’s not up to us.”
Retired Judge Patrick King, who is due to give an update on the agency’s compliance with the settlement agreement at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the Transportation Building, said the T has made “tremendous” progress since 2006, but he said it has been slowed by its $8 billion debt load — much of which the T attributes to transit projects that were required as part of the Big Dig permitting process.
“As a result, you’ve got 40-year-old trains on some lines,” King said.
Five of 60 subway stations lack any elevator. Construction of elevators at one of the five — Government Center — is underway and will be ready in the spring of 2016, T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said, while an accessibility project at Wollaston is in the planning stage and Hynes will be made accessible as part of a developer’s project adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/12/advocates_urge_t_to_speed_up_accessibility
Advocates urge T to speed up accessibility
Thursday, December 11, 2014
By: Marie Szaniszlo
Boston Herald
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