Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation allowing livery cars to pick up street hails, on the condition that that the Bloomberg administration figure out how to put more wheelchair-accessible taxis on the road. Then, late Friday, a federal judge said the city’s current policy violated aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He, too, required the city to submit a plan to address the violations. Advocates now believe the existing transportation services for disabled riders should be overhauled as the city rethinks the taxi fleet’s accessibility. [...]

Wearing yellow buttons stating “Separate is NOT equal,” a dozen advocates in wheelchairs rolled into the “Taxi of Tomorrow” exhibit near Madison Square Park Thursday to raise concerns about the lack of disability access in the city’s forthcoming fleet of cabs. [...]

The trip from Inwood to City Hall is arduous for anyone, but for Edith Prentiss, there is the added challenge of finding subway stations with ramps and elevators for wheelchairs. Prentiss is disabled, and as a resident of upper Manhattan where yellow cabs rarely go, she finds travel even more difficult.

“I want to get [...]

September 9, 2011 The Star-Ledger

It could get easier for people with disabilities to live or work in downtown Jersey City, now that a federal judge has ordered the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to make the Grove Street PATH station handicap accessible.