Faced with poor street access conditions for blind and visually impaired peoplea federal judge ordered the municipality of New York, this Monday, December 27, 2021, to install more than 9,000 devices to allow these people to cross the road safely.
New York’s crosswalks have only visual indications for its pedestrians, excluding all people with impaired sight.
This case started after a non-profit society, representing visually impaired people, sued the city Last year. The judge had already ruled on the city’s violation of the disability protection.
In the notice published this Monday, December 27, he orders the appointment of a federal controller responsible for monitoring the installation of sound signals on more than 13.000 intersections of the metropolis.
“We hope this decision is a wake-up call, not just for New York City, but for every other transit agency across the country that has ignored the needs of people with visual impairments”told the NY Times Torie Atkinson, attorney for the American Council of the Blind and two visually impaired New Yorkers who filed the lawsuit.
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