A federal judge is forcing the municipality to install more audible signals for blind and visually impaired pedestrians in New York. A great advance in the rights of people with disabilities, marginalized in inaccessible urban centers. In ten years, New York will have to install more than 9,000 devices. This is our figure of the day.
Faced with poor conditions of access to the streets, for blind and visually impaired people, a federal judge ordered the municipality of New York, this Monday, December 27, 2021, to install more than 9,000 devices in order to allow these people to cross the road safely.
Historically, pedestrian crossings in New York have only visual indications for pedestrians, excluding all visually impaired people. The case began after a non-profit organization representing people with visual impairments sued the city last year. The judge had already ruled on the city’s violation of the protection of people with disabilities.
In the notice published this Monday, December 27, he ordered the appointment of a federal controller responsible for monitoring the installation of sound signals on more than 13,000 intersections in the metropolis.
“This decision is a wake-up call, not only to New York City, but also to all other transit agencies across the country that have ignored the needs of people with visual disabilities”, told the NY Times Torie Atkinson, lawyer for the American Council of the Blind and two visually impaired New Yorkers who filed the lawsuit.
Reduced access of people to urban centers
This decision comes in a context where urban centers face shortcomings, because many infrastructures remain inadequate for people with a disability.
According to an APF France Handicap survey carried out in partnership with IFOP and published in January 2020, nine out of ten people experience accessibility difficulties when traveling in France. A result collected from 12,000 respondents. “Millions of people cannot easily and independently access public and private infrastructure due to their architectural design”, notes the APF France Handicap, pointing to the flagrant delay of French cities, on the sidelines of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
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