Suit Filed To Narrow Platform Gap

Three people with disabilities have filed a class action lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York County Supreme Court to remedy the excessive gaps between subway platforms and trains. These pervasive gaps render the Subway system inaccessible to those who are blind and those with mobility impairments. The gaps are impossible to cross for many who use a wheelchair or other mobility devices and instill overwhelming fears of falling in the gaps for countless others.

Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats from Illinois, recently urged the U.S. Education Department to strengthen regulations against quietly excluding kids from class due to behaviors related to a disability – a practice known as informal removal. Since the pandemic began, parents of children with disabilities say the practice is on the rise, denying their children the legal right to an education. Disability rights advocates and legal experts say the removals likely circumvent protections for these children, who are not supposed to be disciplined over their disabilities.

Civil rights icon Lois Curtis, who won a landmark disability lawsuit, recently died at the age of 55, at her home in Atlanta, Ga. She was the lead plaintiff in the groundbreaking 1999 U.S. Supreme Court case, Olmstead v. L.C., a decision that changed the lives of millions of Americans and was the catalyst that spurred major shifts in the country’s health care, behavioral health, employment and education systems for the disabled. Due to her advocacy, people with disabilities began to have enforceable legal rights to the supports they need to live, work and learn in their communities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently released its Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR) on airline operational data compiled for the month of August for on-time performance, consumer complaints received, mishandled baggage and mishandled wheelchairs and scooters. Carriers reported checking 67,840 wheelchairs and scooters in August and mishandling 1,057 for a rate of 1.56 percent mishandled wheelchairs and scooters – lower than the rate of 1.63 percent mishandled in July and lower than the rate of 1.58 percent mishandled in pre-pandemic August 2019.

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