If you’ve seen a sign language interpreter, gone into a restaurant as a wheelchair user, or gotten hired as a disabled person in New York City in the last few years, you might have Christina Curry to thank.
As Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), “my job is to ensure the City complies with the ADA and goes beyond compliance to lead with equity.” Commissioner Curry said. “I work to embed accessibility into everything the City does with our city agency partners, from employment, digital access, to emergency preparedness and effective communication during public engagement…My work is rooted in intersectionality. I’m a disabled woman of color and I believe that’s a powerful vantage point for inclusive policymaking.”
Commissioner Curry is hard at work ensuring access across the City, focusing on efforts that include pioneering a Digital Accessibility Training for all 300,000+ City employees to expand access to digital content for people with disabilities, as well as a collaborative hiring initiative that aims to place 2,500 disabled employees into the workforce by 2026.
Studying for her Master’s degree just after the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Commissioner Curry remembers attending trainings for lawyers and judges to better understand their obligations under the ADA. “It was exciting to know there was a civil rights law which supported the disability community in all aspects of our lives,” she said.
Looking back 35 years later, Commissioner Curry emphasized the universal benefit of the ADA for disabled and nondisabled people alike.
“There is growing concern about whether the ADA will remain intact in the coming years. But the way I see it, the ADA didn’t just help the disability community—it helped everyone. Accessible buildings benefit older adults, parents with strollers, and more. Curb cuts, buses, captioning—these serve the broader community. Yes, we had to push for enforcement, even through litigation. But the results have created a more inclusive society.”
In the face of risks to disability rights, Commissioner Curry offered powerful words: “We owe it to those who fought to pass the ADA—a comprehensive civil rights law—to protect it. We will not allow our right to independence to be taken from us. We will not go backward. We will not sit quietly in the shadows. We will not let 35 years of progress be erased, as if we don’t matter, as if we don’t have value, or as if we do not exist.”
Read all 35 stories of the New York-based leaders profiled in our ADA 35 edition.