The Manhattan Times

In a class action settlement announced Thurs., July 21^st, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and New York City Transit (NYCT) have agreed to make major accessibility improvements during the Dyckman Street subway station renovation in New York City. This landmark settlement resolves a lawsuit filed last year, which charged that the MTA and NYCT were in violation of the ADA for failing to make improvements required by law during subway station renovations.

The class action suit was brought by United Spinal Association.

According to the Association, this is the first time that the MTA has agreed to make subway stations accessible via such incremental improvements. When stations are renovated the ADA provides that a portion of the renovation costs be spent on accessibility. The MTA has also committed to installing an elevator at the raised southbound platform of the Dyckman Street Station, which will enable tens of thousands of people who use wheelchairs, among others, to get on and off southbound #1 trains. The MTA plans to make 100 stations accessible by 2020 and this settlement will increase that number. Access for people with disabilities is especially important in Inwood, where the Dyckman Street Station is located, because the 2000 U.S. Census showed that 25.1% of residents in the ZIP Code covering that station self-identified as having a disability, 5.8 percentage points higher than the rate of disability in the population as a whole.