New Museum of the City of New York exhibit showcases decades-long fight for accessibility across city
NEW YORK -- This year marks the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A new installation in New York City highlights the prolonged campaigns waged for more accessibility.
New Yorkers have a proud history of pushing back against disability discrimination.
A new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York charts the progress from blind activists in the 1920s to World War II veterans fighting for access.
Decades later, a new generation of activists organized the Brooklyn-based grassroots group Disabled In Action.
"It starts in New York in 1970, and I think we just loved the notion of singing and these performances that get at important issues for disability rights," exhibit curator Sarah Seidman said.
Members fought for new legislation, including the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which took effect two years later.
Much of the fight in New York City has centered on transit -- curb cuts for sidewalks and lifts for buses.
"Folks like Denise McQuade, who in 1981 ... sat in her wheelchair on the step of the bus," Seidman said. "So she sat there for hours. This has been going on for decades. There has been a recent lawsuit that resulted in a settlement where the MTA has now timeframe for making most stations accessible over the next few decades."
Activists working to make our city more inclusive for all include 31-year-old Jermaine Greaves.
"The 2020 photograph of the Black Disabled Lives Matter protest is with Jermaine Greaves ... Shows like the intersectional nature of this movement and part of also Black Lives Matter," Seidman said.
"Being disabled and putting marches together during the time of the George Floyd uprising was historic because I was putting my disabled body on the line," Greaves said.
"I am proud of the work that went into this," Seidman said.
Visitors expand their thinking to better appreciate the diversity of human bodies and minds and the fight for inclusion.
The new installation is part of a larger one called "Activist New York," which is the Museum of the City of New York's most requested exhibit for field trips.
