In win for residents with disabilities, Boston must upgrade curb ramps across the city | WBUR News
A long-running civil rights movement has won a huge but quiet victory in Boston.
It’ll mean millions of dollars in spending, and construction projects across the city — including in Jamaica Plain, where Michael Muehe has lived for 20 years.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 lays out how curb ramps should be built. Yet, a 2018 survey by the Disability Law Center in Northampton showed that less than half of the city’s 23,000 curb ramps met ADA specifications.
McCosh knows the challenges firsthand — she uses a wheelchair. One is figuring out a way for snow plows to clear curb ramps rather than cover them. Another is the hodge-podge of state and private entities that own different curb ramps. The city can’t do work on property it doesn’t own. McCosh said figuring out who’s responsible for a curb ramp is a process in and of itself.
“Disability itself isn’t a problem. It’s the systems like sidewalks and other things that are a problem when they’re not accepting disability as a common, natural life occurrence that it is.”
But Flanagan and Michael Muehe say this is just one step in a long fight.
Up next: state legislation that would close a loophole allowing some housing and places of employment to not be accessible.
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