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January 04, 2006
Wheelchair user may sue; wants to go amphibious in the fountain
From an article in The Villager about planned renovations to Washington Square Park:
...the Parks Department says a major reason it wants to raise the park's sunken plaza is to make it handicapped accessible.Now an advocate for the disabled is threatening that her organization will sue if a permanent ramp isn't added to allow the disabled to go into the fountain itself.
Margie Rubin, a resident of the Westbeth artists complex and a member of Disabled in Action--the group that forced New York City buses to add wheelchair lifts--says people in wheelchairs, like herself, or otherwise disabled, have the right to go into the fountain.
Jake Dobkin editorializes thusly at Gothamist:
The Parks Department is saying that no access will be provided, because no one is supposed to go into the fountain itself--the water is recycled, so it's actually fairly polluted, and unsafe to ingest. Even if that wasn't true, should people really be taking wheelchairs into a fountain? Isn't rust an issue? What about electric wheelchairs--aren't there electrocution dangers? Is this a case of political correctness run amok? No lawsuit has yet been filed--let's hope that common-sense wins out here.
(Oh look, there's even a helpful picture to illustrate what will, clearly, happen should a wheelchair user dare enter the fountain!)
Sounds pretty ludicrous, right? However, Mr. Dobkin neglects to include this paragraph from the original article:
"When we move the fountain, we're going to be rebuilding it. And we are going to explore the use of temporary ramps when the fountain is off," Johnston said. "It is used as a performance space when it's not turned on--which is 60 percent of the time."
Call me cynical, but I have a hard time believing the good people at the Parks Department will be mindful enough to lug said temporary ramps into position every time the fountain is turned off. Every wheelchair user knows how that will work. So I have to agree with DIA that a permanent ramp deserves consideration, if for no other reason than efficient use of rebuilding funds. I'm sure wheelchair users everywhere thank Mr. Dobkin for his kind consideration of what might happen to our wheelchairs should one of us decide to go in the fountain, but I like to think we're capable of making our own judgments as to what might cause a rust or electrical problem.
And should one of us do something utterly foolish like go dance around in a fountain in our modern, mostly heavy plastic wheelchairs, I expect the Parks Department will issue an equitable and appropriate punishment, on par with the punishment for able-bodied people who enter the fountain.
Asked if Park Enforcement Patrol officers will issue tickets to parents whose children play in the water, Johnston said each situation will be handled on "a case-by-case basis" but that parents would be told to use the sprinklers in the park, which will be added under the renovation.
Posted by Michelle at January 4, 2006 11:03 PM