Submitted by Project Access on Mon, 07/27/2015 - 11:50
14 Street Union Square Station entrance

New York City holds its first annual Disability Pride Parade on Sunday, featuring a procession from Madison Square Park down Broadway to Union Square. Let’s see what it takes to participate.

You can take the subway to an N, Q and R station at Madison Square, where 23rd St. and Broadway meets 5th Ave. Oh, sorry, it’s not wheelchair accessible.

The same goes for the No. 6 stop a block away at 23rd and Park, the PATH station on Sixth Ave., the No. 1 station at Seventh Ave. and 23rd and the C/E stop at Eighth Ave.

When the parade is over, the Union Square station does have elevators that give access to the L and N/Q/R lines, but not to the No. 4, 5 or 6 trains.

So how about hailing a yellow cab? Of the 13,587 cruising the streets, only 581, or 4%, are wheelchair accessible. Or you could call the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s Accessible Dispatch program through 311. We tried, and got an operator who could not say how long the wait for a cab would be (waits average 20 minutes).

Ten minutes later, we called back and spoke with an operator who offered to connect us with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Access-A-Ride program. Unfortunately, you have to be pre-enrolled and reserve a ride a day or two in advance.

Then, a brainstorm. What about Uber, the super-popular smart-phone hail-a-car application? Of 19,969 Uber cars, not a single one can accommodate a wheelchair.

For official New York, the word shame should replace pride in the name of this parade.

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NY Daily News