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Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled (BCID), et al., v. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy
Click here for case documents Date Filed: 03/16/2017 Status: Active
On March 16, 2017, DRA filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy for their failure to make the Franklin Delano Roosevelt ("FDR") Memorial accessible for persons with mobility disabilities. The obstacles include a flight of stairs at the very entrance to the Memorial; arduous, substantially lengthier and unpaved path persons in wheelchairs must undertake in order to avoid the stairs; inaccessible walkways; and, inaccessible gift shop and bathrooms. In addition, the area known as the sunken terrace, located on the southernmost end of the Memorial, is inaccessible as well. This terrace, which is located in the place of a fourth wall leading out of an open-air enclosure known as The Room, enables visitors to enjoy an uninterrupted, barrier-free view of the East River but can only be reached by steps from The Room. Taken together, all these pervasive obstacles indicate an alarming disregard for accessibility. This disregard carries an especial symbolic irony in light of the fact that the FDR Memorial was built in honor of a president who was himself a wheelchair user.
As with other cases DRA has litigated in this realm, our ultimate goal is to ensure that the Defendants institute a comprehensive remedial scheme that can meaningfully address the current exclusion of visitors with mobility disabilities from the FDR Memorial.
Disability: Mobility Case Area: Architectural Barriers, Public Entities
Case Files Read the Complaint
Press Releases Settlement Reached to Provide Equal Access to FDR Memorial on Roosevelt Island Wheelchair Users Sue Over FDR Four Freedoms Park's Major Barriers to Access
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Recent Settlements
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has preliminarily approved a class action settlement in Center for Independence of the Disabled New York (CIDNY), et al. v. City of New York, et al. If you are a person with a disability who used any of the City of New York's ramps, cuts, or slopes where a pedestrian walkway crosses a curb ("Pedestrian Ramps") since January 26, 1994, or if you believe that you will seek to use the City's Pedestrian Ramps in the future, you may be a member of the settlement class affected by this lawsuit. Qualified disabilities may include, but are not limited to, mobility disabilities and vision disabilities. Please read the Notice of Proposed Settlement for information about the proposed settlement and class members' rights. The period for class members to file objections ends on July 9, 2019.
@dralegal Jan 17
ICYMI: "Even if the agency makes 66 additional stations #accessible by 2025, people in wheelchairs will still be un… https://t.co/9gfqSrHbUS
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