While a majority of the articles on The Boost will focus on I/DD, I’ll also curate news on physical disabilities. So, in that vein, a new survey found Las Vegas, New York City and Orlando, Fla., to be “the most disability-friendly cities in the U.S.,” according to an article in USA Today.
The survey had 3,500 participants from the U.K., USA, Japan, China and Australia who self-identified as having a disability. They were asked which destinations they found most accessible globally. Conducted by The Valuable 500, a global business collective made up of 500 CEOs and their companies that work together for disability inclusion, it notes that “in every case, respondents chose a city in their home country as the most accessible. This is undoubtedly because travelers with a disability need to be confident their needs will be met – failure in our case doesn’t just mean disappointment, but potentially disaster – and that means they need to be able to access information to confirm not only that they will have somewhere to stay, but that they will also be able to get around and see what they want to see.”
So why did New York City rank so high? Some New York pluses, according to the survey, include a focus on aging in place, such as benches installed around the city “for people who can’t walk long distances.” The city also has Link-NYC, state-of-the-art kiosks equipped with free Wi-Fi, Braille, plus video remote interpreting via an American Sign Language interpreter.
Where does New York fail? No surprise: accessibility of its subway system.
Photo: Creative Commons
Bonus article!
How the Recording Academy, RAMPD Expanded Accessibility and Disability Inclusion for the Grammys’ L.A. Return (The Hollywood Reporter)
