Category: Accessibility

Accessibility Students’ Advisory Panel (ASAP!) Top 10 Priorities

9/24/2019

Architectural:

The main entrance to each school must be accessible and must include automatic door access. If the front door is not accessible, there should be an alternative staffed accessible entrance for all individuals to use.
Stages, backstages, auditoriums, music rooms, art studios and all other talent-based areas must be fully accessible.
All buildings used by the DOE should be inspected once a year for ADA compliance and concerns must be addressed immediately.
Bathrooms on every floor of every school building should be large enough to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and enable a second person to be present for individuals needing help.

Programmatic:

The Department of Education (DOE) should mandate annual training sessions or professional development for all school staff including administrators, teachers, guidance, special education support staff, and security on issues pertaining to working with students with physical disabilities.
All students should receive at least one lesson on interacting with people with disabilities each year.
All community-building trips for students must be accessible to students with physical disabilities and transportation on those trips must be accessible and inclusive so all students can travel together to off-site locations.
All buildings used by the DOE must develop policies to provide students and other individuals with physical needs access to all essential infrastructure in the building (E.g. easy access to bathrooms that need keys).
All school curriculum must be presented using Universal Design for Learning standards to ensure that students with physical disabilities can access all materials.
The DOE should offer students with physical disabilities the opportunity to participate in city-wide affinity and support groups.

Seeking Student Accessibility Activists

8/27/2019

The Accessibility Student’s Advisory Panel (ASAP!) — a Citywide student group facilitated by ARISE and Parents for Inclusive Education that focuses on school accessibility issues — is looking for new members for the coming school year! Last year, the group met with key DOE staff and City Council members to share their experiences, concerns, and recommendations for making schools more accessible and inclusive. Students in grades 9, 10, and 11 who have physical disabilities are eligible; the application [PDF] is due September 25.

Members of the ARISE Coalition Call for Increased Funding for School Accessibility

9/12/2018

Members of the ARISE Coalition and Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE) sent a letter [PDF] to Mayor Bill de Blasio asking that the City include a major investment in the FY 2020-2024 School Construction Authority Five-Year Capital Plan to make at least one-third of schools accessible to students, parents, and teachers with physical disabilities. Currently, only one out of every five City schools is fully accessible; as a result, students with physical disabilities find themselves automatically shut out of the majority of schools because of architectural barriers.

We estimate that reaching this target would require an additional $750 million over five years. While we would like to see the school system fully accessible to individuals with physical disabilities, this funding would go a long way toward integrating students with physical needs into NYC’s schools and would have a significant impact on their lives.

ARISE Testifies on the Fiscal Year 2019 Executive Budget

5/24/2018

On May 24, the ARISE Coalition, along with several ARISE members, testified before the New York City Council Committee on Finance, urging the Council to negotiate a final budget that included additional funding for school accessibility. Read those testimonies [PDF].

Members of ARISE and PIE call for increased funding for school accessibility in the 2019 City budget

5/21/2018

On May 15, members of the ARISE Coalition and Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE) wrote to Mayor de Blasio and the New York City Council, urging them to ensure that the final FY 2019 budget includes the City Council’s recommendation for an additional $125 million for school accessibility projects.

The 2015-2019 Capital Plan allocates only $100 million over five years for improving school accessibility and $28 million for ensuring that a number of schools can serve as accessible emergency shelters. Together, that represents less than one percent of the total funding in the Plan. Furthermore, the City has already spent the vast majority of this funding, leaving little, if any, funding for accessibility projects in the coming year. New York City cannot be the "fairest big city in America" until students, families, and teachers with physical disabilities have equitable access to the City’s schools.

Read the letters [PDF].