Emily F. Keller: Journalist

Brooklyn Heights Park Visitor Finds Danger to Wheelchair Users

    Transportation accessibility advocate and lawyer T.K. Small published an article on the Brooklyn Heights Blog discussing his frustration in trying to visit Pier 1 Park this week using a wheelchair.

    Small, a new member of Community Board 2, said the only way to get to the park involved a dangerous path through Furman Street traffic.

    "The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation have dramatically failed in preparing an adequate plan for getting people to/from the park. At both Pier 1 & Pier 6 there is a serious accident waiting to happen. Having people cross a busy on-ramp to a major highway or walk in the street while construction is occurring, is simply a bad idea," Small wrote.

    Click here to read the article, "Brooklyn Bridge Park Access Denied."

Disabled Veteran Charges Discrimination in Brooklyn

    Luis Carlos Montalvan was looking for a meal when he visited a McDonald's restaurant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in late 2008 with his service dog, Tuesday.

    Instead he became the plaintiff in a discrimination lawsuit against a multi-billion dollar fast-food chain, charging that the restaurant failed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

    This article was published in Able News. Click here to read page one and here to read page two of the story.

MTA Plans to Reduce Access-A-Ride Service

   The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving forward with plans to make deep cuts to Access-A-Ride service during the next several months.

    The MTA will convert 12 percent, or 757,000 door-to-door trips, into a reduced service bringing customers to bus and train stations if they are determined to have the ability to complete the trip on mass transit. This will impact customers whose determinations say they can travel 2 to 5 blocks.

    This article was published in Able News.  Click here to read the article.

Disabled Veteran Charges Discrimination in Brooklyn

    Luis Carlos Montalvan was looking for a meal when he visited a McDonald's restaurant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in late 2008 with his service dog, Tuesday.

    Instead he became the plaintiff in a discrimination lawsuit against a multi-billion dollar fast-food chain, charging that the restaurant failed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

    This article was published in Able News. Click here to read page one and here to read page two of the story.

MTA Plans to Reduce Access-A-Ride Service

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving forward with plans to make deep cuts to Access-A-Ride service during the next several months.

    The MTA will convert 12 percent, or 757,000 door-to-door trips, into a reduced service bringing customers to bus and train stations if they are determined to have the ability to complete the trip on mass transit. This will impact customers whose determinations say they can travel 2 to 5 blocks.

    This article was published in Able News.  Click here to read the article.

Couple Exchanges Vows in Central Park

By Emily F. Keller

     Disability rights activists Alejandra Ospina and Nick Dupree celebrated their love and commitment at Merchants’ Gate in  Central Park on Sunday.

    Ospina is a representative for GimpGirl Community, an Internet organization that supports women and girls with disabilities, an English-Spanish translator and a health care reform advocate who has testified at New York City Council hearings. She has attended Hunter College.

    Dupree, who is from Alabama, is a long-term health care reform advocate and writer who attended Spring Hill College. Dupree led a two-year campaign called Nick’s Crusade that enabled 25 people in Alabama who are ventilator-dependent to receive home care past the age of 21.

    At the commitment  ceremony, the couple listened to love poems and live music, read original vows to each other and hosted a discussion on marriage equality to the friends and family members who joined them.

    Ospina and friends Nadina LaSpina, Elaine Kolb, Julie Maury and Jessica Delarosa spoke about their opposition to Medicaid rules that discourage couples who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from marrying for fear that their health services will be taken away.

    This article was published on Transportation Access. Click here to read the story.

Couple Exchanges Vows in Central Park

By Emily F. Keller

  

     Disability rights activists Alejandra Ospina and Nick Dupree celebrated their love and commitment at Merchants’ Gate in  Central Park on Sunday.

    Ospina is a representative for GimpGirl Community, an Internet organization that supports women and girls with disabilities, an English-Spanish translator and a health care reform advocate who has testified at New York City Council hearings. She has attended Hunter College.

    Dupree, who is from Alabama, is a long-term health care reform advocate and writer who attended Spring Hill College. Dupree led a two-year campaign called Nick’s Crusade that enabled 25 people in Alabama who are ventilator-dependent to receive home care past the age of 21.

      At the commitment  ceremony, the couple listened to love poems and live music, read original vows to each other and hosted a discussion on marriage equality to the friends and family members who joined them.

    Ospina and friends Nadina LaSpina, Elaine Kolb, Julie Maury and Jessica Delarosa spoke about their opposition to Medicaid rules that discourage couples who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from marrying for fear that their health services will be taken away.