Emily Keller-O'Donnell, Journalist

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.

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.