Disabled tourists have said for years that going to New York City is hit or miss when it comes to accommodations. In some areas, you may find ramps, elevators, and more. In other areas, you find historical buildings with only stairs and no chance of entering if you’re a wheelchair user. A woman and her wheelchair-using boyfriend recently visited New York City and they found accessibility issues across the city. However, one shop dedicated themselves to giving her boyfriend the best experience possible in their shop.
Makayla Collins (@makkcollins) posted a TikTok after she visited NYC with her boyfriend, who uses a wheelchair. It was captioned, “POV: Ur exploring NYC but your bf is in wheelchair and everywhere has steps.” Though they experienced this in many parts of the city, one shop had accommodations and restored hope in Makayla and her boyfriend.
The shop was identified as Liberty Bagels, a bagel shop offering various sandwiches and other goodies for visiting New Yorkers. In Makayla’s video, you can see that there are steps leading up to the front of the business. However, the workers at Liberty Bagels had accommodations ready. You can see the workers filing out of the shop and carrying a ready-to-assemble wheelchair ramp with them. They work to unfold the ramp and put it over the stairway leading up to the business. One of the workers steps onto the ramp to make sure it’s secure and ready to go. Then, he has Makayla’s boyfriend position his wheelchair at the foot of the ramp and helps push him up into the restaurant.
With vast reports of NYC’s inaccessibility, it’s great to see that some businesses still care and will accommodate New Yorkers with disabilities. You would think that these options would be available everywhere, as so many tourists visit every year. It’s not unheard of for somebody to be exploring the city who utilizes a wheelchair – or even somebody who lives in the city. According to many personal reports, accessing places like NYC’s subway can be incredibly difficult. A small percentage of subway stations are actually wheelchair-accessible. This needs to change. It’s completely unfair for such a large percentage of the population. All it does is makes it impossible for them to access to various parts of the city.
As one commenter mentioned on Makayla’s post, “Please remind him that he DESERVES to take up space, and to never feel bad getting the accommodation he’s entitled to.” Some commenters decided to take the mean route and say that not every place in NYC is required to be ADA-accessible. Those people were quickly shut down. One commenter asked, “Why are some of you acting like this isn’t a requirement by law? Being in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you’re not a person. Why should he have to wait outside?” This is a great point. NYC could be readily (and easily! Accessible with ramps, back access points, lifts, and more. But so many businesses fail to provide these common accommodations that would make life easier on so many people.
