City To Improve Disability Access

Cambridge businesses may soon be widening their doors and converting small steps to smooth ramps following the adoption of a new city ordinance. The City Council adopted a measure at last night's weekly meeting that incorporates provisions from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into the Cambridge Municipal Code. The ordinance requires the removal of small architectural barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing businesses and public buildings. “We are not providing them with a new right," said Vice Mayor Brian P. Murphy '86-'87, “but providing them with a way to make that [existing] right tangible." Title III of the ADA requires that such barriers must be removed when doing so is “readily achievable"—that is, when it can be done without too much difficulty or expense.

Read more