"After completing this assignment, Zoe and I have agreed that we will never feel the same way about the 4,5,6 train!...[T]he assignment has taught me to think critically about public spaces and how "public" they actually are. In theory, a public space is a space meant to be accessible to everyone. However, after the accessible date, I consistently see spaces deemed public that are inaccessible to wheelchair users and people with visual impairments, among other disabilities. Everywhere I go, now, I seek out accessibility and note where it is lacking. Unfortunately, it is the lacking that is the majority. I hope that in publishing these projects, more people will acknowledge the discrimination inherent in the architecture of the city and speak out to demand a universally accessible restructuring of the city's public spaces."
--Montida Fleming (Spring 2011)
"This is one of the few assignments of my college career that I continue to think about, nearly daily. As a Met Studies major, I thought alot about the city and how its physical space dictates who can use it and for what purposes. This assignment really brought home that the ways that city is designed to keep certain citizens out--it is an impenetrable fortress that only certain forms of embodiment have the keys for. I see daily reminders of this inequality because of this assignment and it has changed the way that conceptualize and move around the city. An amazing assignment, form of activism and conceptual exercise, all around!"
--Zoe Ginsburg (Spring 2011)
"I was initially hesitant to do the Accessible Date assignment. For whatever reason, I conjured up images of pushing a classmate around the city: inconvenienced by having to take an elevator or two; an alternative entrance here and there. The impracticality of travel put a damper on any sort of enthusiasm I might have felt about the assignment. However, after having lived to tell the tale of inaccessibility (without an actual chair), I would say that I am a lot more aware of the unneccessary impediments that characterize our city streets. A lack of curb cuts, accessible entrances, paved sidewalks, and attention to detail were all my partner and I saw. I identified NYC's old walk-ups as impractical; its modern architecture as inhospitable. I couldn't understand why I should have to ask about whether a door is wide enough to accommodate the width of a chair? Why those with impairments should be forced to ask a store clerk to put down a ramp so that they can pass over the single 3 inch step that blockades them from entering the store? Inaccessibility has been built into our constructed environments, and this assignment allowed me to see it for the first time. It was a great experience that affirmed the notion of inaccessibility producing inability to navigate public space."
--Alesha Gooden (Fall 2011)
