Daily News from New York, New York • 14

8 16G at 8 102 OF 01 3 164 of 8 162 Dr ct in al 01 3 LIMITED ACCESS a MICHAEL O. ALLEN ily News Staff Writer OR JERRY Nuzzi and many of the city's 1.5 million people living with isabilities, New York City is ne long obstacle course. Take Nuzzi's recent afterFork journey from Brooklyn Manhattan to meet friends City Hall. A childhood polio ictim, Nuzzi gets around in a cooter-wheelchair. He had difficulty getting to the Borugh Hall subway station at lourt and Montague Sts.

in rooklyn. His adventure began with etting trapped by elevator oors, which did not have lectronic sensors, on his way the platform. Then, when he ot to the City Hall station on he Nos. 4 and 5 line, he could ot get out because the only elvator was out of order. "This is ridiculous," an anry and frustrated Nuzzi rould say later.

Almost eight years after the assage of the landmark Amercans with Disabilities Act hich estimates of the opulation has some handicap New York City's disabled ill find their paths blocked in lays subtle and obvious. There is the ongoing battle ith the city Taxi and Limouine Commission to bring in ccessible taxis, which are sed in more than 20 cities cross the nation. Many public and private uildings, including governlent institutions, remain shut ff to the disabled. Restaurants lave steps that people using wheelchairs cannot mount, or hey do not have toilets the disbled can use. Elevators do not ave Braille or raised letters or the blind, or announce loors for people with hearing impairments.

Carr Massi, who has Pott's isease and uses a motorized heelchair, has vowed not to et on freight elevators anypore because, she said, it robs er of her dignity. "It's not the disability; it's he obstacles that are put in our way that make it hard for bu to deal with your disabily, Massi said. "People patonize us. They tell us we are Inspirational, courageous. hat is not true.

We are just ving our lives, that's all." A city Department of Transortation study a little more han two years ago found that bout half the street corners in he city, 78,810 out of 160,751, ad no ramps or curb cuts. At a cost of $2,500 each and a average of 4,000 a year, the epartment figured it would ost more than $200 million Ind take about 20 years to put the needed curbs, DOT pokesman Bob Leonard said. not flush with the street. ROAD BLOCKS PHOTOS BY JIM HUGHES DAILY NEWS NO ELEVATOR, no access at 14th St. and Eighth Ave.

station. At top, Terence Moakley in his chair shows lack of curb cut (I. photo) and sidewalk barrier (c. photo), and tries ramp of special (r. photo), while Carr Massi awaits turn and Brendan Healy (I.) and John Dignan, both of Ricon, which makes look on.

"Primarily, our focus is major transportation routes," he said. "When you do 4,000 a year, if you do them along bus routes, that makes a big difference to a person in a wheelchair." But Terry Moakley of the Queens-based Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, an advocacy group for people with disabilities, said it should not cost so much or take so long. He would not dis- Subways often no-go for user of wheelchair Ct bsael0 "This is not unusual," Moakley said. The key, he said, is to have a sense of what you can do, or you might find yourself falling out of the wheelchair. He found his access to the northeastern sidewalk at 15th St.

and Eighth Ave. blocked by a structure that contractors for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had erected around a subway entrance scheduled to be closed. "The construction situation in the city is a tremendous problem," Moakley said. "Sometimes you have to double back or go a couple of blocks out of your way." He could not get into the 14th St. station of the Eighth Ave.

line because there are no elevators or ramps into the station. The Transit Authority, in fact, may have the distinction of having given the disabled the most access to parts of its service while lagging badly in granting access to the others. Every one of its nearly 3,600 buses is equipped with a lift for people using wheelchairs. In settlements to lawsuits, as well as attempts to meet mandates of federal, state and local laws, the TA is committed to making at least 100 of its 468 stations accessible by 2020. TA spokesman Termaine Garden said the agency is committed to putting in ramps and elevators.

"The problem is we have a system that was built almost 100 years he said. "Unfortunately, it was not designed with the disabled in mind." Although 29 stations have partial or full access by elevators or ramps, the subway system is virtually inaccessible for someone in a wheelchair. For Nuzzi, a resident of Brooklyn Heights, to get to City Hall, the elevator deposits him on the Manhattan-bound Nos. 2 and 3 platform. He has to take his wheelchair through a connecting tunnel to catch the No.

4 or 5 train to City Hall. But on his return, because there is no elevator or ramp out side of of the the station platform, on he the has south to DAILY overshoot that stop two stations train to back Atlantic to Borough take Hall a NEWS and go through the tunnel to get an elevator. Annoyances, inconveniences and barriers aside, il for the people in the system holds a special perwheelchairs: dangerous gaps as high as 2 inches and as wide as 4 subway "No inches matter platforms. how between much cars money and November they spend," Moakley said, "the 8 system will still not be usable until they bridge that 2661 cuss the specifics of the group's complaint because it has a long-running lawsuit against the agency. Moakley, who was paralyzed in a 1967 diving accident while stationed at the Quantico, Marines base, took a reporter and photographer through a randomly selected three-block area in Chelsea recently.

Curb cuts and ramps were nonexistent, or might as well not have been there because they were 01.