Fighting for MTA Accessibility: Perspectives from Lawyers and Activists

The MTA is a notoriously inaccessible transit system. Activists have spent years fighting for increased accessibility throughout the MTA. Litigation has led to a recent, landmark joint settlement to make at least 95% of the NYC subway system accessible by 2055.

This event will be hybrid. For zoom attendance, please register here! https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpc-ispzojGNA1GGt0AdMxEEH4nF5DoGpE

Guests are also welcome to attend in person in Furman Room 210. Food will be provided.

Join us as we discuss the strategies, from lawsuits to direct action, that advocates have used to fight for accessibility at the MTA. Our panelists include:

Jackie Goldenberg is an original member of the Rise and Resist Elevator Action Group (EAG), founded in 2017. With EAG, she has helped plan and participate in direct action, lobbying, press relations and coalition-building. She is a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit, filed in October 2022, against the MTA. Represented by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and pro bono counsel Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, the plaintiffs allege that the MTA discriminates against people with disabilities by failing to eliminate the gaps between platform and subway cars. 

During her professional career, she was an editor and writer. She brought a feminist perspective as medical editor of Woman’s Day Magazine; was staff aide on an Independent Commission appointed by Congress to examine censorship at the National Endowment for the Arts; wrote speeches for NYU Presidents and Board chairs on public policy; and was senior writer and policy analyst at Gay Men’s Health Crisis. She holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Cornell University.

Jessica Murray earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology at The Graduate Center, CUNY in 2020. Her dissertation, Self-Determination in Transportation: The Route to Social Inclusion for People with Disabilities, examined the role of basic psychological needs in transportation environments. She also holds an MA from CUNY (2014), and a BFA in Design from the University of Texas at Austin (2003). Since 2017, she has been an outspoken advocate for improving accessibility of public transit as a member of the Rise and Resist Elevator Action Group. She has been the chair of the Advisory Committee on Transit Accessibility (ACTA) for New York City Transit since 2019.

Murray was the Associate Producer of the 2021 film, The Biggest Obstacle, in which she is featured alongside people with different disabilities who navigate public transit and talk about their travel experiences. She worked in multimedia, web, and graphic design prior to attending CUNY, and has developed numerous digital research, education, and humanities websites since 2012, including rosaparksbiography.org and nyccivilrightshistory.org (coming soon). She is also working to establish an archive of disability rights activism in New York City at the College of Staten Island, CUNY (nycdisabilityrightsarchive.com).

Chloe Holzman joined Disability Rights Advocates in 2020 as a Staff Attorney and became a Senior Staff Attorney in 2022. Her past practice has focused on housing, public benefits, and reducing barriers to employment for people with disabilities. Prior to joining DRA, she was an Agency Attorney at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, where she prosecuted violations of the City’s anti-discrimination law. Previously, she represented clients with mental illness in housing and other civil cases as a Senior Staff Attorney with the Mental Health Law Project at Mobilization for Justice (formerly MFY Legal Services). Additionally, she worked in the Disability Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, enforcing the integration mandate under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Ms. Holzman’s experience also includes post-graduate legal fellowships with an LGBTQI advocacy group in El Salvador and with the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project in NYC, as well as summer positions during law school with the HIV Project at Brooklyn Legal Services and at a civil rights firm in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from Brown University, and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. She speaks fluent Spanish.