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Victor Calise of United Spinal Association shows WNYC's Beth Fertig wobbly railing at the LIRR's Forest Hills Station (Jennifer Rodriguez)

NEW YORK, NY June 14, 2005 —The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against the disabled – and one of its key features is accessibility. Advocates for the disabled claim the Long Island Rail Road is failing to comply with the law at two of its stations. And they’ve filed their first complaint against the agency since the A.D.A. went into effect. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.

REPORTER: Victor Calise has been in a wheelchair for nearly half of his 22 years. But that hasn’t curbed his athletic abilities.

CALISE: I play sled hockey. Wheelchair softball. Snow skiing. I weight train.

REPORTER: Still, Calise finds it a challenge navigating the wheelchair accessible ramps at the Long Island Railroad’s station in Forest Hills. The ramps start at street level and wind their way up to the platform. And every 10 or 15 feet there’s a light pole.

CALISE: We’re approaching the ramp and right away as you come up you’ll notice that the pole’s in the way. It’s difficult for someone to get through. And there’s no railings on the left or right side. So if you’re having a difficult time pushing up you don’t have any railing to get any leverage on.

REPORTER: Calise uses a manual wheelchair because he enjoys getting a workout. He’s more worried about people who aren’t so strong. The railings don’t begin for a couple of feet on the Westbound Platform. And when we do come to a bar, it’s wobbly.

CALISE: It’s loose and you could even hear it. FERTIG: the whole thing is moving. CALISE: The whole thing about 30 feet of railing you can move easy, and there’s no stability there. It’s scary cause if someone happens to crash in here they could fall close the railroad tracks.

REPORTER: Last month, United Spinal Association filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice accusing the MTA of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The complaint cited two stations in Queens: Forest Hills, because of the ramps, and Murray Hill, because elevators aren’t being installed. United Spinal attorney Kleo King says both stations MUST be made accessible.

KING: if they do renovation there, then they do have to spend 20% of that renovation cost on an accessible path of travel.

REPORTER: But the Long Island Railroad doesn’t have to make an accessible path if the cost is more than 20 percent of the renovation. Spokesman Sam Zambuto says that’s what happened at Murray Hill – where elevators would have cost more than 50 percent of the total budget. United Spinal, however, says it could have been done for less. As for the ramps at Forest Hills, Zambuto insists they do meet the requirement of accessibility.

ZAMBUTO: We have been meeting with United Spinal. We are continuing discussions with them. But at this point under ADA guidelines the railroad is not obligated to make further changes to those ramps.

REPORTER: The federal government will investigate whether the railroad HAS done enough to satisfy the law. This complaint is the first since the MTA settled a lawsuit with advocates for the disabled in the 1980s over its subway system. New York City Transit agreed to make 100 subway stations accessible by the year 2020. The MTA has adopted a similar strategy for the Long Island Railroad. It came up with a list of key stations -- like Penn Station and Flatbush Avenue -- and it’s making the rest accessible as they’re renovated. Zambuto says almost 100 out of the railroad’s 124 stations are now wheelchair accessible.

ZAMBUTO: We also have made modifications to ticket offices for ADA compliance, installed ADA restrooms, we have installed tactile warning strips at the end of platforms to indicate where the edge of the platform is beginning.

REPORTER: Advocates for the disabled say these changes have made a huge difference but they believe the agency still could still try harder. Another station at Hunters Point Avenue, for example, is scheduled for almost 14 million dollars worth of renovations in the new capital plan. But while it’s supposed to get an accessible phone and platform warning strips, it won’t get any elevators. Until those accommodations are made, transit riders like Victor Calise say the railroad system isn’t fully accessible.

CALISE: you hope that people do the right thing to make it right for everybody so you can just be yourself and be just like everyone else.

REPORTER: United Spinal’s complaint about the stations has now been referred to the Federal Transit Administration, which oversees the Long Island Rail Road.