$41M Hunters Point Library Violates The ADA, New Lawsuit Claims

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A nonprofit has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the brand-new Hunters Point Library excludes people with mobility issues from "full and equal access" to the library, court records show.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court by the nonprofit legal center Disability Rights Advocates, argues that the $41 million library violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which calls for "the full and equal enjoyment" of any public accommodation.

"The newly-built Hunters Point Library was designed and built with a total disregard for adults and children with mobility disabilities and in flagrant contempt of the legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act," the complaint says.

"It is always the Library's goal to be welcoming, open and available to everyone, including customers with disabilities," Queens Public Library spokesperson Elisabeth de Bourbon said in a statement Tuesday. "We are taking this matter very seriously."

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The proposed class action suit hinges on the experience of Long Island City resident Tanya Jackson, a frequent library user who has a disability that affects her mobility, according to the suit.

When Jackson first visited the library, the complaint says, she struggled to use a steep ramp that led from the library's one elevator to a seating area.

She also learned she wouldn't be able to access the library's rooftop terrace, which an employee told her is inaccessible to people who use wheelchairs, walkers, rollators or scooters, according to the suit.

"Ms. Jackson is afraid that she will not be able to fully participate in future events
that the Library will host, including upcoming holiday events, because there are areas in the
Library that are inaccessible to her," the complaint says.

More than 130,000 Queens residents have a mobility-related disability, according to the Center for Independence of the Disabled New York, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

"Twenty-nine years after the ADA promised open doors and equal opportunities for people with disabilities, we find the doors of a brand new library shut to children and adults with disabilities. This should not be allowed to happen," Susan M. Dooha, Center for Independence of the Disabled New York's executive director, said in a statement.

Designed by renowned architecture firm Steven Holl Architects, the new library became the subject of accessibility complaints barely a week after its Sept. 24 opening. Visitors pointed out that some fiction books were shelved on tiered levels only accessible by stairs.

The library building technically complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, a Queens Public Library spokesperson previously said, and the library's website touts that it is wheelchair accessible.