Ever stop to think about the little ramp at the end of a sidewalk?
Curb cuts might seem ordinary nowadays, but when they first came around they were anything but.
Before curb cuts, people who used wheelchairs or other assistive devices would have to find a driveway and roll their way down the street to cross an intersection. This was —obviously—unsafe.
Conversations about this issue became more widespread as disabled veterans returned home from World War 2 and realized how difficult it was to navigate their streets on wheelchairs and mobility devices.
Disabled activists fought hard — really hard — to make cities recognize how vital curb cuts are for access and dignity. It took tireless testimony, guerilla urbanists laying down DIY curb ramps, and a long time to get this issue the attention it deserved at the National level. The first recorded curb cut was installed in 1945 in Kalamazoo. By the 70s, some cities started to get on board. But it wasn’t until 1990 that the Americans with Disabilities Act finally mandated curb cuts nationwide.
At the time, people complained it would cost too much. That curb cuts weren’t worth it to make our streets safe for so small of a population. But what seemed radical then… is now just an everyday part of our infrastructure.
And we’re all better off for it! With strollers, luggage, shopping carts, bikes, even just walking around with kids or tired knees, and on top of all that, wheelchairs, and walkers, and mobility scooters and all sorts of other ways we move about our communities. You might hardly even notice curb cuts— because they’ve become part of what makes streets work.
This Disability Pride Month, let’s remember: When we build better streets for disabled people, we build better streets for all of us.
Here are the references we used, should you wish to dive deeper into the subject: