Search results
A curb cut (U.S.), curb ramp, depressed curb, dropped kerb (UK), pram ramp, or kerb ramp (Australia) is a solid (usually concrete) ramp graded down from the top surface of a sidewalk to the surface of an adjoining street. It is designed primarily for pedestrian usage and commonly found in urban areas where pedestrian activity is expected.
Jul 27, 2022 · Curb Cuts: A Brief History. 27 July 2022. By Seth Eislund & Nora Caballero. While they are ubiquitous in nearly every American city today, curb cuts are relatively recent additions to the US’ urban landscape. Prior to the 1960s and 1970s, most curbs throughout the United States featured a solid drop-off that made it hard for people with ...
- The Issue with Curbs
- The Need Was There
- Problem Continued
- Judith Heumann’s Early Story
- School Was No Better
- Push For Rights in The 1960s
- Finding A Way
- Curb Cuts Enjoyed by All
For most people, a curb cut provides an easier path on our walks through a town or a neighborhood. But consider the plight of a wheelchair user. Before curb cuts, a person using a wheelchair would arrive at a corner and have to look down the street to find the closest driveway. They would then go to that driveway, cross the street in the middle of ...
People with disabilities have always existed. Some people are born with some type of physical difference. Many men who served in war came home without limbs or returned with other types of disabilities. But before World War I, many businesses were small family operations. If the person was capable of some type of work, then accommodations could be ...
Then by the 1940s, rubella and polio were affecting children and young people, and the need for coming up with a solution became more dire. Not only were buildings inaccessible, but so, too, were forms of transportation, bathrooms, and places to shop. This difficulty is illustrated poignantly by disability activist Judith Heumann in her memoir. Heu...
Heumann grew up in Brooklyn, and she was grateful to have a couple of friends who lived on the same block as she did. She notes that this was very fortunate as the curb along the street was “like the Great Wall of China” to her. She describes a typical summer day in 1953 when she was age six. Her mother rolled her wheelchair down the ramp from thei...
When it came time for Judith to start school, Judith Heumann’s mother dressed them both nicely to walk to the school to enroll. There were stairs, so they waited while someone asked the principal to come out to meet with them. He told Mrs. Heumann that Judith would not be permitted to attend school; she would be a “fire hazard” in the hallways. Mrs...
In the 1960s, the public push for better access began to grow just as other types of civil rights issues were being examined. The topic of accessibility was raised in 1962 when the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults (now Easterseals), joined the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, which was established in 1947. To...
Change takes time, and finally, a small step forward was made. In 1968, a federal law passed that decreed that any building that was even partially funded by federal funds had to be barrier-free. This was a step forward but required a level of consideration that few had ever thought about. There could be no grand stairs on the exteriors of business...
Whether you are in a city or a smaller town, take a few minutes to watch the activities that happen at any street corner. Those preferring curb cuts include parents with strollers, delivery people with hand trucks or carts, older people who may have canes and many walkers who prefer the sloped ramp instead of the harder impact of stepping off a cur...
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the organization ADAPT in Denver, Colorado, broke apart sidewalks to protest the lack of accessibility features. This Denver curb cut made in 1978 is in the museum's collection. While these activists were taking their own measures to ensure the world they lived in was accessible to them, federal legislation ...
May 15, 2013 · The Rise of the Curb Cut Part 1: From Streets to Streams. Prior to the abundant use of concrete as the standard material, curbs were made of local quarried or other mined stone materials. Granite, such as seen above, made an excellent (although expensive) material for curbing, as its hardened nature reduced its overall susceptibility to erosion ...
Apr 27, 2021 · Infrastructure. 04.27.21. Producer. 99pi. If you live in an American city and you don’t personally use a wheelchair, it’s easy to overlook the small ramp at most intersections, between the sidewalk and the street. Today, these curb cuts are everywhere, but fifty years ago — when an activist named Ed Roberts was young — most urban ...
People also ask
When did curb cuts start?
When was a Denver curb cut made?
What is a curb cut?
Are curb cuts a real thing?
Why are curb cuts so popular?
What was curb drop-off like in the 1960s and 1970s?
The Curb-Cut Effect. Laws and programs designed to benefit vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or people of color, often end up benefiting all of society. One evening in the early 1970s, Michael Pachovas and a few friends wheeled themselves to a curb in Berkeley, Calif., poured cement into the form of a crude ramp, and rolled off into the ...
