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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Michelle Norris, Licensed Professional Engineer and Parent
7:31:43
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168 sec
Michelle Norris, a licensed professional engineer and parent of a wheelchair user, testified about the importance of increasing the budget for school accessibility in New York City. She shared personal experiences of her son's challenges due to inaccessible schools and urged support for a $1.25 billion budget to achieve full accessibility by 2045.
- Highlighted the impact of inaccessible schools on her son's education and social life
- Emphasized the need for increased funding from $800 million to $1.25 billion for school accessibility
- Discussed how inaccessible schools limit future job opportunities for people with disabilities in the education sector
Michelle Norris
7:31:43
Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to testify.
7:31:47
My name is Michelle Norris.
7:31:49
I am a licensed professional engineer, and I've been working in New York City for the last thirty eight years.
7:31:56
I'm also a parent to Melissa Avey and Izzy, and Avey Weitzman is a wheelchair user.
7:32:02
So I'm going to sort of skip through the part about how $800,000,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it's actually less money than the $750,000,000 that was allocated the last time and say we need the full $1,250,000,000 to reach full accessibility by 02/1945.
7:32:24
I just wanna explain why that's so important to me.
7:32:27
My son, Amy, grew up across the street from our local elementary school and it still isn't accessible even today.
7:32:36
Instead of rolling to school with his wheelchair, he was bused over an hour each way to Nassau County.
7:32:41
He missed out on making friends in our neighborhood.
7:32:44
He missed out on playing with his classrooms across the street in the playground.
7:32:48
He missed out on after school programs because busing didn't extend to after school.
7:32:53
He wasted thousands and thousands of hours of his life staring out the bus window.
7:33:00
While Abe was in Nassau County, my younger son Abe was in Astoria in a school that was inaccessible.
7:33:07
At every event, I had to go begging for special accommodations.
7:33:12
Could someone please open the side door so I could pull chair up the seven steps to the cafeteria for the student of the month?
7:33:21
Could I carry Abe's wheelchair up three flights of into the auditorium and leave Abe with Izzy and then carry him upstairs so that we could watch Izzy in a school performance?
7:33:36
Abe's in college now.
7:33:38
He's gonna graduate next year.
7:33:40
I'm very proud.
7:33:42
And I'm wondering where is he going to work?
7:33:44
Because New York City schools employ about 80,000 New Yorkers and maybe Eby could be one of them.
7:33:51
You know, he's got a fine GPA.
7:33:53
But he'll be at an unfair disadvantage because he can only work at an accessible school.
7:33:59
And how would you feel if you could only be even permitted to apply to a third of the jobs that you were qualified for because the other two thirds didn't have a bathroom where you could go during the day.
7:34:12
So I urge you to support increasing the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty nine capital budget for accessibility to $1,250,000,000.
7:34:22
Your fellow New Yorkers, students, family, and the teachers, guidance counselors, and principals of the future are counting on you.
7:34:31
Thank you.