Accessibility for disabled fans at the U.S. Open is severely lacking. The 7 train and Long Island Rail Road stops at Mets-Willets Point are not equipped with elevators, creating obstacles for wheelchair users. The only available route through the Passerelle Boardwalk is bumpy and in poor condition. Fans like Eric Ryan have faced struggles that deter them from returning due to safety concerns. Ian MacManus noted the dangers his father-in-law faced while traversing uneven walking surfaces, highlighting the dire need for improved accessibility measures.
"My chair couldn't handle some of them," said Eric Ryan, an avid tennis fan and wheelchair user who most recently attended the US Open in 2022. "I have weak muscles and my head and arms kept getting pushed around from all the bumps. I ended up putting on a chest strap to make sure I didn't fall out."
Ian MacManus, an occupational therapist who lives in Huntington, took his 77-year-old father-in-law to a qualifying US Open match last summer. The elder man, who has multiple sclerosis and walks with a cane, "repeatedly, almost tripped and fell walking across the uneven wooden planks on that causeway from the LIRR."
"It's not that we don't like to go out," said Ryan, the owner of TRIPPr, a transportation service for physically disabled people. "It's that the places we want to go rarely have us in mind."
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