By Julie Peterson, graduate student,
Public History at University of
Massachusetts, writing for American History Museum
In 1945, Jack Fisher of Kalamazoo, Michigan, celebrated a victory, one of the first of its kind in the United States. Jack, a disabled veteran and lawyer, was elated because his hometown had just installed the nation’s first curb cuts to facilitate travel in the downtown area for wheelchair users and others who couldn’t navigate the 6-inch curb heights on downtown sidewalks.
Today, this seems like an odd thing to rejoice about, since curb cuts are now so commonplace in cities throughout the U.S. However, sidewalks and public spaces in the built environment were not always so accessible to people with disabilities. The development of curb cuts and the concept of accessible public spaces has been long in the making and has only become possible through the hard work of activists like Mr. Fisher, the passage of federal legislation on accessibility requirements, and developments in design.
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