Blind Groups Sue City; Ask Braille On Elevators

By Tom Infield, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 29, 1986

Nine local chapters of the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind have sued the city, seeking to force the installation of Braille floor indicators on elevator panels in City Hall.

The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, also seeks the installation of the floor indicators on the elevators in the City Hall Annex and Municipal Services Building.

The suit contends that blind people find it difficult to use the elevators

because they can't read the numbers on floor buttons. It asks that the city be forced to comply with both a federal law and its own building code that require elevators to be accessible to the visually impaired.

Named as a defendant in the suit, beside the city, was Dudley R. Sykes, the city's commissioner of public property. Sykes could not be reached yesterday for comment. The city solicitor's office said that it had not yet received a copy of the suit.

No estimate of the cost of installing Braille markings in elevators was available yesterday.

Also listed as plaintiffs in the suit were Patrick Comorato and Charles Irons, the president and vice president, respectively, of the Mae Davidson Chapter of the Pennsylvania Council for the Blind.

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