The Central Park Conservancy has just released a map with much more information on it about how to move around the park, including for people with disabilities or otherwise “limited mobility.”
The map has all sorts of helpful information, including detailed explanations of the offerings at each playground in the park and a trick for figuring out where you are by looking at numbers on lampposts (the first two numbers on the lamppost indicate the closest cross street; the second two numbers are even you’re closer to the East side and odd if you’re closer to the West side.
The map itself has a clever way to determine the grading (how steep it is) based on shading, and it indicates where there are stairs and other potential obstacles. It also shows where there are handicapped-accessible restrooms, specifying whether the bathroom is open year-round or if it’s closed in the winter.
The maps are available in the parks visitor’s centers and info kiosks, or they can be viewed and downloaded here.
Good idea.
A map is a good thing, and it sounds like this will be helpful, but how about also actually taking steps to make the park more accessible to all, starting, perhaps, with keeping all bathrooms open all year round (which does not even require any structural changes, unlike what I would recommend as the next step— adding more bathrooms, especially for women, as wait times can be as much as half an hour long at some locations during the summer).