NY's Met Opera agrees to improve wheelchair access

[January 14, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City's Metropolitan Opera has agreed to improve wheelchair access at its home at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The improvements are part of a settlement announced Thursday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

The prosecutors had sued the Met, saying it had failed to meet standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The deal requires the Met to put in more wheelchair seating. The Met will renovate bathrooms and elevators to make them more accessible. It also must install Braille signs.

Met officials say they're "pleased that this has been resolved."

Each season the Met stages more than 200 opera performances in the city. More than 800,000 people attend.

Federal authorities have sued venues including Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden to bring them into compliance since the disabilities law was enacted in 1990.

[Associated Press]

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