Practical
Accessibility
Measurements and absences. Everything below is a fact about this building or about how it deals with people, rather than a claim about a standard.
The office is on the ground floor with the door level with the pavement, which in this neighbourhood is less common than it should be. Everything below is a fact about the building rather than a claim about a standard.
Getting in and moving about
- Step-free from the pavement through a door that is thirty-four inches wide
- The counter has a lowered section at seated height, at the left-hand end
- A lavatory on the same floor with a grab rail, and a turning space of about five feet
- No lift, because there is no upstairs
- The nearest step-free subway entrance is at the 61st Street station, on the Roosevelt Avenue side
Being dealt with
- Somebody at the counter speaks Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish or Romanian on most days
- Everything can be done by e-mail and post without coming in at all
- Documents can be read out over the telephone where somebody cannot read the print
- We will write in plain sentences rather than in the language of a form, on request and by default
- Sign language interpreting for an appointment here is arranged with notice; we do not have somebody in the building
If something here is a barrier, say so first. If something here is a barrier for you, say so before you come rather than after — most of it can be worked around and none of it can be worked around at the counter on the day.
And the part that is not the building
Most of what this office does never requires anybody to come in. A document can be sent as a photograph, quoted by e-mail, translated, and returned as a PDF the working day it is finished, with paper in the post only where paper was asked for. Interpreting can be done down a line, often the same day.
If a page on this site is difficult to use — the type too small, a table that will not fit, something that reads badly aloud — that is worth saying, because it is fixable and nobody finds out about it otherwise.
- Getting here — the trains, the buses and the parking
- Inside the office — the four rooms and what happens in each
- Contact the office — how to reach it without coming in
Send us the document
A photograph is enough to quote from. Or work out the figure yourself first — the estimator shows its arithmetic rather than only its answer.