New York Metropolis’s subway system is a maze of obstructions for individuals who have problem strolling. About one out of 15 New Yorkers has an ambulatory incapacity, in line with Census Bureau knowledge, however the overwhelming majority of stations lack elevators and ramps, making a lot of the town arduous to entry for the tons of of 1000’s of residents who depend on them.

New York has lagged far behind different main American cities in constructing entry factors for folks with disabilities. Upgrading your entire subway — the continent’s largest transit community — will take a long time and price billions of {dollars}. And guarantees from the M.T.A. with lengthy and unsure timelines have diminished many disabled riders’ religion within the authority’s means to ship.

“I’ll imagine it once I see it,” mentioned Yimbert Remigio, 24, who lives within the Bronx and has all the time relied on a wheelchair.

At present, solely 27 % of the system’s 472 stations are thought of accessible underneath the People with Disabilities Act, that means they’ll accommodate riders with a spread of disabilities and might be navigated with out climbing stairs.

The authority promised final 12 months so as to add elevators and ramps to 95 % of stations by 2055 as a part of a settlement settlement in two class-action lawsuits over the difficulty. And its newest capital plan, which was authorised firstly of 2020 and units building priorities by subsequent 12 months, referred to as for making 67 extra stations A.D.A. accessible.

However to date, the wanted upgrades have been accomplished at simply two of these stations. Elevators or ramps are being constructed at 20 extra, however work isn’t set to be accomplished till the tip of 2026. There isn’t any timeline for when building will start on the remaining 45 stations, the authority mentioned.

“Many people received’t be right here in 2055,” mentioned Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, a software program engineer at Google and a incapacity advocate who was partially paralyzed after a rotted tree department fell on him in Central Park 14 years in the past.

“The variety of wheelchair customers you see on the subway is means, means lower than the quantity who would use it if stations all had working elevators,” he added.

Tim Mulligan, who oversees the authority’s capital packages, pressured that the company was finishing many different elevator and ramp enlargement tasks outdoors the present plan, including as much as upgrades at a complete of 81 stations.

“The tempo of building awards for A.D.A. is 5 instances what the pre-2020 tempo of A.D.A. station awards are,” Mr. Mulligan mentioned, referring to contracts for improve tasks. “As soon as that contract is awarded, the station will get constructed. Interval.”

A New York Occasions evaluation in 2019 discovered that there have been 550,000 folks within the metropolis who had problem strolling, and that two-thirds of them lived removed from an accessible subway station. On the time, that meant about 4 % of New York’s 8.3 million residents have been largely unable to experience.

The Bronx has among the highest concentrations of those residents — greater than 122,000 — however solely 15 of the borough’s 70 stations are accessible. Ten extra are set to be upgraded underneath the present capital plan, together with one at East 149th Avenue on the 6 line, the place elevators are set to open in late September, delayed from a earlier July goal.

A number of extra elevators are deliberate alongside that line, close to Mr. Remigio’s residence in Mott Haven.

Presently, solely one of many 9 stations inside a mile of his residence can accommodate his chair, so he largely will get round by bus.

To commute to a summer season internship on West 168th Avenue in Manhattan, he first needed to take a bus south to an accessible station in Harlem earlier than heading north once more.

He would board utilizing a ramp, which couldn’t be rolled out if parked automobiles have been blocking the curb. If the bus was too crowded to suit his wheelchair, he must wait for one more.

Wheelchair customers and advocates for folks with disabilities have lengthy urged the M.T.A. to work quicker to make the system extra navigable, usually packing public conferences to confront transit leaders with their frustrations.

M.T.A. officers mentioned the authority was working as quick because it may with out drastically interrupting service for tens of millions of riders. To construct safely, crews should shut down sections of the subway, mentioned Quemuel Arroyo, who oversees accessibility efforts for the M.T.A.

“All people desires it performed quicker, however not on the expense of their commute,” Mr. Arroyo mentioned. “There’s solely two issues that New Yorkers actually hate: the established order and alter.”

Transit specialists and advocates say that making the system extra equitable isn’t solely an ethical crucial, but additionally a vital step to saving it from a disaster of diminished ridership.

Bringing New Yorkers with disabilities — in addition to vacationers and different guests with accessibility challenges — onto the subway may improve fare income for the system, which has but to completely rebound to prepandemic ranges.

“To ensure that the M.T.A. to be financially viable, it’ll proceed to rely on its ridership,” mentioned Lisa Daglian, govt director of the transit authority’s Everlasting Residents Advisory Committee, a watchdog group. “And ridership wants to have the ability to get into and out of the system.”

Jessica Hsieh, 33, who makes use of a wheelchair and lives in Queens, the place she works at a nonprofit group, mentioned “it might simply imply the world” if the subway had extra working elevators.

“Most undoubtedly, certainly one of my largest challenges is memorizing the stops which are wheelchair accessible,” Ms. Hsieh mentioned. “You’ve acquired to have a Plan A and a Plan B.”

In the future about 12 years in the past when the 7 prepare was not working its traditional route, Ms. Hsieh mentioned she grew to become caught at Queens Plaza station whereas looking for an alternate path. Six law enforcement officials carried her motorized wheelchair downstairs in order that she may get residence.

Ms. Hsieh mentioned the system had develop into simpler to navigate.

Many riders with disabilities and advocates have urged the M.T.A. to extra diligently restore present elevators, which the company says are maintained at a fee of roughly 97 %.

However a report put collectively by two Metropolis Council members discovered that 7 % of elevators have been marked as “out of service” on the M.T.A. elevator standing web page on pattern days final January.

The report additionally discovered that elevators maintained by third events have been out of service three days longer, on common, than these managed by the M.T.A.

Tamara Morgan, 38, a wheelchair person who lives in Queens and commutes to work in Manhattan, mentioned that if the system have been simpler to navigate, she would be capable to go to her household in Brooklyn extra usually.

A lot of her life is dictated by the state of the transit system’s accessibility options. She lamented that whereas planning to attend a buddy’s marriage ceremony on Lengthy Island earlier this summer season, she and different company who use wheelchairs felt anxious about arriving on the venue on time and with out incident.

“It’s a celebratory, joyous second,” Ms. Morgan mentioned. “We’re worrying about, like, ‘Can we get there safely?’”

When Mr. Remigio does take the prepare, he allots not less than an additional half-hour of journey time to account for elevator downtime and delays.

He recalled touring to a job interview at Metropolis Corridor on a day when the elevator at Fulton Avenue was out of service. He needed to bypass the station, change to a prepare going within the different path, experience till he reached a station with a working elevator, and roll his wheelchair to the interview from there.

Regardless of the obstacles he faces navigating public transit, Mr. Remigio mentioned he beloved New York and couldn’t think about residing elsewhere.

“In an ideal world, I may get across the metropolis similar to anyone else,” he mentioned. “There wouldn’t be so many hoops that I must leap by.”