With more than a quarter of disabled Americans who are unable to leave their homes prevented from doing so by transportation difficulties, Sarah Laskow argues it's time for cities to move beyond ADA.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has certainly improved accessibilty to America's built environment for the nation's disabled, its uneven implementation ("only 20 percent of Amtrak stations have complied with ADA standards") and minimal requirements ("Major subway systems are only required to make "key" stations accessible") have not gone far enough to make transit equitable.
"Part of the reason it's so difficult for public transit system to serve
people with disabilities is that they're woefully underfunded. It's
important that cities make it possible for people to get around without
cars in order to create dense neighborhoods and keep pollution down. But
it's also important that those systems don't leave people with
disabilities stranded in their homes or on a street corner, unable to
get where they need to go," argues Laskow.
FULL STORY: Public Transportation Systems Are Leaving People With Disabilities Behind
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research