CFILC SCNetwork Priority

TRANSPORTATION

CFILC ISSUE BRIEF

There is a transportation divide that separates people with disabilities from their destinations, including jobs, families, healthcare and recreation. Some of the barriers to transportation are easily addressed, such as curbs or stairs. 

The negative effects of an inaccessible transportation system are irrefutable.  In a 1994 Harris poll, 24 percent of Americans with disabilities cited a lack of affordable transportation as the reason for their unemployment.  People with disabilities who have been offered jobs and are willing to work are unable to because they cannot secure adequate transportation.  Full access to public and private transportation is perhaps the single largest barrier to employment for people with disabilities.

Resolving transportation inequities can be beneficial to everyone and extends far beyond questions of civil “right.”  Improving the quality of public transportation in particular can be an effective solution to transportation concerns that effect society in general.  Public policies and community development must address access issues for people with disabilities as they affect transportation.

All publicly funded modes of transportation (inter- and intra-city) must be accessible to those with mobility as well as sensory or cognitive disabilities.

Accessible Taxis have the potential to increase the mobility of many people with disabilities in communities as ordinary taxis services, as contractors to public transit and paratransit services and, as contractors to human service agencies. However, the use of accessible taxis is rare.

Adaptations to private vehicles that enable people with various mobility impairments to drive must be affordable and easy to obtain.  Tax-credits to offset these expenditures will help make the necessary equipment more affordable

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