Public Transportation Providers’ Obligations Under the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA)

Carol J. Toland
Legislative Attorney

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq., is a broad nondiscrimination statute that includes a prohibition of discrimination in public transportation. To prevent such discrimination, the ADA imposes several affirmative obligations on transportation providers, including a requirement that providers offer separate "paratransit" service, or accessible origin-to-destination service, for eligible individuals with disabilities. Under the statute, the level of such service must be "comparable" to the level of service offered on fixed route systems to individuals without disabilities. Department of Transportation regulations implement this "comparable" standard with specific requirements regarding the scope and manner of paratransit service. Regarding the time taken by providers to respond to individuals' requests for paratransit service, recent case law suggests that providers' legal obligation under the ADA and accompanying regulations is to avoid discriminatory "patterns or practices" of service. For more information on the ADA, see CRS Report 98-921, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Statutory Language and Recent Issues, by Nancy Lee Jones.


Date of Report: January 13, 2010
Number of Pages: 9
Order Number: RS22676
Price: $29.95

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