Course #A-09

Rural and Paratransit Transportation Update: Barriers to Accessibility that Remain

-Half-Day Course-

Using two national reports, this course presents an assessment on the extent to which ADA Paratransit and Rural Transportation have made gains in removing barriers to equitable transportation for people with disabilities and areas where best practices in accessibility have not been implemented and barriers remain. The two reports, “ADA Paratransit Services: Demand Has Increased, but Little is Known About Compliance”, issued by the GAO in 2012 and “Transportation Update, Where We’ve Gone and What We’ve Learned” issued in May 2015 by the National Council on Disability (NCD) both cover a multi-year period from 2005 that assesses progress forward and areas that have stayed in neutral still presenting problems in accessible transportation for people with disabilities.

Objectives:

• Understand regulatory requirements in Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Circular on ADA Guidance regarding ADA Paratransit, Rural Transportation, Deviated Fixed Route Service and other forms of demand response service (taxi)
• Review GAO report conclusions regarding level of compliance among ADA service providers across the nation in terms of eligibility, telephone hold times, on time service and capacity constraints
• Review NCD report conclusions regarding taxi alternatives, paratransit gains in best practices, and growth in fixed route ridership by people with disabilities
• Review NCD report conclusions regarding the need for growth in Rural Transportation
• Understand NCD report conclusions regarding the importance of positive coordination of transportation programs for people with disabilities
• Apply the conclusions of the two reports as benchmarks of comparison to your own rural and paratransit transportation services