people with limited access to cars are
disproportionately low-income people of color, low-income
women, the elderly and disabled. Inadequate access to affordable,
dependable public transportation limits their access to jobs, medical
services, food stores, churches, and other basic necessities of life.
The disabled are at particular risk in securing public transportation
services to meet their needs. Mobility impaired persons are frequently
left to wait by the side of the road because wheelchair lifts are not in
working order, or because drivers simply dont want to stop to pick
them up. Blind persons are left lost and in a daze because drivers fail to
announce stops. Paratransit riders are subjected to excessively long
delays and trip lengths to reach their destinations.
Minority disabled are disproportionately disadvantaged due to their
double minority status. The government report, Disability Among Racial
and Ethnic Groups,

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/NIDRR/
shows clear disparities among various racial and ethnic groups.
Minorities are subjected to prejudice and discrimination based on their
race when the oldest and most dilapidated, pollution-generating buses
are routed through their communities, and they experience the
discourtesies of transportation officials due to the devaluation of their
race. The minority disabled are also subjected to prejudice and
discrimination based on their disability when buses routed through
their communities have inoperable or malfunctioning accessibility
features and when they encounter the negative attitudes and behaviors
of public transit providers due to their special needs.
According to 1991 and 1992 census data collected in its Survey of
Income and Program Participation (SIPP), African Americans and other
minorities are over represented among the disabled. The rate is highest
among Native Americans (21.9%), followed closely by African
Americans (20%). Census data further revealed that the rate of severe
disability is highest among African Americans (12.2%), followed by
Native Americans (9.8%). Data also revealed a higher level of disability
among women, with minority women, Native Americans (21.8%)
and African Americans (21.7%) leading the pack.
Race and gender also place some disabled at special risk. Eddie
Glenn, author of African American Women with Disabilities: An
Overview
,
http://www.4woman.org/x/wwd/minor.htm
, notes that
African American women with disabilities are victims of the impact of
triple jeopardy syndrome: race, gender, and disability. Glenns research
Continued on page 2
addresses the issue of the multiple jeopardy in which most African
American women with disabilities find themselves, and points to the
dire need for research, which focuses on the status, needs and aspirations
of African American women with disabilities.
The Howard University Research and Training Center (HURTC)
http://
www.law.howard.edu/HURTC/HURTC.html
is working to fill the
void in research involving minorities with disabilities. The HURTC
conducts research that focuses on the delivery of services to persons
with disabilities representing diverse cultural populations. Sylvia Walker,
Director of HURTC, points out that while racial and ethnic minorities
who are disabled face the same c<i>hallenges as other individuals with
disabilities, they experience unique problems due to socioeconomic,
Minority Disabled and Public Transportation . . 1
The Life and Death of a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Black Disabled Transit Activist
Know Your Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
An Overview of the Laws Governing
Disability Access to Transportation Systems
Day in the Life of a Minority Disabled Female . 5
MARTA Hit with ADA Complaint. . . . . . . . . . . 8
A Forgotten Minority? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Transportation and Persons with
Disabilities from Diverse Ethnic Backgrounds
Traveling In and Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Washington, DC with Cerebral Palsy
Disability Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2
ethnicity, disability and health status, income, education, geographic
location, employment and marital status. In exploring the status of
African Americans with Disabilities, Dr. Walker cites the following
statistics: Of the estimated 13.4 million working-age adults with a
disability, approximately 2.5 million, or 18% are African
American Approximately 24.2% or 18 million, of the working-age
population with a severe disability are African Americans African Americans with a severe disability account for 71.8%
of all African Americans with disabilities African Americans account for 22% of persons with a
disability who are unemployed African Americans are underrepresented among persons
with a disability who participate in the labor force,
accounting for only 12.9 % of individuals with a disability
who are working 41% of African Americans with a disability live on or
below-poverty income
Sylvia Walker, et al, An examination of the Impact of Federally Supported
Community Services and Educations Systems on Underserved People with
Disabilities form Diverse Cultural Populations
. Howard University Research
and Training Center for Access to Rehabilitation & Economic
Opportunity (1996).
In December 1999, the National Council on Disability (NCD) issued
Lift Every Voice: Modernizing Disability Policies and Programs to Serve a
Diverse Nation
,
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/
lift_report.html
, that challenged the nation to address issues affecting
people with disabilities from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds.
The report pointed out the continued disparity in employment and
educational outcomes between people with disabilities and the non-
disabled in the United States, which is a pronounced disparity for racial
and ethnic minority disabled groups.
The report highlighted problems that the minority disabled groups
encounter with public transportation, which contribute to these
continued disparities. The primary issue that emerged from testimony
that the NCD heard from minority disabled persons in compiling data
for the report was that public transit personnel are unwilling to
implement existing laws and policies to accommodate minority
individuals with disabilities, unwilling to assure that the blind and
mobility impaired have priority seating, to assure that stops are
announced for the blind, and that the minority disabled receive common
courtesies and are assisted with accessibility features of the buses.
The NCD made the following recommendations to address the
problems faced by the minority disabled in the public transportation
arena: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and/or
Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of the extent to
which local compliance with ADA transportation
requirements is influenced by race, ethnicity, and culture.
Continued from page 1
Minority Disabled and Transportation Congressional action to ensure that transportation civil
rights enforcement agencies have adequate financial and
staffing resources to maintain an adequate presence with
covered transportation entities to ensure compliance. DOT funding for local transportation providers to furnish
on-going diversity and disability awareness training for all
public transportation personnel, as well as specific training
on public transportation provisions of the ADA. DOT creation of incentives for local transportation
providers to increase efforts to hire bilingual public
transportation personnel in service areas with high
concentrations of non-English speakers.
Some groups have not waited for government to act but have taken
action on their own to force local transit agencies to level the playing field
for the disabled. In Los Angeles, the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) sued the local Metropolitan Transit Authority. In August
2000, the ACLU announced a landmark settlement ,
http://
www.aclu.org/news/2000/n081000b.html
, with Los Angeles County
transit officials for mobility impaired bus passengers in Los Angeles,
which guarantees access for passengers who use wheelchairs and other
assistive devices.
Los Angeles disabled transit riders are not unique. In November 2000,

Definition of Disability: The ADA (Americans with
Disabilities Act) defines disability as a physical or mental
impairment that substantially limits one or more major
life activities such as seeing, walking, breathing, learning,
working, performing manual tasks and caring for ones
self. Also included in the definition are persons with a
record of an impairment or regarded as having an
impairment. In June 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court issued
a ruling which narrowed the ADA definition of disability by
stating that mitigating measures such as medication and
other corrective measures prohibit limitation of major life
activities. In response to President Clintons directive, a
federal policy was developed that still provides protection
for people with disabilities. The federal policy allows an in-
dividual using corrective mitigating measures to still be
covered under the ADA if the person continues to have
substantial limitations of major life activities, or has a record
of an impairment or is regarded as having an impairment.
Based on this policy people with disabilities, including
minorities, can still be protected by the ADA.
Continued on page 7 3
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