20 Your Rights to Transportation Transportation is an important factor in nearly every aspect of life — education, healthcare, employment, recreation, and community. Without access to reliable transportation, our quality of life can be greatly hindered. Recognizing the importance of transportation to daily living, legislators provided protection under law for individuals with disabilities. Under the ADA, if public transportation is available in a community, it must accommodate disabled passengers. This includes buses and trains, as well as stops, depots, and stations. All necessary modifications must be made to allow a person with a disability to access a stop or station, get on and off the vehicle, and travel to and from their destination independently. Buses and trains are required: • to have a ramp, wheelchair lift, or kneeling feature - to allow anyone who asks to use these features, regardless of whether their disability is visible • to have priority seating for people with disabilities - to have an employee ask others to move if priority seating is needed, but not available • to have wheelchair securement areas - to have seatbelts available for wheelchair users (the use of which is not required, unless seatbelt use is required for all passengers) • to assist with actions necessary for access, including: - getting on and off the vehicle - paying fares or swiping passes • to provide training for employees in how to sensitively interact with disabled passengers Where these conditions are not met, and for those individuals with a disabilitywho cannot utilize accessible transportation independently, the ADA requires paratransit services be available. Paratransit Paratransit is a supplement to the public transportation system required under the ADA. Eligible users are people who cannot use the existing public transportation system independently, all or some of the time. The application process for paratransit eligibility varies from place to place. Some areas have stringent requirements, while others are less strict. Applicants may have to submit an application and provide supporting documentation, or undergo an interview or evaluation, or a combination of these. Once approved, a paratransit user can often use paratransit wherever they move or visit.