In recognition of the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the National Disability Rights Network conducted a nationwide survey with its community partners to evaluate how much progress Amtrak has made in improving the accessibility of its stations for people with disabilities. What they found was deeply troubling: 23 years after the ADA was passed and 3 years after Amtrak’s deadline for meeting the law’s requirements, 89 of the 94 stations surveyed (95%) had one or more accessibility problems.
“After 23 years, Amtrak should be a shining example of accessibility. Instead, some stations appear to have had no work done to even make the front doors and restrooms accessible. There are many platforms and parking lots where Amtrak appears to have done little to provide or maintain accessible parking and paths into the stations and to the platforms. Even where designated parking spaces have been marked and accessible routes created, Amtrak has not commonly maintained them. For individuals who are deaf, many Amtrak stations that provide audio announcements of train status fail to provide complementary visual notification even when the equipment to do so is available at the station. For individuals who are blind, many station platforms lack detectible warnings at the platform edge and accessible communication such as announcements made over loudspeakers or corresponding braille text on all signs.”
Read the full report here. [PDF]
