Class Action Challenges MTA’s Discriminatory Failure to Provide Accessible Public Transportation to People with Disabilities
04/26/2023Federal and local laws require that paratransit services for people with disabilities be comparable to the transportation services provided to non-disabled people. The MTA, through its paratransit service Access-A-Ride, consistently fails to do so. The lawsuit alleges that, through its policies and practices, the MTA requires paratransit users to schedule their rides in advance, endure excessively long wait times, and deal with unpredictable and nonsensical routing that takes them past or in the opposite direction of their destination and results in trip times that are double or even triple what it would have been if the rider had taken a car, bus, or subway.
A group of individuals with disabilities and New York Integrated Network, a nonprofit coalition of more than a dozen agencies that provide services to individuals with disabilities across New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, brought a proposed class action challenging these discriminatory practices.
The case, Paulino-Santos et al. v. MTA et al., was filed in the Southern District of New York. Vladeck attorneys Maia Goodell and Emily Bass represent the plaintiffs, along with co-counsel Britney Wilson, Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic at New York Law School Legal Services, Inc.
A group of individuals with disabilities and New York Integrated Network, a nonprofit coalition of more than a dozen agencies that provide services to individuals with disabilities across New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, brought a proposed class action challenging these discriminatory practices.
The case, Paulino-Santos et al. v. MTA et al., was filed in the Southern District of New York. Vladeck attorneys Maia Goodell and Emily Bass represent the plaintiffs, along with co-counsel Britney Wilson, Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic at New York Law School Legal Services, Inc.