ADA Categories of Eligibility

Who is eligible for ADA transportation?

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) transportation is for people whose disabilities prevent them from using the regular accessible fixed route bus for some or all of their trips.

Please refer to the following three categories of eligibility:

Category 1 Eligibility

Category 1 Eligibility includes, among others, persons with mental or visual impairments who, as a result, cannot “navigate the system.” This eligibility category includes people who cannot board, ride, or disembark from an accessible vehicle “without the assistance of another individual.”

Category 2 Eligibility

(Not applicable to the WRTA service – all vehicles are accessible)

Category 2 Eligibility applies to persons, who could use accessible fixed route transportation, but accessible transportation is not being used at the time, and on the route, the persons would travel. This concept is route-based, not system-based.

Category 3 Eligibility

Category 3 Eligibility concerns individuals who have a specific impairment-related condition, which prevents them from getting to or from a stop or station. This is intended to be a “very narrow exception'' to the general rule that difficulty in traveling to or from boarding or disembarking locations is not a basis for eligibility.

To be a basis for eligibility, the condition must prevent the individual from traveling to a boarding location or from a disembarking location. The word “prevent” is very important. For anyone, going to a bus stop and waiting for a bus is more difficult and less comfortable than waiting for a vehicle at one's home. This is likely to be all the more true for an individual with a disability. But for many persons with disabilities, in many circumstances, getting to a bus stop is possible. If an impairment-related condition only makes the job of accessing transit more difficult than it might otherwise be, but does not prevent the travel, then the person is not eligible.