49 CFR Parts 37 & 38 - Department of Transportation (DOT) ADA Regulations

Category 3 Eligibility

The third eligibility criterion concerns individuals who have a specific impairment-related condition which prevents them from getting to or from a stop or station. As noted in the legislative history of the ADA, 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.

What is a specific impairment-related condition? The legislative history mentions four examples: Chronic fatigue, blindness, a lack of cognitive ability to remember and follow directions, or a special sensitivity to temperature. Impaired mobility, severe communications disabilities (e.g., a combination of serious vision and hearing impairments), cardiopulmonary conditions, or various other serious health problems may have similar effects. The Department does not believe that it is appropriate, or even possible, to create an exhaustive list.

What the rule uses as an eligibility criterion is not just the existence of a specific impairment-related condition. 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.

For example, in many areas, there are not yet curb cuts. A wheelchair user can often get around this problem by taking a less direct route to a destination than an ambulatory person would take. That involves more time, trouble, and effort than for someone without a mobility impairment. But the person can still get to the bus stop. On the basis of these architectural barriers, the person would not be eligible.

Entities are cautioned that, particularly in cases involving lack of curb cuts and other architectural barrier problems, assertions of eligibility should be given tight scrutiny. Only if it is apparent from the facts of a particular case that an individual cannot find a reasonable alternative path to a location should eligibility be granted.

If we add a foot of snow to the scenario, then the same person taking the same route may be unable to get to the bus stop. It is not the snow alone that stops him; it is the interaction of the snow and the fact that the individual has a specific-impairment related condition that requires him to push a wheelchair through the snow that prevents the travel.

Inevitably, some judgment is required to distinguish between situations in which travel is prevented and situations in which it is merely made more difficult. In the Department's view, a case of “prevented travel” can be made not only where travel is literally impossible (e.g., someone cannot find the bus stop, someone cannot push a wheelchair through the foot of snow or up a steep hill) but also where the difficulties are so substantial that a reasonable person with the impairment-related condition in question would be deterred from making the trip.

The regulation makes the interaction between an impairment-related condition and the environmental barrier (whether distance, weather, terrain, or architectural barriers) the key to eligibility determinations. This is an individual determination. Depending on the specifics of their impairment-related condition, one individual may be able to get from his home to a bus stop under a given set of conditions, while his next-door neighbor may not.