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A class action lawsuit filed against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the New York City Transit Authority alleges that New York City’s Access-A-Ride paratransit service doesn’t train their employees to help visually impaired customers “fully enjoy” the door-to-door nature of the service.
Plaintiff Lucia Marett, who is legally blind, argues in the class action lawsuit that the Americans with Disabilities Act provides that individuals who are not able to access mass transit must have access to paratransit service.
However, NYC’s Access-A-Ride system reportedly requires visually impaired customers to depend on non-visually impaired persons to assist them in spotting the appropriate vehicles.
In the Access-A-Ride class action lawsuit, Marret argues that the lack of accessibility of the program affects her everyday commute as she utilizes the service at least five times during the week and often the drivers do not meet her at the correct location.
In addition, the plaintiff points out that when the drivers do pick her up at the correct location, they are usually situated on the wrong side of the street and do not provide her with notice that they have arrived at the location.
“By failing to ensure that verbal announcements and/or physical assistance are provided to blind passengers of Access-A-Ride, Defendants are violating basic equal access requirements imposed by federal and local law,” the MTA class action lawsuit claims.
According to Marett, she often has to wait a long time to get picked up by Access-A-Ride vehicles and experiences delays.
The Access-A-Ride class action lawsuit further states that the drivers of the paratransit service do not call out the names of customers and should provide more assistance.
The Access-A-Ride program is a door-to-door service that supplies paratransit access to riders on a daily basis and is run by the NYCTA.
The Access-A-Ride class action lawsuit states that “There are approximately 400,000 visually impaired persons in New York State. Many of these individuals require verbal cues, audible announcements, physical assistance and/or other accommodations to fully enjoy transportation services provided by Defendants.”
“Just as buildings that are only accessible by walking up stairs bar and exclude people who use wheelchairs, paratransit services that do not provide audible signaling, advance warnings of arrival times, or appropriate door-to-door physical assistance exclude individuals who are blind or visually impaired.”
According to the MTA Access-A-Ride class action lawsuit, “Plaintiff has made at least 100 complaints through AAR’s comment line and customer care line. However, the aforementioned problems remained, and Plaintiff was still denied the opportunities to enjoy the AAR service provided by Defendant.”
The MTA is also facing another class action lawsuit that was filed in May of this year by riders who claim that New York City’s subway system is not available to disabled riders.
Marret is represented by C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of the Lee Litigation Group PLLC.
The MTA Access-A-Ride Class Action Lawsuit is Marret, et al. v. Metropolitan Transit Authority, et al. Case No. 1:19-cv-05144, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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