OAKLAND — In a brand new settlement agreement approved by a federal judge Thursday, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District agreed to take concrete steps to enhance train accessibility for riders with mobility challenges, in line with a news release from groups responding to the change urged.
“This settlement ensures that people with mobility disabilities are not excluded from the Bay Area’s mass transit system and do not receive levels of service far below those of non-disabled people,” said Jinny Kim, senior attorney at Disability Rights Advocates.
Disability Rights Advocates was joined in its lawsuit against BART by the nonprofit Senior and Disability Action, the Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco, Legal Aid at Work, and BART riders Pi Ra and Ian Smith.
The lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleged that the transit agency violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and California law by failing to properly maintain elevators and escalators, thereby denying riders with disabilities access to services.
BART officials have maintained that they and the agency didn’t violate any federal or state laws and usually are not expected to allege fault under the settlement agreement. Still, the authority has agreed to quite a few remedial measures, including implementing a strategic maintenance plan to renovate its 87 station elevators, immediately repairing out-of-service station elevators and escalators, and implementing a prevention plan to make sure routine access.
The agreement also requires the agency to reply promptly to elevator and station cleanliness, communicate repeatedly about elevator and escalator failures, train staff, and develop a criticism procedure and emergency response plan that features a protocol for passengers who could also be affected by their service Mobility is excluded within the event of an emergency.
“Working with advocates and those most impacted, we are moving forward with a series of improvements to elevators, escalators, training and other things like signage for accessible routes,” BART chief spokeswoman Alicia Trost said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to work to make BART as accessible as possible for all of our riders.”
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