Americans with Disabilities Act Misapplication at Amtrak
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an equal employment opportunity law passed in 1990 so that disability would not be used as a reason for discrimination in employment. However, ensuring the proper application of the ADA in various organizations across the country has proved challenging, as evidenced by the considerable number of lawsuits until this day. For example, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation or Amtrak, a railroad company, has recently been obligated to pay $2 million in a settlement to approximately 1500 passengers with disabilities it discriminated against (Chung, 2022). The reason for the suit was the design of almost a hundred Amtrak railway stations across the country, which made them poorly accessible or inaccessible for people with disabilities (Chung, 2022). Since ADA Title II postulates that disability should not be an obstacle to the people receiving public transportation, the design of the railroad stations fits squarely within the scope of the law.
As one can see, the failure to comply with the ADA impacted Amtrak by forcing it to pay compensations and engage in a hurried redesign to improve accessibility in many of its stations. In specific numbers, the settlement as a whole obligates Amtrak to redesign 90 stations and start construction at another 45 over the course of the following nine years (Chung, 2022). In total, it constitutes 135 stations out of approximately 500 operated by the company or 27 percent. Judging by the fact that 43 stations are to be redesigned in 2022 alone, many of the renovations and reconstructions could be conducted fairly swiftly (Chung, 2022). Hence, Amtrak had an ample opportunity to avoid the violation if it used the 30+ years after the passing of the ADA to address the shortcomings of its stations in terms of accessibility.
Reference
Chung, C. (2022). Amtrak Pays $2 Million to Passengers With Disabilities Who Faced Obstacles at Stations. The New York Times. Web.