Sunday, July 26 marks the 36th anniversary of the 1990 law that ushered in a new era of accessibility awareness and action known as the Americans with Disabilities Act. The day not only celebrates the anniversary of the ADA but it also serves as a way to bring awareness and break down barriers individuals with disabilities faced every day.
SEPTA’s website includes information for riders with disabilities to learn about accessibility resources available to plan their accessible travel on the fixed-route network including the status of elevators and stations, service animal policy, schedules by text, and signing up to receive travel training and other services. Customers who cannot ride fixed route service can also get more information and register for Paratransit or other SEPTA Access services. Customers and family members of riders with disabilities are encouraged to visit the Accessibility page on SEPTA’s website at https://wwww.septa.org/accessibility/.
Much of SEPTA was built well before the passage of the ADA including stations and rail lines dating back to the 1920s and some infrastructure dating to the mid-1800s. SEPTA has made great strides over the past three-and-a-half decades to bring SEPTA closer to our commitment to make the system accessible to all.
All 1,400 hundred SEPTA buses are accessible and equipped with ramps, kneeling, and mobility device securement.
SEPTA completed construction of ADA improvements at Tasker-Morris on the B, Ardmore Station on the Paoli-Thorndale Line, and at Wissahickon Transit Center in the past year.
SEPTA was the first transit agency in the nation to break ground on a station accessibility project funded through the FTA’s All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP) at Erie Station on the B and SEPTA is in design on another five B accessibility improvement projects
SEPTA will break ground in September on another ASAP-funded accessibility improvement project at 11th St Station on the L. The completion of this project will make 27 of 28 L stations fully accessible!
SEPTA’s Accessible Travel Center at Suburban Station provides a number of services for customers including: one-on-one training on fixed-route service, group visits for school students, and virtual curriculum for travel training through Temple’s REACH Collective called Chance to Ride.
SEPTA is investing more than $1 billion on making Metro and Regional Rail stations accessible over the next 12 years. As a result more than 95% of trips on SEPTA will go through an accessible station. These investments complement a bus network that is already 100% accessible and make the system easier to use and more accessible for all.