ACCESSIBILITY POLICY STATEMENT

JULY 26, 2001

Today, we commemorate eleven years of emerging disability rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  As Secretary of Transportation, I want to stress the importance I assign to accessibility as one of the most significant goals of our national transportation system.  The letter and the spirit of the ADA remind us of this vital message.  I believe today as I believed over a decade ago, as a co-author of this landmark law, that accessibility in transportation is a civil right.  The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) must lead the way in showing how inclusiveness can be envisioned and achieved.  Our programs and actions must demonstrate a fully accessible transportation system–pedestrian, rail, transit, highway, water, and air–is essential and attainable.

To be inclusive, transportation must be accessible to all Americans, including persons with a physical or mental disability.  Transportation connects each of us to vitally important aspects of our lives:  work, education, family and friends, recreation, health, and commerce.  Here at DOT, it is our obligation to ensure that transportation is not only safe and efficient, but also usable by all.   

Where barriers to accessibility exist, the Department must seek to eliminate them.  In planning for the future, it is critical that we keep accessibility as part of our vision.  To this end, we at DOT must collectively strengthen our commitment to equal access as we work to enforce the ADA and its companion laws, Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Air Carrier Access Act.  Enforcing these laws with vigor will help us attain the promise of the ADA:  an accessible America.       

 Norman Y. Mineta