Ground Transportation for People with Mobility Disabilities 2025: Challenges and Progress

July 23, 2025

SCOPE AND PURPOSE: Thirty-five years ago, Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 to eliminate barriers that prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in society. However, today, millions of people with mobility disabilities remain significantly transportation disadvantaged and are unable to leave their homes due to insufficient and inaccessible ground transportation options in their communities including transportation network companies (TNCs), taxis, paratransit, shuttles, car rentals, and autonomous vehicles (AVs).

Nearly everything we do requires access to transportation. It’s necessary to go to work, to school, to attend civic and social events, to our doctors, to stores, to recreation, and to social events. Nonetheless, NCD found that millions of [KE1.1] people with travel-limiting disabilities, including those who rely on motorized wheelchairs, motorized scooters, and manual wheelchairs, remain significantly transportation disadvantaged and are unable to leave their homes due to insufficient and inaccessible ground transportation options in their communities.

In this report, NCD examines the barriers that people with mobility disabilities encounter in accessing popular modes of transportation; explores solutions to increase the availability of wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) through incentives, improved enforcement, and regulatory reforms; and makes recommendations to policymakers on ways to expand transportation options for this population of people with disabilities.

The report examines the following topics:

• Transportation disadvantage of people with disabilities
• Transportation network companies
• Taxi service
• Paratransit
• Microtransit
• Shuttle service and rental cars
• Autonomous vehicles

Policy Briefing Series (Register on Eventbrite)

July 23, 2025 – Transportation Disadvantages of People with Mobility Disabilities

July 30, 2025 - Uber, Lyft, and other transportation network companies

August 6, 2025 - Taxis and the need for wheelchair accessible fleet

August 13, 2025 – Autonomous vehicles

August 20, 2025 – Paratransit and microtransit

August 27, 2025 – Rental cars and shuttle service