President & CEO
United Spinal Association
Make no mistake, every single American benefits from modernization of our nation’s beleaguered infrastructure. Year after year, the American Society of Civil Engineers hands down a damning report card cataloguing the widespread disrepair and deficits that collectively hold us back—and expose us to needless deprivation and danger. It’s been clear that we need a national strategy to restore and enhance America’s roads, rail, ports, parks, power, public buildings and telecom for years. At this moment, America is a country filled with so much unrealized potential—not just for our community, but for all communities.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) may position our country to begin that long process. It is a massive infusion of investment—$1.2 trillion over eight years—into our physical infrastructure, especially transportation. It is also striking how much this bill explicitly takes into consideration the needs of people with disabilities, demonstrating how far our movement has come.
However, as always, we have to stay informed, organized and be ready to intervene in helping enforce and realize the possibilities at hand. We can’t give our infrastructure a passing grade until it serves all of us equally.
What does the IIJA put into play for people with disabilities? There are almost fifty instances where people with disabilities are mentioned in the Act, and some provisions will feel especially familiar to the United Spinal community.
$1.75 billion of IIJA funding will finally bring remaining inaccessible rail transit stations into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). With this in place, the Act is the coda of a long battle that began in earnest when United Spinal sued New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority to make NYC and Philadelphia’s transit systems accessible in the 1980s. United Spinal is more than ready to bid farewell to these vestiges of a bygone era.
Amtrak will also receive an average of $2.5 billion a year for the National Network and $1.3 billion for the vital Northeast Corridor, with $50 million a year dedicated to station accessibility—until all facilities are in compliance with the ADA. Another boon to the disability community is the requirement that at least 1 member of the Amtrak board will be a person with a disability, and the provision that the Amtrak board shall meet at least annually with representatives of our community.
Moving on from rail to our roads, it is our sincere hope that the bill will replicate the results of our multi-year lawsuit against the City of New York to compel the City to install curb cuts at every intersection in New York. The IIJA incentivizes Complete Streets policies at the state and municipal level. This is an important opportunity for advocacy for all wheelchair users to finally ensure that we can confidently—and safely—navigate our cities, as much as anyone else. I look forward to the day when I will no longer experience the indignity, shame and inconvenience of being stuck at an intersection watching the world go by.
The IIJA overall allocates $25 billion to aviation projects over five years, and we are interested in the further implications of what prioritizing projects that “achieve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and expand accessibility” will entail. Many of our airports are still rife with impediments for people with disabilities: I’ve experienced everything from missing curb cuts at the entranceway to being unable to use the bathroom. Spending decisions will be left to individual airports, so I encourage all airports leaders to embody their commitment to inclusion by actively engaging with representatives of the disability community and hiring experts to ensure that the airports of the future are disability-friendly and embrace universal design.
Of course, all of these improvements to our transportation infrastructure spell a windfall of jobs for the American public. The bill takes care to not leave us out in this regard, asking that within a year of its passage, the Transportation Secretary will report on methods of removing traditional barriers to employment in this sector, including discrimination against people with disabilities. We must open a dialogue to ensure that this is done with appropriate sincerity and diligence.
Another potential gain to disability employment could be a sweeping one. It would be a byproduct of the $65 billion apportioned to improving our broadband infrastructure under the Digital Equity Act. The effects of this would not only open up new avenues to remote work for members of our community who live in geographically underserved areas, but would underlie major improvements to all aspects of quality of life outside of the world of work. It also provides for grant programs under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for communities that have been deprived of the opportunity to gain digital literacy and have faced obstacles to obtaining devices.
With newfound tech skills and high-quality internet connections at our disposal, we can connect with our families and communities, easily access telehealth—particularly important in places where clinics and hospitals are far away and more likely to be inaccessible, seek educational opportunities, and utilize the new generation of household appliances that especially benefit people with mobility disabilities. If people with disabilities in rural areas finally obtain access to quality broadband services, it opens a whole new conversation about inclusion that involves both the public and private sector. I urge our members who are tech enthusiasts and professionals and our allies in the technology sector to contemplate the opportunities this generates.
As you can see, our work has only just begun, but the groundwork has been laid for organizations like United Spinal to finally complete decades-long efforts to make transportation equal—and to pursue 21st century dreams of making our community fully at home in the tech landscape. For local and state government, this bill is a historic moment, and the disability community is taking notice. We get one big shot at this, and you are vested with considerable responsibility to the Americans you represent. Legislation becomes mere poetry if it doesn’t result in living programs and actionable policy prescriptions. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities. My hope is that the promise of the infrastructure legislation will galvanize the disability community, make people accountable and, once and for all, promote our needs to the forefront of the American social consciousness.
