Recap: Accessible transportation webinar
An Overview of the October 2025 Understanding Ableism Webinar: “Accessible Transportation”
By Sara Marshall, AmeriCorps KCDC Coordinator
(Watch the webinar here on our YouTube channel.)
Our October Understanding Ableism webinar showcased four panelists and their personal familiarity with accessible public transit from King County to the Bay Area, New Jersey and more rural regions across Western Washington.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires equal access to public transportation for persons with disabilities, but as panelists attested to, legal access does not always equate to ease of use or safety and reliability. On Tuesday, October 21, the panelists answered questions about their own experiences using public transportation, challenges they have faced or witnessed using public transit services and their ideas for building systems that truly serve all riders.
Background on Panelists
Mandy Wes is an Independent Living Specialist at Disability Empowerment Center and relies on public transportation to get to work. She has seen firsthand the difficulties of services like King County Metro’s Access Transportation, which can be used by anyone whose disability prevents them from riding traditional buses and trains.
Justin Steinberg works as a Research Assistant at Stanford University. Though he now has the ability to work remotely, Steinberg depended on Bay Area public transportation during his time at the university, which shaped his ability to travel independently.
Christine Dodson has used public transportation all her life and considers it vital. A resident of Pierce County, Dodson has extensive experience navigating the complexities of both Pierce County and King County transit systems, finding that the two systems often struggle to effectively interface with each other.
Dean Sydnor works for Hopelink where he serves as the Program Supervisor for the Regional Alliance for Resilient and Equitable Transportation (RARET) workgroup. In his work, Sydnor plans and strategizes for improved outcomes related to transportation operations during emergency events, with an emphasis on how those mobilization efforts affect individuals with specialized needs.
Caption:
”Transportation access means enabling people to go not only where they need to go, but where they want to go.”
Key Takeaways
All four panelists agreed that public transportation is anything but straightforward. A common obstacle mentioned during the webinar was time. To access public transportation, many individual riders with disabilities are forced to wake up earlier and get home later, spend longer navigating accessible stops and stations and ride on shuttles whose routes add additional time to already long commutes.
Services like Access Transportation require scheduling rides in advance and provide windows of time when riders should be available for pickup, though these windows are broad and often inaccurate.
Panelists also underscored how inconsistent service outside major urban areas can compound these challenges. Gaps in route connections, inaccurate schedules and reduced ride frequency make commuting unpredictable. External factors such as traffic and vehicle collisions can further disrupt reliability, which create consequences that disproportionally affect riders who already face systemic barriers to mobility.
Transportation and accessibility are deeply intertwined with public infrastructure, equity and dignity, which makes accessible transportation more than just reaching destinations.
As panelists emphasized, it is about maintaining independence, connection and full participation in community life. Access means enabling people to go not only where they need to go, but where they want to go.