Web Site Gives Help to Disabled Travelers

Travelers with disabilities have a vast new online resource, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Web site, at https:// www.fhwa.dot.gov/ada, is a kind of “Whole Earth Catalog” of laws, agencies and advocacy groups concerned with increasing access to transportation.

For instance, the site offers phones and addresses of government agencies where you can file complaints; links to Amtrak and Greyhound guides for the disabled; the text of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act; and proposed legislation, with dates and locations of public hearings.

Also last week, the DOT announced it will remove the $2,500 cap on compensation that airlines are required to provide if they damage wheelchairs. Earlier this year, the department came under fire from the National Council on Disability, which accused it of failing to adequately pursue disability-related complaints against airlines and of not doing enough to inform disabled travelers of their rights.