Recently, VetsFirst assisted the Community Transportation Association of America in the development of a brief that provides information about how employers can improve access to transportation for veterans and their families. Over the next five years, it is estimated that more than one million troops will return to civilian life. Many will have disabling conditions and most will want to find a good job.
VetsFirst involvement in helping disabled veterans find and use transportation is not new. Way back in 1979, I was one of three plaintiffs in a lawsuit in New York City that was decided almost five years later in our favor. Eventually, all the buses in my city became disabled-friendly, outfitted with wheelchair lifts or ramps, seating areas for those who use wheeled mobility devices, and tie-downs. And our success in New York was a major reason why there are accessible transportation requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.
Still, accessible public transportation does not exist everywhere in our nation. Let’s take a look at some fairly new strategies that might help you.
My first stop would be the Community Transportation Association of America’s website on Veterans Transportation Resources. This page contains a great deal of information about a large number of veterans transportation projects throughout the country, including communities where reduced or free fares are available to military personnel and their families; and, ADA complementary “door-to-door” paratransit service, which must be provided by transportation entities for those persons who are unable to use public transportation.
ADA paratransit services generally use smaller vehicles and they provide advance reservation service. This type of service can be offered directly by the transit agency, or by human service or nonprofit agencies. One way that I think of ADA paratransit service is that it may very well be more comfortable for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have sustained traumatic brain injuries or who are living with post-traumatic stress disorder.
There also exist two federal government tax benefits applicable to making businesses more accessible to individuals with disabilities, including wounded warriors. The IRS Section 44 tax credit allows eligible small businesses—those with gross receipts of $1 million or less, or with 30 or fewer employees—to take a tax credit of up to 50% of eligible access expenditures for the removal of , among others, transportation barriers that prevent a business from being accessible to individuals with disabilities. Thus, a small business can make one of its vehicles more accessible to accommodate a vet with a disability, and claim a tax credit for half of the cost of the modifications.
And, Section 190 of the IRS Code enables a business of any size to take a tax deduction of up to $15,000 per year for costs to make a transportation vehicle owned or leased in connection with a trade or business more accessible to individuals with disabilities, and this includes veterans with disabilities. Hopefully, today’s veterans with disabilities will take the above facts with them on their next interview if how to get to and from work is a big concern.
Terry Moakley
Chair of the VetsFirst Committee