Public Transportation Access and Community Participation for Latinxs with Disabilities

People with disabilities often report barriers to accessing and participating in their communities. These barriers in participation can be related to barriers to transportation access, especially access to public transportation services. For Latinxs with disabilities, these barriers in community participation and transportation access can be compounded due to additional linguistic, cultural, and discrimination-related factors. The current study is a mixed methods, two-part exploration of barriers to public transportation and community access for Latinxs with disabilities. The first part of the study is a mixed-methods survey identifying barriers to public transportation access and community participation for Latinxs with disabilities compared to non-Latinx white people with disabilities. The second part of the study consists of qualitative focus groups with Latinxs with disabilities in Chicago, IL to further explore these barriers and their link to community participation for this population. The results of this study show that Latinxs with disabilities experience more barriers on fixed route and paratransit compared to their non-Latinx counterparts due to language barriers, documentation status, SES, experiences of discrimination, and cultural context. These barriers affects Latinxs with disabilities’ opportunities for community participation. A model was developed to illustrate the impact of these factors on public transportation access and community participation for Latinxs with disabilities. The results of this research will be utilized to facilitate community access for Latinxs with disabilities through influencing transportation policy and provision and results will be shared with the Latinx community in Chicago and nationwide.