NADTC’s DEIA Statement
At the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC), we are dedicated to advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) across all aspects of our work. By embracing diversity, promoting equity, fostering inclusion, and ensuring accessibility, we are committed to taking a comprehensive approach in supporting transportation systems to address mobility needs of all older adults, individuals with disabilities and caregivers, especially those from marginalized and underserved communities.
To foster a common understanding of what is meant by DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) from the Center’s perspective, the following definitions are provided:
Diversity: Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another.
Equity: Transportation equity ensures access to transportation services in a systematically fair and just way for all individuals who need a ride.
Inclusion: Inclusion ensures that all people, regardless of age or disability [or any other characteristic] should be able to live independently and participate fully in their communities and have the right to make choices and control the decisions in and about their lives. In the field of transportation, inclusion seeks to ensure that all riders and potential transportation users are respected, have opportunities to be engaged, and understand that their contributions are valued.
Accessibility: Transportation accessibility pertains to the design and provision of transportation services, environments, and information that can be accessed, understood, and used by all individuals, including older adults and people with disabilities.
National Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity
DEI Advisory Committee with NADTC staff December 2023
Since its inception in 2020, NADTC’s DEIA initiative has been guided and directed by a National Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, comprising representatives of national organizations whose work is focused on transportation, aging, disability and diversity. NADTC has developed and produced numerous resources through this initiative to advise and assist local implementation of DEIA efforts by aging, disability and transportation organizations. A sampling of those resources are highlighted below.
