Under the Reagan administration, the U.S. DOT wrote new regulations that allowed transit agencies to limit their services to people with disabilities, as long as 3% of their budget went towards para-transit services.

As a result, cities across the country began to build bus and rail systems entirely unequipped for people with disabilities, and segregated paratransit services in Philadelphia and elsewhere proved to be wholly inadequate.

Starting in 1985, the Law Center partnered with DIA and disability rights attorney Steve Gold to help bring a series of cases aiming to restore the right to accessible transit in Philadelphia and across the country