Your Civil Rights
No matter who you are, you have the right to use Metro, and we are committed to ensuring that Metro’s services are provided to everyone fairly and in a non-discriminatory manner. Your rights are guaranteed by federal and state law, enshrined in our policies, and protected by our employees.
We take your rights seriously. If you believe your rights have been violated, you can make a complaint and we will investigate it.
Our commitment to you
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, or Metro) is committed to ensuring that no person is excluded from participation in or denied the benefits of its services on the basis of race, color or national origin. Your rights are protected by a federal law known as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), known as Title VI (pronounced “title six”).
To make sure everyone is able to use our services, we are committed to:
- Providing services fairly: Ensuring that we provide our transportation services in a nondiscriminatory manner.
- Safeguarding communities from the negative impacts of our services: Identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects of programs and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.
- Including everyone in our decision-making: Promoting the full and fair participation in public transportation decision-making without regard to race, color, or national origin.
- Supporting people with limited English skills: Ensuring meaningful access to transit-related programs and activities by persons with limited and no-English proficiency (LEP/NEP).
The General Manager, senior management, and all supervisors and employees share the responsibility for carrying out Metro's commitment to Title VI. The Title VI staff is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the program and the staff receives and investigates Title VI complaints we receive.
Learn more about our Title VI policy and your rights
Más información sobre nuestra política del Título VI y sus derechos (Español)
Learn more about Title VI in other languages:
Language assistance
As required by Title VI, Metro makes information available in many languages, and provides other language support, so that even people who do not read or speak English well can use our services. We are required to provide this extra help to people with limited English proficiency (LEP) or non-English proficiency (NEP) because we receive funding from the Federal Transportation Administration, but we also do it because it helps us serve our riders better.
We choose our languages based on the languages people read and speak in the communities we serve, and every few years we update our Language Assistance Plan based on changes in our ridership and our communities.
View Metro’s Language Assistance Plan
You can view this website in more than 10 languages using the controls at the top of this page.
If you need extra help in a language other than English to understand how to use Metro Rail, Metro Bus, or Metro Access, our customer information team (202-637-7000, TTY 202-638-3780) can help you in more than 300 languages using a telephone interpreter.
For further information on Metro's language assistance services, you can contact:
Office of Equal Employment Opportunity
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
300 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024
202-962-2582
Equal Employment Opportunity
Metro is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal laws that prohibit workplace discrimination and retaliation. All employment actions and treatment of employees will be administered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other status or classification protected by applicable federal laws.
Title VI Documents
Metro is required to submit a Title VI Program Update to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) every three years. The Title VI Program Update provides evidence that Metro operated in a nondiscriminatory way over the previous three years, and it is approved by Metro's Board of Directors before we submit it.
View the current 2023 Title VI Program Update
We also maintain a Public Participation Plan (PPP), a guidebook that helps us ensure we are communicating clearly and effectively with all the communities we serve, so that we can deliver all our services in a way that is fair and meets our Title VI obligations. We developed our first PPP in 2013 by reviewing the practices of other transit agencies, interviewing staff and board members, and consulting with community-based organizations and the general public. We update the PPP every time we prepare a new Title VI Program Update.
The 2023-2026 edition of the PPP, approved by Metro's Board of Directors in December 2023, reflects the agency's evolution in public communication and outreach. This evolution includes new direction from Metro's 2023 Strategic Transformation Plan, new leadership and changes in organizational structure, successes and lessons learned over the past three years, and changes to outreach best practices after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Filing a Title VI complaint
If you believe your Title VI rights have been violated, you can file a complaint and we will investigate.
Learn how to file a complaint