Last year, the Bloomberg administration said it had settled a major class-action lawsuit which argued that the city was violating the Americans With Disabilities Act because only about 230 of the city’s more than 13,000 yellow taxis were accessible to wheelchair users.

Image Reaction to the new proposal was mixed within the taxi industry. Credit... Bryan Thomas for The New York Times

But a hearing on the proposed changes was postponed after Mr. de Blasio took office, a move that the plaintiffs described as a breach of the agreement, writing to a federal judge that it might be necessary to “reinstate discovery and the litigation.”

On Feb. 27, the judge set a timetable for the publication of new rules and the public hearing that is required to accompany them. A lawyer for the plaintiffs agreed to the new schedule after the administration offered assurances that it was committed to making 50 percent of the fleet accessible by 2020.

A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio said the surcharge would not end in 2020.

Reaction to the new proposal, which was reported on Tuesday afternoon by Capital New York, was mixed within the taxi industry. Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said that while the group supports the expansion of wheelchair-accessible cabs, a surcharge “keeps drivers more in debt but creates the illusion to the rider that the driver is earning more.”