Accessible, affordable land transportation for persons with disabilities? It sounds like science fiction. Although noticeable efforts have been made in the private and public sectors concerning the issues, riders with disabilities still face obstacles getting from Point A to Point B.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has forced public buses to install folding ramps and lifts so individuals in wheelchairs can ride. For those who don’t live close to a bus stop, many major cities provide Paratransit service where a wheelchair accessible bus transports customers from their homes to desired destinations and vice versa for $2.50.

Sounds ideal, doesn’t it? Not quite. For example, if you need to go to the grocery store for a few things in Greater Cleveland, you’re dreaming if you think Paratransit can take you there in a day, two, or even five days. To increase your chances of landing a trip to a non-medical destination, you need to schedule seven days in advance. You can also boost your ride potential if the desired place is within a five-mile radius of your home or if standard bus service occurs at the time and in the area that your ride is taken. Even then, Paratransit can’t guarantee rides until the day prior to the trip.

If you are lucky enough to get a Paratransit ride, you still must abide to limiting policies. Even though buses have ample room and big strong drivers, passengers cannot bring more than four bags. As you can imagine, stocking up for winter may endanger riding privileges. Many drivers also show a lack of compassion by refusing to help passengers in wheelchairs ascend and descend steps because they’d get trouble with the office.

Yeah, right, passengers endlessly complain if drivers go beyond the call of duty. Funny, drivers are not scared of being reprimanded if they talk on cell phones or stop at stores to pick up a few items with passengers waiting on board. Yet, drivers don’t dare come aboard with more than four bags.

You can always go with a private transportation company that can take you anywhere and probably won’t complain about the number of bags you bring on board. Of course, you would have to be a wealthy person with a disability, which is like seeing the Browns winning the Super Bowl.

Specialized transportation companies in Cleveland, for instance, charge from $50 to $90 a roundtrip plus $1.00 to $2.50 per mile. Nevertheless, medical trips are generally free if you have appropriate insurance. So, when you go to the doctor’s, check if a shopping center or some other fun place is nearby. That way you can enjoy yourself after seeing the doctor without paying for the ride!

The ADA also has compelled taxi companies to offer services to persons in collapsible wheelchairs. Boston, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angles, along with two Virginia counties, have accessible taxi service.

For example,
Los Angles has 127 accessible cabs, Boston has 42, and Fort Lauderdale has 21.

Chicago passed an ordinance requiring that one in every 15 taxis must be equipped with a ramp or a lift. Surprisingly, these cities didn’t dig deep holes in their budgets with their investments in accessibility. When purchased in discounted volumes, accessible minivans are only $1,000 to $2,000 more than Ford sedans, which are standard taxi vehicles.

New York cabbies are catching up. Thanks to its Taxis for All campaign, the Big Apple has twenty-seven accessible cabs. Considering the city’s size, additional accessible livery vehicles are needed, however. To make matters worse, 32% of NYC livery drivers refuse to service passengers with wheelchairs.

Nonetheless, New York does have a regulation that prevents cab drivers from charging extra for transporting customers who use wheelchairs. Taxi services in Greater Cleveland are not that benevolent. When they see customers in wheelchairs, their pupils become dollar signs. Maple Heights Taxi in Greater Cleveland, for example, charges wheelchair users $12 for a one-mile ride! Accessible taxis in other big cities such as Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Seattle are also a rarity.

Granted, daily transportation services for persons with disabilities have improved greatly since the birth of the ADA twenty years ago. Public bus lines are now accessible and more private transportation services continue to appear. Even some taxi companies have boarded the accessibility bandwagon. To keep building on these milestones, we must continue to educate transportation leaders in the private and public sectors that persons with disabilities will not sit still.

Do you use Paratransit services in your area? We would like to know your experiences on it. Email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com and join the Online Forum.

To be disabled or not? That is the

Roving Rose Knows

question. Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it seems that everyone wants to be disabled so they can get privileges or benefits. While this may embrace having a disability, it may also belittle the rights of those disabled individuals who really need some sort of accommodation.

Take the 350 female employees who sued their employers for firing them after taking off to seek vitro fertilization. They won $1.5 million because the courts ruled that their infertility is a disability. They based their ruling on how the ADA defines a disability: “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment.”

Certainly, being infertile does substantially limit the major life activity of giving birth. Yet, unlike “standard disabilities,” being infertile does not pose a major obstacle to daily living.

Or take the Chapsky v. Baxter V. Mueuller case where the court ruled that being pregnant is also considered a disability. The court held that a terminated employee was covered by the ADA merely because she was pregnant at the time of her discharge.

Although being pregnant may not substantially limit a life activity, the employer may have perceived the employee’s pregnancy as limiting her work, thus making it a disability,

With the ADA’s broad definition of disability, anyone can claim that he or she has a disability and can reap the benefits from the ADA. Granted, almost everyone has some “disability,” whether it’s wearing reading glasses because you are far sighted, wearing platform shoes because you are short, having a hearing aid because you cannot hear, or being in a wheelchair because you can’t walk. But which ones really apply to the ADA? Which ones really deserve its benefits?

Now, because some judge ruled that infertile women are legally disabled, they’re probably eligible for handicapped parking spots and even try to apply for Social Security and other government benefits.

If infertile women and others who claim to be disabled, such as those who have HIV, take advantage of the ADA, those of us who have “old fashioned” disabilities might experience more difficulty to obtain the rights that we so rightly deserve.

Funds, housing, transportation, and opportunities might become scarce if everyone who cries “discrimination” gets on the ADA bandwagon.

I’m not saying that discrimination against infertility, pregnancy, or HIV should go unnoticed. However, these medical conditions and all other disabilities should be prioritized according to their needed accommodations.

For example, the ADA could have stated that persons with mobility impairments, such as those who use wheelchairs, crutches, or have difficulty walking, have sole priority to accessible public transportation, housing, and parking spaces. They, along with persons who have hearing, learning, or visual impairments, must also have priority over financial government benefits since they may have more difficulty providing for themselves than someone who is infertile or has HIV.

Suffering from infertility, HIV, or any other hidden or temporary medical condition should only be addressed under Title 1, Section 102 of the ADA, the section which describes what constitutes job discrimination.

Or perhaps they should be covered under a separate law, one that explicitly focuses on medical conditions not requiring the full package that the ADA offers. The law could be called the Americans with Hidden or Temporary Medical Conditions Act (AHTMCA). Not only would the AHTMCA prevent persons with hidden or temporary medical conditions from exploiting the ADA, it may also decrease the number of lawsuits filed due to disability discrimination.

The AHTMCA could clearly state that an employer should not terminate the employment of an infertile or pregnant woman or any other non-disabled individual upon seeking medical treatment.

How to define a hidden or temporary medical condition would be fairly easy. It could be defined as “a condition that may need medical attention but doesn’t permanently limit one’s daily living.” Once again, however, the rub would be which conditions would fall under the definition.

Infertility and pregnancy would certainly fit the definition, but would HIV, drug and alcohol addiction, depression, or even frequent colds fall under the same category?

By far, the simplest solution is for all of us to be more compassionate, tolerant, and understanding of one another’s imperfect conditions. But since that fairy tale won’t completely come true, we can only hope that Congress can rectify the ambiguity of the ADA so those who really deserve its benefits can continue to have them.
Do you agree with Rosemary? Let us know. Email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com or join the Online Forum to discuss this topic with others.

Telecommuting has become a cost-effective, convenient, and safe alternative to the typical 9-to-5-office job. This employment option allows employees to work from home and dispatch their work via email, telephone, fax, or courier. Telecommuting is becoming the golden access key to the working world, especially in the special needs community.

An article published by the White House titled “Fulfilling America’s Promise to Americans with Disabilities” cited that unemployment rates for these individuals have “hovered at the 70 percent level for the past 12 years.” So many disabled persons are unemployed not because they are lazy, uneducated, or ineffective; but rather because they have physical–or other–limitations that make commuting to an office a difficult task.

Telecommuting completely erases these obstacles, creating a dynamic work environment that yields high productivity. President Bush believes so strongly in telecommuting for persons with disabilities that he has proposed a budget of $20 million for a new Access to Telework Fund.

“By offering a telecommuting workplace to my associates,” explains Debra Ruh, owner of web accessibility consulting firm, “we have widened the employee pool from which we can choose our employees and eliminate these barriers.”

CEO, Richard Belyea, adds, “Individuals with disabilities, through the use of computers and the internet, can now fulfill their dreams of a career.”

Belyea explains, “Technology has reached a point where time and space have become less important in the workplace. The traditional challenges of commuting and working eight-hour shifts no longer apply. Now a disabled worker can schedule his work to fit his unique lifestyle requirements, not the other way around.”

Nevertheless, telecommuting has certain caveats. Employees who telecommute need to remain focused while they work at home. Therefore, they must be very self-motivated in order to establish an effective telecommuting work environment.

To reinforce self-motivation, Mrs. Ruh suggests constant communication with employees. “E-mail messages, progress reports, and telephone calls must be made to ensure that proper goals and deadlines are being met,” she says.

Completing projects in measurable tasks can also help monitor work progress. Employees who are involved in telework in other companies and agencies have found other psychological barriers. Some need to delineate between their work and personal lives. Therefore, they must find someplace outside of the home to feel as if they have “gone to work.”

Others have a difficult time calling a colleague at home on a work issue because the telephone is always busy. In these instances, the recommendation is for the employee to have a second phone line used solely for office work. This often eliminates any apprehension a coworker may have in calling.

Face-to-face contact among employees that telecommute may be a concern for persons working certain types of jobs. Mary Otten, a blind accessibility-testing specialist, uses assistive technology for the blind to test software applications, web pages, and specially formatted documents to ensure that they are accessible and usable by the blind.

Mrs. Otten noted that although she does her job very well without face-to-face contact, having a sighted person available who is familiar with the web page or software she is testing would assure her that she does her job more thoroughly.

In these instances, Mrs. Otten asks her sighted spouse to indicate specific areas to her that she might be missing.

Tracy Buetow, an Operations Manager, also feels the need for in-person communication. “You may never meet the people you work with face-to-face. You cannot go to their office and see how they are progressing on a project. You have to hope that they will return your e-mail or call.”

Other employees noted that telecommuting lacks the socialization that is often associated with working in an office setting. This is both a gain and a loss. Although time is not lost at the coffee station at the office or by friendly small talk, work is no longer collegial, causing some employees to feel isolated.

This is the case of Sean Stapleford, who works from his room in a nursing home. He enjoys the flexibility a telecommuting workplace has provided for him, but regrets the lack of socialization associated with his job.

To help combat this and to help build camaraderie among the team, Jesse Evans, Jr., a Business Development Manager, frequently visits certain employees to make sure they are in good health and spirits.

He also retrieves status reports or hard copies of documents.

Another way to resolve the isolation factor of telecommuting is chat messenger systems, as many employees with disabilities can chat online, in between completed projects. They can also conduct work sessions using the chat messenger. Not only does this make telecommuting employees feel less isolated, it also further motivates them.

From the employer’s standpoint, a major benefit of telecommuting is cost reduction. An AT&T study estimates that each employee who telecommutes can save their employers $100,000 a year in absenteeism and job retention costs.

Criterion Economics predicts that telecommuters will save businesses $30 million in 10 years. The figure includes workplace modifications from ramps to keyboard adaptations.

Mac McCuller, a Vice President of Sales and Marketing, notes, “Today we are seeing many large companies outsource work to more cost-effective work locations, such as India.

Companies who rely on teleworking, have already established a model for these companies to emulate, achieving the cost savings and work efficiencies realized by eliminating the overhead costs associated with a physical plant for our employees to work from, or report to, every day. ”

And lastly, another advantage of allowing an individual with a disability to telecommute is that the employer can easily adhere to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provision of providing reasonable job accommodations. Of course, if the employer insists that the person works onsite, then the company is obliged to modify the office accordingly.

Telecommuting for persons with disabilities offers a myriad of solutions to businesses to make E&IT more accessible so others also have the barrier-free option of working at home.

Rosemary Musachio, has cerebral palsy, and uses a head pointer and word board to communicate. She is a telecommuter, journalists, and top employee of TecAccess, a leading web accessibility company.

What is your favorite technological device? Let us know. Write to us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com or join the Online Forum.