It would be a long day for Jean Ryan, who had to travel out to Long Island for a wheelchair evaluation. To get around New York, she would normally call for the Access-A-Ride, an alternative form of transportation for the city's disabled. In order to make the trip, Jean arranged for a pick-up by Access-A-Ride to drop her off at a mall, where she could switch to another para-transit company in Long Island called AbleRide. This second ride would take her to the wheelchair place. She would have to reverse the process to get back home.
The driver of AbleRide that day would only lift Jean up into the vehicle as she faced backwards, a common practice of para-transit workers. When she is raised into the bus, it is hard to distinguish at what height she is and how secure the wheels are to the metal lift. It is a moment that lacks trust, as she has no way of keeping an eye on the person operating the lift. She has little mobility due to neuropathy, a loss of nerves and sensations, in her arms and legs. All she can look to is beyond the parking lot of the suburban mall as she, slowly, she recedes into the vehicle.
The experience can be terrifying and embarrassing for wheelchair riders such as Jean, who are forced face away from the bus as it lifts them upwards into the vehicle. It is also a matter of preference, as the rider feels it is their right to decide what they are comfortable with.
"I told him that the ADA said we could board either way and I can't see very well, I have vision problems and I need to board forward for safety reasons," says Jean. "He said it's his bus and I have to do things his way, and that's the way he was trained so I have to do it that way."
Jean had posted a photo of herself being lifted onto the bus facing forwards with the phrase "Either Way Is OK," along with a Customer Bill of Rights, in order to make this right clear. Both documents were posted at every Access-A-Ride terminal, vehicle and office. It was an act in response to the drivers who were being told that wheelchair riders could only board the lift of the bus backwards.
These incidents were not the first bouts of protestation by Jean toward Access-A-Ride. Since 1994 she has been using the service, and since then she has been fighting to improve the system. Before moving to New York in 1968, Jean was an activist in her college years, in the South during the Civil Rights era. Her disability activism began when she, years later and working at Hunter College, needed a proper place to park and charge her scooter at night. Jean's issues were constantly passed around (according to her, like a "hot potato") until the Dean gave the situation attention. Though her boss told her they couldn't hand her a favor, she filed a complaint with a 504 coordinator and was granted a space.
The school wanted her to sign a liability waiver, but she refused. "I said they didn't require that of anyone else and I wouldn't do it until they did the same for every other student, staff member, and faculty member," says Jean. "I pointed out that she had an office full of personal things and she didn't do it and other people kept things in Hunter, too. They were trying to single me out. All this made me an immediate activist again."
In the late 90's, Jean retired because Access-A-Ride was wearing her down. She made the decision to become a volunteer disabilities rights activist after retirement, and came into contact with a group called Disabled in Action. Her focuses have been on the improvement of buses and the Access-A-Ride system, as well as elevators in subway stations.
Since then, Jean has seen a lot of improvement with the Access-A-Ride due to various demonstrations, letters and publicity pieces in newspaper, hearings at City Hall and even investigations by the Federal Transit Administration. She has been on two Paratransit Advisory Committees and is currently on one which meets every two months at the Access-A-Ride headquarters. Disabled In Action has brought attention to the MTA's lack of response to complaints and was recently able to push for a three hour late-cancellation on AAR rides, when any late cancellations made an hour before resulted in penalties for the riders.
"We complained that we were being stranded in places with confusing pick-up points and got designated pick-up points such as Port Authority and various hospital pick-up points," says Jean. "We got the MTA to publish the list of designated pick-up points on their website and we publish it on our website. We had a joint meeting with the Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities and DOT about enlarging and redesigning the AAR signs for the pick-up locations."
Following the event in Long Island, Jean contacted AbleRide's customer service, but received no answer. A day later, a customer service representative called, explaining it was company police that they could not allow wheelchair riders to board backwards. Jean insisted that she had posted documents explaining the rule of "Either Way is OK", but according to Jean, the representative didn't want to hear it. Instead, Jean made several phone calls, including one to the head of the buses in the MTA and finally, an e-mail to Tom Charles, head of Access-A-Ride.
"I seldom do that because a pest gets ignored," said Jean. "I got a call back late Friday. I was so excited because when I asked him who was over AbleRide, he said he was! I said Yippeee!"
Tom Charles said he was unaware of the policy and would look into it. "I know he'll take care of it," said Jean. "I told him I don't want to have a confrontation with another driver or be stranded out in Long Island the next time I go out there which will be next month."
Jean Ryan is the Vice President of Public Affairs for Disabled in Action, and resides in Brooklyn.
Photo Courtesy of Disabled in Action Website.
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