The classifieds in this issue offer a diverse group of jobs including a transit general manager and several other executive positions!

“I want to live a spontaneous life.” That’s what one young man told us at an event hosted by Easter Seals Project ACTION(ESPA) in partnership with the Division of Career Development Transition on the need to increase focus on transportation for youth with disabilities.

As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of ADA, are we close to this vision for spontaneous living? According to a National Council on Disability report: “In the transportation industry, I think we’ve seen great success and a sea change in perspective that has equaled access to accessible transportation for millions of people who, before, could not get a ride.”

ESPA was founded 22 years ago to help build bridges and provide technical assistance to the disability and transportation communities to increase accessible transportation. At the 2010 APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference in Cleveland, the organization showcased one result of this effort: “Walk and Roll,” where transportation professionals walked in partnership and solidarity with friends and colleagues from the disability community.

Many transportation providers have a shared vision with the disability community. Awareness has increased in communities regarding how to ensure that inclusive, independent living principles and the precepts of ADA exist in the operations and practices of transportation providers.

In the current era of community-based services and supports, almost all buses are accessible; communities have coordinated plans to leverage transportation services across policy and program stovepipes; and human services coordinated transportation services exist in many localities. Programs like travel training assist people to learn to use their chosen transportation resource, and mobility managers connect people with the right transportation systems in their community and help to address gaps in service or unmet needs.

We have work to do, however, to create a multimodal national accessible transportation infrastructure navigable across county, state, urban, suburban, and rural lines.

The many new livability projects funded jointly by DOT, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency are addressing this need to make our nation livable. With champions like Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FTA Administrator Peter M. Rogoff, we see unprecedented investments in livability.

For the next 20 years of ADA, perhaps we should focus on creating a national infrastructure of navigable accessible transportation resources that enable spontaneous mobility for everyone, anywhere, anytime.

Participants in the “Walk and Roll” at the APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference in Cleveland included, from left, APTA Chair M.P. Carter; Jesse O. Anderson, a member of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Board of Trustees and the APTA Access Committee and ADA Subcommittee; and APTA President William Millar. Photo by Sam Adamo

 

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