| Man loses paratransit ride
For the past four years, Utah Transit Authority's efforts to get more people out of paratransit vans and onto buses and TRAX has been working, thanks to stepped-up enforcement of eligibility standards.
UTA's goal was to shrink costs without hampering disabled riders' access to their wider communities. The agency believes it has been successful.
But this month, UTA's paratransit manager denied further service to Matthew Padley, a 31-year-old North Salt Lake resident whose family doesn't believe he can ride the bus safely.
Padley has had brain damage since birth. He is autistic, obsessive-compulsive, has club feet and severe arthritis. But because paratransit evaluators examine riders' mental and physical abilities, not their maladies, UTA declared Padley could ride paratransit vans only under certain conditions.
FEATURE - India's downtrodden disabled find power in the law
BANGALORE (Reuters) - When disabled Hindu worshippers in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu were blocked from entering temples with their wheelchairs and crutches, Meenakshi Balasubramanian knew she had the law on her side. The disabled rights activist, who herself has polio, sued the temple authorities in the state's high court, and won. Today, she said, temples must provide wheelchairs to disabled visitors if they ban them from bringing in their own medical equipment on the basis the devices are ritually impure. "I do feel it's our right, a religious right, a fundamental right," Balasubramanian said. "We need to be allowed to worship the way we want to." Tired of waiting for the government to safeguard their rights to pray, work, learn and travel, India's 22 million disabled people are increasingly turning to the courts.
UMass Transit adds five new buses
The University of Massachusetts Transit system added five new buses to its fleet in the middle of August, and plans to add another five by the end of the academic year.
The new buses were designed to be more accommodating to disabled passengers and are equipped with wheelchair-accessible ramps.
"On the older buses, passengers had to roll their wheelchairs onto the lifts in the back, and the bus driver would operate the lift. With the new buses, they can just roll on by themselves," said Transit Services manager, Al Byam.
The buses, which were manufactured by Gillig Corp. of Hayward, California, are run by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). They are blue and orange, seat 40 passengers, and are marked with the new PVTA logo.
"The new buses also have the most fuel efficient diesel engine," said Byam.
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