From the Detroit News:

Disability rights advocates are threatening to file federal ADA complaints over Detroit’s para-transit service, saying they regularly encounter unkempt and poorly equipped vans and rude drivers who engage in reckless driving, don’t show up at the appointed time and place, and drop clients at the wrong addresses.

The complaints come as the city is engaged in an ongoing contract dispute with its para-transit provider, prompting city officials to hire taxicabs and van services while attempting to resolve the dispute. Veolia Transportation has sued the city in federal court for breach of contract and a claim of $5.4 million.

City officials charge that Veolia is fanning complaints against the city in an attempt to win speedy resolution of its claims.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

According to a report by the National Council on Disability, the federal government still lags in including Americans with disabilities and their advocates in planning for disasters.

The report comes four years after hundreds of people with disabilities were stranded in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Thirty-five died when a nursing home flooded.

“People with disabilities are often left out of planning activities such as analyzing and documenting the possibility of an emergency or disaster and the potential consequences or impacts on life, property and the environment, ” the report says. “These activities include assessing the hazards, risks, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery needs.”

See also:

Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices —New York Times Magazine

Columnist Merlene Davis writes that Lexington, KY, does not provide adequate public transportation services for people with disabilities, with some buses ending services as early as 6 p.m. Two organizations, Project Easy Access Lexington and the Latitude Artist Community, are calling for changes.

An excerpt:

If President Barack Obama had invited members of the physically disabled community in Lexington to have a beer with him late one evening at a local pub, many of them would have had to decline.

Or, if one of the disabled was offered a third-shift job that starts after bus service stops, they would have to pass on it.

… Shouldn’t a community like ours ensure access for all its citizens to all available events or employment opportunities?

(From the Lexington, KY, Herald-Leader)

From the Washington Post (with video) and ABC News:

Technology developed by engineers at Virginia Tech put 20 blind drivers behind the wheel at the summer science academy organized by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB).

Virginia Tech developed the technology in response to a 2004 challenge from NFB for a vehicle to give more independence to people who are blind.

Pioneering driver Wesley Majerus from the National Federation of the Blind said, “At first, I was kind of nervous … But once I got the hang of how it all worked, it was liberating.”

The all-terrain vehicle is equipped with laser sensors, voice-command software, and multi-sensory signals, but engineers say the technology is still crude and needs further development.

[Dennis Hong, an associate professor at Virginia Tech who directs the robotics lab] predicts a safe, stable technology for blind motorists will arrive “within the next three years. The problem is not the technology. The problem is public perception and legal issues.”

See also:

‘Blind Man Driving!’ (photos) — Washington Post

(Washington Post photo)

From the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News:

The Detroit school district has announced a plan to lay off 75 percent of the approximately 210 school bus attendants who assist kids with disabilities to and from school, arousing the ire of parents, advocates and labor unions.

The cuts, which were part of a budget cutting effort that is closing 29 schools, will save the district an estimated $5.8 million.

“I’m outraged,” said one mother. “We need them on the buses, for the safety of the bus drivers, for the safety of the kids. These services cannot be discarded.”

From the [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star Tribune:

Eleven Minneapolis-area counties are scrambling to prop up a regional transportation system for people with disabilities after legislators eliminated its roughly $2.5 million funding. The surprise budget cut takes effect July 1.

The program had arranged for some 220,000 people to go on an estimated million trips to doctors’ appointments and other activities last year.

An investigation by Los Angeles television station KABC finds widespread evidence that bus drivers are putting the safety of wheelchair riders at risk and violating federal civil rights laws.

• Part 1: Wheelchairs on buses not always secured (with video)
• Part 2: Caught on tape: Wheelchair woes on MTA (with video)
• Part 3: MTA begins using tether straps on buses (with video)

In a two-month investigation, hidden cameras showed bus drivers were not properly securing wheelchairs and passengers. Undercover video showed broken equipment and drivers who said they were not trained, or too busy to help wheelchair riders secure their chairs as required by federal law. KABC found 957 accessibility complaints submitted to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) over the past 27 months.

In Part 2, a bus driver was not able to secure a passenger’s wheelchair and told her she would have to “hold on to the chair.” When she replied that she was not able to do so, the driver responded, “Yes, you can.”

“Every single day, they’re supposed to be checking their buses to see that they have that equipment,” said disability rights attorney David Geffen. “Somebody’s not doing their job at the MTA.”