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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommission On Disability - Minutes - 04/11/1983COMMISSION ON DISABILITY APRIL 11, 1983 6:30 P.M. The regular meeting of the Commission On Disability was called to order by chairperson Bobbie Guye at 6:40 P.M. on Monday, April 11, 1983, in the old Fire Station, 232 Walnut Street, Fort Collins, CO. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Eldon Decker, Bobbie Guye, Nancy Jackson, Char- lotte Kanode, Rosemary Kreston, Dorothy Lasley, Betty Pidcock, Rosalie Smith, Bett., Shuey. M,T'B'_RS ABSENT: Pat Crist, Mike Meyers CITY STAFF: Diana Royval GUESTS: Ingrid Jackoway, Bob Lee, Laird McCubbin, Anne Messner, Karen Smith, Louis Swift. PROGRAM Louis Swift described his 65 acres of idle land located off I-25 near the Timnath exit which he would like to develop into a recreation- al area that could accommodate special groups of people, including the handicapped population. Some of the activities that could be incor- porated are fishing, boating, camping, picnicing, nature trails, per- haps sledding in the winter, and spectator sports such as dog trials. CSU student Anne Messner displayed drawings of possible ways to make the area accessible, and requested input from members of COD. After much discussion, Anne and Louis were offered full cooperation on the project from the handicapped community, and asked to keep us posted on the latest developments. Bob Lee, Director of Streets and Traffic for the city of Fort Collins,was present to review the city's plans for expanding acces- sible areas in the city by installing ramps/curb cuts at various strategic intersections, and encouraged COD member cooperation in finalizing them. He distributed lists of the locations and pointed them out on a city map. Mr. Lee suggested that COD members visit the sites and send their recommendations to him by April 29. In order to expedite the matter, chairperson Bobbie Guye entreated mem- bers to be responsible for making a survey of their own neighborhoods by Monday, April 18, at Which time a special meeting will be called at 7:00 P.M. to discuss the findings. MINUTES Dorothy Lasley made a motion that the reading of last month's minutes be dispensed with and accepted as written. The motion was seconded and carried. -1- COD APRIL MEETING MINUTES - Page 2 504 LEGISLATIVE CAMPAIGN On March 21, 1983, Vice President George Bush dispatched a letter to Robert J. Funk at DREDF headquarters in Berkeley, California, to inform him that the Task Force for Regulatory Relief and the Depart- ment of Justice had reached the decision to leave the Section 504 regulations intact as originally written in coordination with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This was the direct result of the tre- mendous effort of disabled citizens and advocates throughout the nation who organized an all-out campaign to defeat the proposed re- visions of Section 504 and PL 94-142. No final work has been received concerning PL 94-142 as yet, however. DREDF sent out a memorandum synopsisizing some cases presently being reviewed by the United States Supreme Court which would affect. discrimination in employment and education under Section 504. Amicus briefs are being filed in the various cases, and it was suggested that letters of support be sent from COD, as well as from the Handicapped Information Office, the Larimer County Association of the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and the Office of Resources for Disabled Students. Bobbie Guye was appointed as contact person in the cross -cutting civil rights issue being examined in the Le Strange vs Consolidated Rail Corp. case by the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, and also in the case of the Grove City College vs Bell. She will write letters to the respective organizations and copies can be made for the other agencies to send. RESOURCE DIRECTORY" The resource directory has been updated and is now ready to be printed. Bobbie Guye agreed to have it typed on a large print machine and to get 250 copies made. In order to keep costs down, the cover will be made of construction paper. TRANSPORTATION REPORT Inasmuch as Nancy Jackson and Rosemary Kreston did not have their transportation report ready to submit to City Council, it will be re- viewed at the next meeting in May. SIGNING OF CITY HALLS The accessibility sign modifications for both the old and new City Halls as proposed by the sub -committee of Nancy Jackson, Rosemary Kres- ton, Diana Royval, and Betty Shuey were discussed and approved. They will be forwarded to Tom Frazier for further action. UPDATE ON ABRF APPLICATIONS In consulting with Mrs. Homer Chenot, Diana Royval was informed that Mrs. Chenot wants to decline having a roll -in shower installed for her husband at this time. An inspection of the floor in Carolyn McCormick's mobile home -2- COD APRIL MEETING MINUTES - Page 3 revealed it was not as deteriorated as had been implied, and she was referred to Neighbor to Neighbor for obtaining the other needed repairs. Dorothy Lasley reported that Ricky Keeton was interested in ap- plying for an Ability Phone. He should be encouraged to submit an an- plication at his earliest possible convenience. ADJOURNMENT Because of the lateness of the hour, the consensus of opinion was to table the remainder of the agenda items until next month. It was moved and seconded that the meeting be adjourned at 9:30 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Eldon Decker Secretary m INTRODUCTION Transportation is an important and necessary element for individuals if they are to become productive and contributing citizens. This is true for both the non -disabled as well as for the disabled population. For the latter group, lack of adequate transportation can be a formidable barrier to indepen- dent living. The city has recently responded quite well to the growing transportation needs for a significant portion of the community. The purchase of nine new buses and modification and expansion of travel routes has the potential to benefit a large number of citizens including those disabled individuals who are ambulatory. However, for those who are non -ambulatory and use wheelchairs for mobility, the transportation options still remain limited because the nine new buses are not lift equipped. It is to this limitation we wish to address our concern. BACKGROUND At present, the choices available to people using wheelchairs is limited to private or personal vehicles or to Care -A -Van. Although Care -A -Van provides a much needed service to a specific segment of the disabled popula- tion, the restrictions and criteria under which this service operates restricts an individual's options for independence. Care -A -Van has specific limitations that can severely impact an individual's freedom in employment, education and other daily activities. Despite the valuable door-to-door individual assistance this type of service provides, Care-A-Van's obligations to the Poudre RI school district and Foothills Gateway make it difficult for an adult wheelchair user to receive services during peak hours. Peak hours are early morning and late afternoon. A three-day lead time for scheduling is another added restriction to an individual's life- style. Furthermore, high demand for this service (according to Care -A -Van information --over 500 trips daily) requires a prioritization of trip purposes which may leave an individual without a ride if his/her purpose for the trip is deemed not as important as another request. While these are very typical problems faced by other paratransit systems and are to be expected, it is obvious that another accessible transportation system is needed in order to adequately and equally provide appropriate options for transportation to citizens in wheelchairs. Accessible mass transit systems have been developed in many cities such as Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, etc. to solve some of the transportation needs of wheelchair citizens. These systems often operate in conjunction with a paratransit system in order to provide a comprehensive delivery of service max- imumly efficient to all members of the community. We feel this service com- bination is an essential and workable goal for Fort Collins. Specifically for Fort Collins, an accessible Transfort system has the potential of lessening the demands already placed upon Care -A -Van which is designed for individuals requiring extra and individualized service. In addition, as more of the non - disabled population of the city come into contact with those who are disabled, it offers yet another chance for mainstreaming to have a positive effect in changing attitudes. We realize Transfort has already experimented with accessible service but with unsatisfactory results. We feel many external factors may have added to, if not caused, the experiment to produce such poor underutilization results. The buses used during this trial period were past their prime and retrofitted with lifts that were not originally designed for them. As a result, the two buses which traveled only two routes were constantly in need of repair which included vehicle breakdowns and malfunction of lifts. Con- sequently, potential handicapped riders were hesitant to depend on such an unreliable means of transportation. In addition, information about the accessible buses was not readily available and advertised to the general public. C� These factors are more likely the contributory reasons for low ridership of wheelchair patrons instead of lack of demand for service. RECOMMENDATIONS As shown by such cities as Denver and Seattle, ridership increases the longer a system is in use. It is obvious that developing an accessible mass transit system requires advanced planning, cooperation, and input from citi- zens who are potential riders. It is with this in mind that we submit the following suggestions for your consideration for future planning. 1. We strongly advise that any new buses purchased by the City either as replacement or to further expand Transfort service be guaranteed to have wheelchair lifts. This guarantee will help to ensure the slow but steady change over to accessible buses. Accessibility becomes a burdensome issue only when it is an afterthought rather than an automatic feature during the initial planning stage. Because of difficulty encountered by the old retrofitted vehicles, it is imperative that the style of bus selected be one which will have the lift installed during vehicle construction. This will alleviate mechanical difficulties in the future and prevent a recurrence of prior experiences. 2. There are no statistics concerning the number of potential wheelchair patrons who want to use public transportation. This lack of information makes it difficult to justify the purchase of accessible buses, yet it is obvious that these patrons do exist. Research is necessary to assess present needs and forecast the fupture public transportation needs of the disabled population, especially for those using wheel- chairs. As Fort Collins continues to grow, so too, will the population of disabled citizens. We suggest that an assess- ment study be coordinated by Transfort and Care -A -Van to use in future planning. 3. Since accessible public transportation greatly impacts two significant populations in Ft. Collins, we would like to see a Handicapped/Senior Task Force established to specifically address the transportation needs of these two distinct popu- lations. RTD in Denver has developed one and could be used as a model. Although Care -A -Van presently has a board of directors, it is not clear whether their function is to address the needs of the community or if they are specifically concerned with Care -A -Van solely as a service. If the former, perhaps this group could be used for the aforementioned purpose. However, we feel it would be more advantageous to have a consumer task force which would be more representative of the users of this transportation service. 4. In conjunction with the accessible mass transit system proposed, certain additional modifications are necessary to accommodate potential users. For example, planning should be initiated to ensure accessible bus stops which can be incorporated into the general maintenance and modifications the city already conducts. Since we have proposed a process that will take considerable time, this additional recommendation can also be implemented over an extended period of time. CONCLUSION Accessible transportation is not an impossible goal. Nor is it merely a luxury exclusively for disabled individuals. It has become in other cities an attainable and essential service and can be here in Ft. Collins. It is the means to a more productive and independent life if available to a community which strives to benefit all of society. We, as a representative group from the disabled community, would appreciate your consideration of our recommendations.