Spring Break
Disabled left without reliable transportation
Trevor Simonton
Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: News
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But after the city pulled funds from Dial-A-Ride, Fort Collins' call-in transportation service for disabled citizens, the wheelchair user was forced to complete a rigorous recertification process in order to access the service reevaluated under newer, stricter guidelines.
Now, Wilson and about 60 others struggle to get these special service rides when they need them. And the city -- which continues to meet the "minimum service requirements of the American's Disabilities Act" -- says those patrons will not be offered the same unrestricted service because they are still considered able enough to use the standard, fixed-route bus service."They didn't have enough money, so they had to toss a few of us off of the system," said the 49-year-old amputee, who cannot leave the house without her electric wheelchair. "Now I get bounced back and forth between Transfort and Dial-A-Ride."
She said her heavy reliance on the city's transportation services has been excessively complicated for more than a year now because of the Dial-A-Ride funding cuts.
But her discomfort with the system comes not only from these complications, but more so from the history of her disability. It was 12 years ago when she suffered her life-changing injury; a car lost control and hit her and her mother while they waited at a bus stop, forever confining Wilson to a wheelchair.
Viewing Comments 1 - 8 of 11
Eric Sutherland
posted 5/12/08 @ 1:28 PM MST
Great article on a very important subject. This type of enterprise reporting rivals the best that Fort Collins print media has to offer.
Craig Hawley
posted 5/12/08 @ 2:22 PM MST
the last three words under the pic. TRANSFORT? LOL!
OK I don't ever want to hear about my spelling again.
Craig Hawley
posted 5/12/08 @ 4:28 PM MST
I stand corrected and still will get flack for spelling. Oh the humanity.
Thanks for the heads up Amy. Color me embarrassed. :)
Amy
posted 5/12/08 @ 5:27 PM MST
Well...since I can't spell actually correctly...color me embarrassed :)
Marcia Fitzhorn
posted 5/13/08 @ 1:00 PM MST
Incredible amount of information put out in a relatively short article; well done. What unbelievable obstacles to put in the way of a person who faces more obstacles each day than I want to imagine. (Continued…)
Bob
posted 5/22/08 @ 11:27 PM MST
seems to me the ones that need the transportation are having to jump through alot of hoops (dont mind the pun there)but yet every day I see (and i take care of someone in a wheelchair so yes EVERY day) people that dont really need handicap access are getting it without fail, handicapped parking is the main one i see, something needs to be done about that
Bob
posted 5/22/08 @ 11:59 PM MST
Ok sorry about that last one, i went off the subject a bit, but it does irritate me to see people in need have to do this and that to get where they need to go and places to park, if you go stand in a shopping center parking lot where the handicapped section is and get you a list of 50 cars that come in, under 10 of those will be handicapped accessible vans, 10 more will have some kind of problem walking in and 30 will have no problem at all, not sure if im wrong or not but people over a certain age or weight get a handicapped tag for parking automaticly, i have seen quite well ables people jump out of an SUV or pickup and pretty much run into the store, but the handicapped tag on their window says different, now i know you dont see all handicapps right away but most of them dont consist of jumping out of a truck and running to a store, maybe im wrong on this one and maybe im not looking at it right, someone please let me know what you think of this
Craig Hawley
posted 5/23/08 @ 5:42 PM MST
I have seen lots of abuse of the Handicapped parking placards. I know that people let other family members and friends use the placards. It's a shame. (Continued…)
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