Toronto Transit Authority Believes PWD Shouldn't Ride Buses, Part 1 of an ongoing series

[trouble]

Over 50% of the buses that Don & I have tried to take in Toronto have refused him service because he is disabled.

Of the five bus drivers who have refused us service, only one has followed the protocol that was outlined to us by TTC Customer Service yesterday. Today, a bus driver threatened to trap Don on the bus and force him to wait for the firetruck to come rescue him if I did not stop insisting that he follow TTC protocol in situations regarding broken ramps on buses. That same bus driver was reprimanded by the bus driver that finally accepted us on his bus because apparently the TTC is deliberately putting buses with broken ramps on wheelchair-accessible routes with wheelchair-accessible stickers on the buses and just telling wheelchair users to wait for the next bus. This will obviously allow them to say they have 100% of wheelchair accessible buses on routes when those buses are not wheelchair accessible.

Two bus drivers have not strapped Don's wheelchair into the bus, as they are required to do, and one driver did this improperly. This puts Don's life at risk. Without training, I cannot strap Don into the bus for them. I am not Don's caregiver, and should not be expected to do this work without pay, and while having to pay to be on the bus. When this sort of work is required of me on airlines or trains, I get a free fare.

The TTC has been taken to court at least twice for failing to obey accessibility requirements. I had been under the mistaken impression that being required to pay a huge fine and still have to follow accessibility guidelines would cause TTC to consider that accessibility is something they are required to do. Apparently this is not the case.

Because we were kept waiting for three buses at the last stop we were at, we are unable to call TTC customer service to complain about this situation. Again, we have been in Toronto for two weeks, and have been taking buses together on two days. I do not have the time and energy to call TTC to complain about this every single day that Don and I want to go out. I do not want to have to call TTC customer service every day. But now I am considering getting a cell phone that much sooner just so we can call TTC customer service when these things happen rather than having to wait till tomorrow morning.

I wish I could say I cannot believe this is happening in the bustling metropolis of Toronto, but frankly, I am not. After years of fighting for basic accessibility requirements in Halifax, and foolishly thinking that things would be easier in a busier city with more resources, and a strong disability rights community, I am really really tired of this shit.

Comments

[trouble]

This was probably a rhetorical question but I have a lot of thoughts on it.

The basic problem is such: TTC, like a lot of groups, don't really think much about PWD until there is a problem.

Each individual bus driver also doesn't think about PWD until there's an actual irritating crip (or, in my case, the uppity bitch who travels with him) right in front of them. So they're not understanding why we're so angry, because they're all like "What, it's just a ramp, wait a bit" and not thinking "How many times today has this happened?" To them, I'm unreasonable, mean, and abusive. To me, they're not following stated protocol and thus making our lives difficult. At least two of the bus drivers I know are going to go home and bitch about me because I was in their face about protocol and basically called them liars. But if the TTC was actually designed to think about PWD, then this wouldn't be a problem because there's no fucking way this would be acceptable and either putting multiple broken buses on a route or refusing service to uppity crips would at least lead to some form of reprimand, and thus it wouldn't happen again.

But instead, if we are very lucky, they will do another "This is the proper protocol for treating people who use wheelchairs on the bus" memo that will get eye-rollingly ignored.

There needs to be consequences for this shit. We know there will not be.

[jesse_the_k]

Some uppity crip activists have established "if the ramp don't work, dispatch a van immediately" (not part of ADA or ODA, just from a legal settlement — Chicago's suburban PACE comes to mind). Of course this costs the transit authority big heaps o' cash, and encourages better ramp maintenance.

The key to ramp maintenance in Madison is heavy daily use. In the first five years of accessible buses, Madison had more accessible boardings than Chicago. Not more potential riders, just more hard-heads like me who insisted on taking the bus.

[sami]

I swear I suddenly want to let my city be identified as a semi-rural backwater, which I would normally protest, just so they can then have it be pointed out to them that Perth, Australia, nearest other major city 1325 miles away, this shit is way past being even a problem worth thinking about. I've spent a lot of time on buses, and I've seen a lot of people in wheelchairs get aboard, and they don't need a caregiver with them, or to argue with the driver. The way it works is, the person in the wheelchair is at the bus stop, the bus stops, the driver extends the ramp, the disabled person rolls in, parks in the wheelchair parking area at the front of the bus, and the closest you can get to drama is if someone is inattentive and occupying the parking area, because it has seats that flip down if the area is not in use by disabled persons.

Not only is it standing policy, with signs (which also tell people to leave the seats flipped up, but no-one does, but if someone in a wheelchair turns up people flip the seats up immediately or the driver does it if there's no passengers around), that if a disabled person turns up they get the area, on the one occasion I saw someone being an ass about it, the driver told them that if they didn't give up their seat, they would be getting off the bus or he would be calling the police.

I feel like every city with pretensions to being a notable metropolis, which Perth doesn't really have at all, should be ashamed of itself when it can't match Perth for basic standards of civic amenities.

[deird1]

Same sort of thing in Melbourne. I never realised how brilliant our disabled access policies were until I started hearing about the ones overseas...

[ironed_orchid]

The scary thing there is that Perth is one of the few cities in Australia that have actually invested in public transport in recent years. I miss it.

[laughingrat]

that will get eye-rollingly ignored

Yes! And that's the damn problem right there--under all that feigned ignorance and wide-eyed innocence and "it's not my problem"ing and "I don't know why you're so upset"ing, there's decisions from the lowest bus driver all the way up to the top to not give a flaming shit about this. It's fucking putrescent.

Also, <3 the "I am not his caregiver" part. Go you.

[trouble]

I really hate that of course I will always take care of him, just like he always takes care of me, but people want me to be in a role that basically makes it impossible for him to be independent. There is no reason why Don shouldn't be able to take the bus anywhere in the city alone, but as things stand I need to be there to be the person who insists that they actually do shit. And it makes me so angry.

It really scares me that Don's quality of life can basically be entirely about whether or not I'm in a shit mood or if I'm having a Crazy Attack and thus can't advocate for him without it turning into a screaming meltdown. How is that safe?

[laughingrat]

*nods* That's how I read it, too--not that you don't care about Don, or don't want to be there for him, but that there's this ugly assumption that they don't have to make one of the most basic aspects of a civilized society accessible to him because, well, he's got you with him, right? (I seem to remember a similar attitude from the doctors you guys were dealing with back at the old town?)

[trouble]

Yup. They had the audacity to tell me that my taking three months off of my career to be Don's full-time caregiver had nothing to do with his health.

[laughingrat]

Oh, I remember that one. Yes yes. They have that special privilege logic. Their brains must have to do stupendous feats to get where they can actually say that shit with a straight face and believe it.

[trouble]

And then I got a reputation of being abusive to hospital staff! :D :D :D!!!!

Seriously, I cannot tell you how enraged this whole fucking thing makes me. And of course it's all just an individual problem, and no one wants to really talk about how this is a huge multi-pronged problem.

[laughingrat]

Oh god no. Because when you start talking about how it's a systemic problem, that means you're Crazy, and they no longer have to listen to you. And yet, if it's just an individual problem, they can be baffled as to why you're so upset, and why you think they have any responsibility. Ain't that a sweet setup!