By Michelle M. Duprey
Have you ever tried to get around this state in a wheelchair or with a walker? At best, it is extremely difficult; at worst, it is impossible. If you are lucky enough to afford a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, it isn’t as hard, but if not, you must rely on public buses, the unreliable paratransit system, overpriced van services or family who often struggle to make transportation feasible. Trying to get around with a mobility disability can be very trying.
But there is hope for individuals with mobility disabilities who, until recently, never have had access to taxi service in Connecticut. There are proposals before the state’s Department of Transportation for the addition of 140 accessible taxis statewide to the three existing vehicles.
DOT regulates the taxi industry and DOT must approve the proposals to make these taxis available to a large portion of the state’s residents with mobility disabilities. Yet DOT is hesitant, even skeptical of the need and necessity. Many clearly do not grasp that this is a civil rights issue for the disability community.
These expansion proposals are being made possible by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. Two taxi companies have a one-time opportunity to purchase 140 new wheelchair-accessible taxis. The important part is that these grant funds make the purchase of the accessible taxis even possible. If not purchased now, we lose this chance. This is truly a golden opportunity for Connecticut residents.
Whether it benefits you, a friend, a family member, co-worker or neighbor with a mobility disability, we should all support it.
DOT took public testimony on this issue through March and it was wrenching. Individuals with mobility disabilities speak of isolation, frustration, depression, loneliness, separateness, injustice, inequality — a palpable sense of being cut off from society and the vital pulse of life’s spontaneous pleasures. We’ve heard descriptions of people getting stranded and having no way to get home, people hoping to get a job if they had taxi service, having no transportation to spend the last moments with a dying parent, or an elderly man who just wants to go see the Festival of Lights.
In October 2009, the first wheelchair-accessible taxi came to the New Haven area when Metro Taxi introduced the state’s first accessible cab, “Metro Access.” Since then, the wheelchair- accessible taxi has unleashed pent-up demand of seismic proportion. That is no surprise, since the data indicates that approximately 5 percent of Connecticut’s roughly 3.5 million residents have a mobility disability, or more than 170,000 residents.
Connecticut used to be a national leader in disability rights; for decades we have had a constitutional amendment and state statutes protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities supplemented by federal laws. Yet we still only have three wheelchair-accessible taxis. This shamefully shows how far our state now lags behind in one of many areas of concern to people with disabilities. Several other U.S. regions are successfully using wheelchair-accessible taxis to supplement public transportation options and fill in gaps, allowing those who rely on scooters, walkers or wheelchairs to equal access to transportation.
In fact, equal access to transportation for individuals with mobility disabilities, particularly when it is so heavily regulated by the DOT, is a civil rights issue. Simply put, taxi service is offered statewide. Yet nearly all of Connecticut’s more than 170,000 residents with mobility disabilities can’t use taxi service. Clearly the state would not hesitate to stand up and affirmatively take action if it were any other protected class who was being denied access to taxi service.
Expanding wheelchair-accessible taxi service here would connect a huge, disengaged population with job opportunities, leisure and cultural activities, education — all the many enjoyments Connecticut has to offer that equate to quality of life. That is why I call on the State to make this happen now. Connecticut is on the verge of real positive change that will honor a civil right that most people take for granted.
Michelle M. Duprey is an attorney and director of the Dept. of Services for Persons with Disabilities, City of New Haven.
