New Rule Strengthens Protections for Americans with Disabilities at Rail Stations

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that individuals with disabilities will have greater access to intercity, commuter and high-speed train travel as a result of a new rule requiring new station platform construction or significant renovation to enable those with disabilities to get on and off any car on a train.

“This will help give passengers with disabilities better access to rail travel across the country,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “By putting this protection in place, passengers with disabilities will be able to get on and off any accessible car that is available to passengers at a new or altered station platform.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is amending its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations to require intercity, commuter and high-speed passenger railroads to ensure, at new and significantly renovated station platforms, that passengers with disabilities can get on and off any accessible car of the train.  Passenger railroads must provide level-entry boarding at new or altered stations in which no track passing through the station and adjacent to platforms is shared with existing freight rail operations. 

For new or altered stations in which track shared with existing freight rail operations precludes compliance, passenger railroads will be able to choose among a variety of means to meet a performance standard to ensure that passengers with disabilities can access each accessible train car that other passengers can board at the station. These options include providing car-borne lifts, station-based lifts, or mini-high platforms. 

The Department will review a railroad’s proposed method to ensure that it provides reliable and safe services to individuals with disabilities in an integrated manner. 

The rule also requires that transit providers carry a wheelchair and occupant if the lift and vehicle can physically accommodate them, unless doing so is inconsistent with legitimate safety requirements.  In addition, it codifies the existing DOT mechanism for issuing ADA guidance and makes minor technical changes to the Department’s ADA rules.

The Final Rule is available at http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2011-23576_PI.pdf.

 

Day 2 - No Barriers USA Festival, Miami FL

Wow. Where do I begin. We're only on day 2 of 4 at this fabulous event here in Coconut Grove, and I'm already speechless. As if the day, packed full of adventure and tumultuous weather, weren't enough to render someone in awe, but tonight's speakers put the fork in me. And I have two more days to go.

We started out the morning with the technology symposium, learning about some of the most amazing medical advancements for the blind, from a tongue stimulator that stimulates a new visual pathway (yes, you didn't read that wrong) to IRIS (Intelligent Retinal Implant System) that restores visual perception. The symposium finished with new discoveries in treating spinal cord injury here at the Miami Project; as if we weren't already confident Craig would walk again, I now see the future is nearer than we think.

After lunch we headed over to Shake-A-Leg Miami's docks for an afternoon of adventure. Craig settled into the outrigger canoeing team (recruiting for the 2016 Olympics). Adapted by actually removing the outriggers off two boats and strapping them together, the system not only creates better balance for the adaptive rowers, but it also gives more room for twice the bodies, and thus, twice the speed. The media boat trailed them pathetically and I got to watch those 10 men and women shout "HUT, HO!" to the tune of fast strokes through a very choppy bay with the acuracy of Hawaiians, despite having met each other just 45 minutes before. As they came in I heard one of the ShakeALeg vols say, "I've NEVER seen an outrigger go that fast!" Inspiring? Yea.

They've got sports stacked upon each other every day so the pickin's are actually thick, not thin, and we won't have the chance to see or do it all. I managed to snap the water sports today though while watching the outrigger canoe, kayaking, both single and tandem, and plenty of sailing (including a female quadriplegic and a world class olympian teamed up, with her steering and swinging around the boat on a mobile chair while he tacked and jibbed... or whatever!). What we missed? Stand up paddleboarding, blind sailing, and adaptive swimming.

We got to hang out with Molly the pony, whom we mentioned in our previous post, watch adaptiave yoga, and check out the equipment in the Coast Guards hangar- Solorider golf cart, a powerchair-adapted land rover, and a trike that is beefier than anything you'd see on American Chopper. Woah.

Then there were tonight's speeches. We started with Jesse Billauer's story, truly an inspiring one made even more so by hearing it live- we've known Jesse for some time and Craig interviewed Jesse for the I Can Do That motivational series in 2006. I edited the interview, so I knew his story. But hearing him tell it live, from his near-paralysis experience prior to the actual paralysis, to his brother's guilt and grief, and all the jokes and tears in between was truly inspiring. But not the end.

No, the real tears came when Craig and Kelly Pearson got up to tell one ridiculously amazing story of triumph and success. In 1995, after 3 years of worry, medical visits, and waiting, she received a donor heart, and then climbed every nearly mountain on the planet with it. From Mt Whitney to Kilimanjaro to El Capitan, they racked up miles quick on her second act in life. But it was Mt Fuji that was the inspiring one. Craig received a phone call from Kelly's donor's daughter right before the trip- Kelly had already left- and asked Craig to not only take a wish up there with him for Kelly for her mom, but to also take her mom's ashes. Because of Kelly's triumphant story, and because part of the Pearson's mission was awareness, the Japanese media went along for the ride. To protect Kelly from the burdon, Craig didn't tell her of the daughter's wish nor the box of ashes until she summited (in case of failure) but when he did the tears streamed down and the media snapped it all. Thanks to them, Japan is now doing heart-transplant procedures.

This is a very small taste of what this No Barriers event is all about. Inspiring people with stories of triumph over adversity and physical tests, sharing their love of each sport and each adventure with each and every one of us.

I have no more words but thanks.

Two Online Communities Worth Checking Out

Today's internet is a social networking BOOM. Everywhere you look there's something new to join, add your profile and photos and information to, and begin networking. It's not all as easy as it sounds, it can be time consuming finding just the right one for you and your business or your tastes.

Here's where we come in with our suggestions... we belong to more communities than we can count, and the two very best ones we've found for travelers with disabilities are in the Ning network, a home base for social networking where you can create your very own group for like-minded people like you!

FOR THE TRAVELER
The newest one is called the Accessible.Travel Community, created by one of our peers Craig Grimes, based out of Nicaragua and with extensive experience in travel and adventure travel for people with disabilities in not only South and Central America but in the European Union as well. Craig's dedication to bettering the online information for PWD shows in this community, a hub created for the traveler to share tips on accessible places he or she has been.

Accessible.Travel is for the traveler, the researcher, those thirsting for accessible information at their fingertips. In order for the information to grow, the network must grow, so we are sharing this new community so that it can do so. We hope you pay a visit and join. With already 105 members and growing, this is soon to be a vast resource and a great meeting location for like minded travelers with similar needs who seek travel locations without barriers.


FOR THE TRAVEL PROVIDER
The second social networking online community that we've been members of for over a year now is the TourWatch network of travel providers. This is a network of people and businesses who provide accessible travel to PWD as well as want to learn more about this market and how to better accommodate PWD and reap the rewards for doing so!

TourWatch has been a great place for us to meet and introduce new tour operators and service providers, and a nexus for informative forums, blogs, and communication on all levels of improving and further expanding this growing niche. We're excited to be a part of both now, and hope you take a look at TourWatch if you're a travel provider.

Active Blogs Elsewhere

Blogging has exploded.
Blogger has been joined by WordPress and Ning and even social networks like one-liner Twitter; now there truly are 100 blogs on every subject. Which one to choose? How to keep track? How to sign up? How to keep them organized?

These are the questions that we get asked often and there's no way around it, you have to put some time into organizing them. We've found Flock to be the best portal to organize our RSS subscriptions in the neat one-column action bar that appears on the left side of this browser. Knowing a little about RSS helps first, download Flock once you do, and start leap-frogging yourself thru the internet to find blogs that you want to subscribe to. Like magazines you trust, some blogs and topics are really like free magazines; tourism pictures, trusted writers, educational topics, and links upon links to other avenues for continuing your "education."

Here's what we're reading and writing...
In the Deep - a monoskiers ski blog
Marketing to Travelers with Disabilities - learn tips on marketing to this growing niche
CO History of Inclusion Tourism - for Scott Rains' TourWatch

Rolling Rains Report - Universal Design and more
Barrier Free Travels - Candy Harringtons' Travel Blog (unfortunately and discouragingly without an RSS feed)
Photopreneur - Making money with photography
Almost Fearless - When a CEO quits corporate and travels for a living
Nathan Lovas Photography - Wildlife and Conservation Photography


Your Blog:
If you start your own blog, make sure to get traffic to it by pinging to Google and Yahoo often and adding it to groups like Technorati, Blog Network, Digg, as well as double-posting it to your various social network pages like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.