Allowing Discriminatory Transportation Practices to Continue

In 1975 I co-founded the first Disabled Students Union at the University of Washington. At the same time disability activists were wrapping up a campaign that eventually made Seattle Metro Transit the first accessible bus system in the world.

It is 2009. The CRPD has been passed.

How can stories like these still be in the news?

WENDY Brooks' office might overlook two tram lines, but that doesn't mean the senior manager at Melbourne University, who is in a wheelchair, can take a tram to work.

While there are raised tram "super stops" on the two lines, the older-style trams that run in the area are not accessible by wheelchair and won't be modernised for many years.

Ms Brooks is forced to get a bus from her Port Melbourne home (also near a tram line), then wheel herself the final kilometre to work.

That trip will usually take almost as long as the preceding bus journey.

For the full story:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/next-tram-years-away-for-disabled-travellers-20090426-ajes.html