From disability rights activist, Dr. Ayo Maat:
I am the coordinator for the Planning Committee established by Rep. Janice Schakowsky for a Congressional Transit Summit on Paratransit, Wheelchair Taxis and Medicars. We are volunteers, but no less dedicated to accessible transit advocacy.
What else do I need to know? What else I need to know is if you, President Obama, all the persons who have been emailing me 2-4 times daily over the past month, and your candidates will support persons who are disabled and solicit the help of Congress to sponsor with Rep. Schakowsky the Congressional Transit Summit on Paratransit, Wheelchair Taxis and Medicars?
We vote, too, and transportation that is accessible and equitable to fixed route transportation, and does not cause a financial hardship on PWDs and seniors, most of whom have low and fixed income is a basic human and civil right.
Without adequate and affordable transportation, we cannot live independently as full class citizens and residents.
Our Paratransit, wheelchair taxi, and Medicar transportation need fixing ASAP. IMPRUVE brought that point home over 4 years of advocating and receiving empty promises from all except Rep. Jan Schakowsky. We lobbied both houses of Congress, sacrificed time and money traveling, calling, writing letters.
First the war, then government shutdown, now another war and the ebola crisis has consumed so much of the attention of Congress to make our demands seem unimportant or trivial, so that OT is assumed that we can continue to wait or be neglected.
IMPRUVE is the Independent Movement of Paratransit Riders for Unity, Vehicles, Equality. We are part of the NPPMA, the National Paratransit People’s Movement Assembly. We are a member of the Alliance for Community Services.
I am a member of Chicago ADAPT, Access Living, and NDLA, the National Disability Leadership Alliance. I support the actions and work of Not Dead Yet, DAWNN (Disabled Americans Want Work Now), Progress Center for Independent Living, Center for Disability Rights in New York, TASH, National Council on Disability, and Just Unity to name a few.
We at IMPRUVE are leading this movement and with the help of disability Congressional Transit Summit on Paratransit, Wheelchair Taxis and Medicars and allies across the nation, WE SHALL NOT BE SILENT.
Please pass this message and the additional thoughts below onto your colleagues and let them know we are not voting in candidates who are not supportive of our transportation rights, disability rights and employment rights.
Due to Congressional cuts to needed programs, we are unable to get our wheelchairs and other medical equipment repaired or new ones delivered. We are paying more for food and healthcare or doing without. Our teeth are rotting or enamel is worn, so we are in pain and misery due to nonexisting or inadequate dental care. We are living in inaccessible housing or nursing homes awaiting more affordable, accessible housing. We do not all get free transportation through Medicaid to medical fitness, rehab centers and other healthcare due to Medicar rules based on ignorance of healthcare needs or Medicaid staff neglecting physician reports on medical necessity.
We do not all have the financial means to pay for wheelchair taxis or Paratransit to get to our appointments, seek employment, go to school and those who do cannot flag a wheelchair taxi on the street or have a long wait even when they call as there are not enough wheelchair taxis on the street. Paratransit costs in Washington can be as high as $7 a trip. In NY and FL $5 a trip or more. Persons in nursing homes only get $30 per month in certain cities to cover transportation, grooming needs such as haircuts and hair styling, cosmetics, incidentals, recreation, etc.
Can you live off of $30 per month, $712, $803? Go without dental and vision care? Live on $15 in food stamps? If you had a wholistic lifestyle before becoming disabled or had to eat organic, nondairy, gluten-free, vegan or other special diets due to allergies, chemical sensitivity, environmental illness, would you be able to eat at a food pantry or carry a food box up stairs or on your wheelchair, walker, with a cane or missing limb or visual impairment? What is left after one has paid for shelter, utilities, phone (despite free govt. phones, in order to use Lifeline devices, one needs a home phone), and transportation? It is a question of individual needs and costs. We are not a one size fits all constituency.
Due to closing of mental health centers and unaffordable private mental health services, our people are being housed in jails or institutions or being shot down in the streets by untrained or scared officers.
And you ask what else do I need to know to contribute to campaign funds of candidates who oppress us or take away our right to live in communities of our choice or weaken laws meant to protect us or cut human services meant to support us to live independently with dignity and achieve health access, employment, well-being and accessible housing?
I NEED TO KNOW IF Congress or your candidates will enforce and protect my rights, be more inclusive of discussing with us at the grassroots appointing officials who are disabled on your Committees and in federal agencies, restore programs that meet my needs and others, and ensure that I and others who want to work or be self- employed have the income to pay bills timely and still have more than enough to contribute to others, including if we so desire, your candidates.
Btw, we do not have any Congressional or DCCC support for our Soular Car Project or Green Paratransit, which would relieve some costs of Paratransit and help the environment and
Are these too much to think about? So are these nonstop emails I get from the DCCC, but I do read most of them. I probably get on social media and in my email inboxes about 400 or more messages per day on the average.
If you made it this far, thank you. Please feel free to respond.
Sincerely
Ayo Maat, Ph.D
CEO/president, IMPRUVE
