SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY

LENGTH: 1663 words

COMMITTEE: HOUSE TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

SUBCOMMITTEE: HIGHWAYS AND TRANSIT

HEADLINE: TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND COMMUNITIES' QUALITY OF LIFE

TESTIMONY-BY: BRYNA HELFER, DIRECTOR

AFFILIATION: EASTER SEALS PROJECT ACTION

BODY:
Statement of Ms. Bryna Helfer Director Easter Seals Project ACTION

Committee on House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit

July 25, 2002

Chairman Petri, Ranking Member Borski, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the need for a community approach to meet the needs of riders with disabilities. I am Bryna Helfer, Director of Easter Seals Project ACTION (Accessible Community Transportation In Our Nation). Congress originally commissioned Easter Seals Project ACTION in 1988 as a research and demonstration project to improve access to public transportation for people with disabilities. With the passage of the ADA two years later, our goals expanded to help transportation operators implement the law's transportation provisions. The project was reauthorized as part of TEA-21 and the authorized funding level was raised from $2 million to $3 million, which the project has received every fiscal year since. The project is administered by Easter Seals through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transportation Administration. Easter Seals Project ACTION promotes cooperation between the transportation industry and the disability community to increase mobility for people with disabilities through research, technical assistance, and outreach. Congress created, FTA funds, and Easter Seals administers Project ACTION because we all recognize the importance of transportation in creating a society where people with disabilities have equal access to education, employment, and community life. While our communities have made great strides in recent years in creating accessible transportation options, there is still a long way to go. According to a population-based survey conducted in 2000 by the Harris Poll and funded by the National Organization on Disability, approximately 30 percent of Americans with disabilities have a problem with inadequate transportation, compared to approximately 10 percent of the general population. People with disabilities are unemployed at close to seventy percent, and increased access to transportation can help ameliorate that number. While over eighty percent of the nation's bus fleet is equipped with lifts, environmental barriers to access still remain including poorly maintained sidewalk, missing curb cuts, broken elevators, and untrained or resistant transportation personnel. Paratransit systems are also often unable to provide transportation in a timely and reliable manner due to over burdened systems or other systemic problems. Easter Seals Project ACTION believes that the way to address these remaining issues is to approach solutions from a community perspective. Easter Seals Project ACTION sponsored two national dialogues on accessible transportation on March 13 -14, 2002 and June 25, 2002. These meetings brought together national leaders from the disability and transportation communities to discuss current barriers to accessible transportation and develop solutions. Many distinguished national leaders participated in the national dialogue including Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and the late disability rights leader Justin Dart. We also assisted in organizing a summit jointly sponsored by the Department of Transportation and the Department of Labor on employment for people with disabilities and transportation. The summit was held on June 26-27. Participants in the summit developed a series of recommendations for the two departments to implement. This very recent experience has helped shape some of the recommendations and approaches that I will discuss today.

The number one solution that was brought forward by participants in the national dialogue, the DOT/DOL Summit and from participants in various Project ACTION trainings and other activities is the need for greater coordination at the federal, state and local level. Our experience shows that this is indeed the most effective approach to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Our technical assistance team has been working with over 20 communities to implement Mobility Planning Services (MPS) over the past year. The Mobility Planning Services concept is a comprehensive approach to accessible transportation. The underlying philosophy of MPS is that improving mobility for persons with disabilities is the responsibility of the entire community, and that accessibility will be reached most effectively when all stakeholders work together. Communities implementing MPS identify existing gaps and resources related to accessible transportation, and then develop a comprehensive action plan to create change. The MPS concept provides the disability community and the transportation industry an opportunity to bridge the gap between affordable and reliable transportation. The MPS program is designed to be a continuum of services to build accessible transportation. The building blocks of MPS are: - Community Assessment of Accessible Transportation

- Environmental Barrier Analysis and Options for Remedy

- Paratransit Eligibility Processes

- Disability Awareness and Sensitivity Training for Bus Operators

- Coalition Building

- Customer Service Monitoring and Feedback for Fixed Route and Paratransit Services

- General Consumer Education

- Individualized Travel Instruction

- Inter-modal Trip Planning

This kind of collaborative approach is a proven, effective way to address issues affecting access to transportation for people with disabilities.

This coordination is a crucial element, but we also have to make sure that the unique supports that many people with disabilities need will still be in place. Programs targeted specifically at meeting the needs of people with disabilities such as the 5310 program and non-ADA paratransit services are often under funded and coordination with other disability transportation systems and the transportation system as a whole is difficult because of the lack of flexibility that is built into those programs. We need to make sure that these and other services are encouraged to coordinate their systems and are give the resources and flexibility to be able to do so.

It is also important that the various federal agencies that fund transportation systems and research work together. There are currently programs administered by the Departments of Transportation, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services that have a direct impact on accessible transportation. However, these agencies are often unaware of the activities happening in their sister agencies. In much the way that we encourage local communities to implement Mobility Planning Services, it is important that federal agencies implement a similar process. Several transportation related recommendations were developed in response to the President's Executive Order last July that required federal agencies to address barriers to community integration in federal policies and programs. These recommendations were a good beginning. However, an ongoing interagency dialogue on this crosscutting issue is still needed.

According to a 1994-95 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics, almost 5.5 million Americans report that they never drive because of an "impairment or health problem." As a result, people with disabilities are disproportionately reliant on public transportation. Because of this reliance, it is important that federal programs support an extensive, flexible and reliable public transportation system for all Americans to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Accessible, affordable public transportation is a necessary prerequisite for any community that seeks to live up to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This approach was supported by participants in the national dialogue who identified integrating accessibility into all aspects of transportation operations as a primary concern.

People with disabilities who live in rural areas have an even more pressing need for access to public transportation. People with disabilities in rural areas are often reliant on friends, neighbors or sometimes expensive taxi services for any transportation needs. In rural and suburban areas, people with disabilities are much more likely to live outside of the 1/4 mile radius that the ADA mandates for ADA complimentary paratransit service and, therefore, may have many fewer options than their counterparts in urban areas. Easter Seals Project ACTION has funded some research into possible approaches to meet the needs of rural residents with disabilities. The members of the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living have also identified access to transportation as one of their primary concerns, and the U.S. Department of Education has funded that organization to investigate a rural employment transportation voucher model. The Administration on Developmental Disabilities has also funded a transportation demonstration project targeted at people with developmental disabilities. Despite these and other projects, there is a tremendous need for greater investigation in this area.

Finally, an important part of reaching our goal of accessible, reliable and affordable transportation for people with disabilities is Congress' continued support for Project ACTION. As I noted earlier Project ACTION was authorized in ISTEA and reauthorized in TEA-21. We look forward to working with this Committee as you pursue the next generation on transportation legislation to develop project guidelines, objectives and activities for the next six years that will take into consideration people with disabilities and their changing transportation needs.

Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. Your attention to this important issue is commendable. I am happy to answer any questions or provide any additional information to the Committee.



LOAD-DATE: July 26, 2002