Free ‘Underground Travel Guide’ for Persons with Disabilities
by Joseph A. Luciano Sr., Disability Rights Action Group
This guide is currently in PDF format and can be useful to persons with disabilities, especially those using wheelchairs, walkers, scooters, or other mobility devices and seeking education, fun, entertainment, shopping, or dining experiences.
You may be (or you may know) a person who uses mobility devices and wants to “go out” to a mall, shopping center, store, museum, theater, library, or restaurant. You should know whether your destination is accessible – by ADA standards. You may find barriers there. For example, there is no ramp to get over steps at the entrance or the doorway is too narrow. Worse, the restroom is totally inaccessible!
Today – even 28 years after enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act – many public entities and their employees still do not know about their obligation to provide ADA 1990 access and mobility standards. You should not assume your destination has complied with federal law. Incidentally, educational materials including brochures, booklets, guides, and instructional videos about disability rights are free at ADA.gov under “Technical Assistance Publications.”
The Underground Travel Guide also gives advice on how to use the paratransit system. As good as it is, the system has a few quirks and snags you should be aware of. Connecticut has 12 ADA service providers comprised of vans and minibuses equipped with lifts to board and deboard persons using wheelchairs. Go to https://www.ctada.com/ServiceProviders.asp to see the providers serving your community and your destination. To learn how to obtain service click on the provider serving you. (Depending on the destination you may need to ride with more than one provider.)
The providers are:
- Greater Hartford Transit District
- Greater New Haven Transit District
- North-East Transportation Company
- Southeast Area Transit District
- Valley Transit District
- Middletown Transit District
- Milford Transit District
- Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority
- Windham Region Transit District
- Housatonic Area Regional Transit District
- Norwalk Transit District
- 9-Town Transit/Estuary Transit
The travel guide is copyrighted and is provided free here: https://tinyurl.com/2018-travel-guide.
For more information, e-mail [email protected] or call (203) 463-8323.
