[nagdu] Anchorage Disabled 'Waiting, Waiting, Waiting' for Cabs

Ginger Kutsch GingerKutsch at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 5 13:49:13 UTC 2013


Anchorage Disabled 'Waiting, Waiting, Waiting' for Cabs

By Austin Baird ktuu.com

October 4, 2013

Source:
http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-anchorage-disabled-wait-wait-wait-for-cabs-201
31004,0,4365610,print.story

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The neatly-trimmed brown poodle walking in front of
Lynne Koral may seem at a glance like a pet, but a closer look reveals
2-year-old Noelle is something more.

 

Koral has gotten used to explaining the difference.

 

"I need a cab, and I have a service animal," Koral said from her Anchorage
living room after an interview Friday with KTUU.

 

"Oh, we have to look for a pet-friendly driver," the dispatcher said.

 

"This isn't a pet. It's a service animal. Do you know the difference?"

 

"Yes, but is it an animal?"

 

"Obviously."

 

The conversation ended with Koral declining to wait for a cab.

 

David Levy, of the Alaska Mobility Coalition, said such interactions are not
uncommon, and that walks a fine line with federal disability laws.

 

"Cabs can't decline service because someone has a service animal," Levy
said.

 

People with vision impairments are not the only ones in Anchorage to have
trouble with cab service.

 

Ric Nelson is completing a master's degree in public policy at the
University of Alaska Anchorage, but he was born with cerebral palsy and
needs the help of a wheelchair to get around.

 

"Every time I call, I get an excuse," he said with the help of an
interpreter. "One time it took them three hours to get me."

 

After an interview Friday with KTUU, Nelson called for a
handicapped-accessible cab that took almost an hour to arrive.

 

The lack of mobility can be tough, "especially with men," according to
Koral. 

 

"They think of themselves as independent," Koral said. "When you don't have
transportation, you're ... waiting, waiting, waiting. That's what you do,
instead of being able to take charge."

 

Other people reported that delayed cab service led to missed dialysis
treatments, no ability to go buy groceries and more often than not, the
decision to stay home or find another way than cabs to get around.

 

Until last month, there were 10 handicapped-accessible cabs serving
Anchorage, but it's not an exclusive service. There is no exact measure of
how many people in the city are disabled, but even low estimates put the
number at several thousand.

 

The city realizes there are problems.

 

A proposed ordinance would make a few changes: two full-time transportation
inspectors would be hired to ensure handicapped-accessible cabs pick up
people who are handicapped, drivers would be required to complete training
and there would be an increased effort to cite noncompliant companies and
drivers.

 

"What we're trying to do is to rewrite the whole ordinance to make it more
responsive to disabled people," said Assembly Member Dick Traini.

Nelson said he hopes to speak with Traini and other members of the Anchorage
Assembly and to start a dialogue that includes people who are disabled.

 

"We just want the same access to cabs as everyone else," Nelson said.

 

The Anchorage Assembly will hold a public hearing to discuss the issue Oct.
8, but Traini says it may be pushed back to Oct. 22 if testimony on the
controversial Assembly Ordinance 37 takes too long.

 

 

 




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