[nfb-db] Travel

[John Lee Clark]

Mussie:

To answer your question:

Minnesota has three main sources of SSP services.  One is through your
county, if you are eligible for MA or MAEPD (MA for Employed People with
Disabilities).  You can also get equipment through this, plus vouchers for
transportation, so you ride buses and paratransit for free all the time.
SSP hours vary from client to client, but in Hennepin County, you're
actually required to use eight hours or MORE--you can log in TONS of hours
if you want to.  This is a strange p-olicy, requiring you to use MORE than a
certain amount, instead of less than or up to that amount.  Some use six
hours a week, others sixteen,  Whatever.

The second source is through the state's Department of Human Services.  The
legislature appropriates half a million dollars each year specifically for
SSP services.  I think it's up to seven hundred thousand dollars now.

The third source is through the consumer-directed services, where you get
seven thousand seven hundred dollars each year and with which you decide
what to do.  You can use this for even more SSP hours on top of the above
two sources, but since the above two are more than enough, I use this mainly
for equipment and supplies and occasionally for interpreters so I could
attend certain events that doesn't really have the means or appartus to
provide interpreters or not covered by ADA requirements.  Funerals,
homecoming and other games at my alma mater, informal literary events and
Critical Thinking Club sessions, etc.

You also should be aware that there are many other great things.  For
example, Minnesota is number one in the nation for providing the most
ASL-interpreted, audio-described, and accessible theater performances, with
an average of thirty plays a month that are made accessible and interpreted,
and that includes providing two interpreters for each DB tactile signer.
The signing community here is good with providing DB interpreters for all
its organizations' events--most flyers, you'll notice this line about
requesting for interpreters.  Many of them are not even required to by ADA
but do it anyway.  

As for crowd and hassle of transportation, well, the skyways--if you live in
either downtown--will dramatically reduce your need to ride the bus or use
paratransit.  I love, love, love it here.  If I am suddenly in the mood for,
say, hot chocolate from Starbucks, why, I just elevator down to the skyway
level and walk through two buildings to where a Starbucks is.  Just that
instant, and I just do it.  No waiting for a bus, no calling ahead for
paratransit, none of that.  But it's not only hot chocolate, but groceries,
clothes, shoes, hairstylists, whatever.

And oh, did I tell you that Minnesota is one of two states, the other being
Texas, that gives free college education to any deaf or blind students at
any one of its eight state universities?  The University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis and Metropolitan State University in St. Paul both are big on
accessibility issues and have won awards for best accommodations.  Both will
soon unveil tactile maps and narrative maps as part of their universal
design efforts.  The U of M is very near downtown Minneapolis and MSU is
just across a bridge from downtown St. Paul, both very short bus rides, and
what's more, both bus routes are ones where you don't even have to ask if
this is the right bus, because all buses will go there and back, and both
routes are such that you'll know where your stop is just by the bus's
turning.  So for those rides, you don't even need communication cards or
anything.  

We have a DB lady who just earned her MA here and another is studying for
her Ph.D.

Sorry to go on so, but I just really, really love it here!  It is only
rarely that I remember that I am deafblind.  Most of the time, the ease and
independence and quality of life is so high that I feel just like, well,
just a person.  Nothing special.

My twin boys are clamoring for McDonald's now.  So I'll go now, but I
haven't decided which one of four of them on the skyways we'll go to,
because that would depend on where I want to grab my food from, and once I
decide that, we'll go to the McDonald's nearest to that place.  Maybe I'll
get my favorite wrap from D. Bryan or maybe I'll go for Chipotle.  Not sure
yet!

John







 

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