[NFB_of_Georgia] One Year Later: Warner Robins Still Doesn't Have Accessible And Affordable Public Transportation

[Armando Vias]

https://armandovias.com/post/one-year-update

One Year Later: Warner Robins Still Doesn’t Have Accessible And Affordable Public Transportation

On May 18, 2022, almost a year ago before publishing this update, I was interviewed on 13WMAZ,<https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/warner-robins/warner-robins-does-not-have-public-transportation-2/93-5aa6359b-0e0d-4aed-86c4-f0e92b7df0d2> about the lack of public transportation in Warner Robins, Georgia. On May 11, 2022, an article was published in the Houston Home Journal,<https://hhjonline.com/citizen-wr-lacks-accessibility-for-certain-communities-p17612-95.htm> where I was interviewed on the lack of accessibility in the city.

If you don’t know where Warner Robins is, it is in the heart of Middle Georgia, south of Byron. To the north, you will find Macon-Bibb County, in which there is public transportation that is operated by the Macon-Bibb County Transit Authority.<https://mta-mac.com>

A year later, I haven’t seen any improvements on access to accessible and affordable public transportation in the city of Warner Robins.

Today, however, is a new beginning. I will be starting a new initiative this summer in order to advocate for access to our needs in the city, and also expand to all of the county, in which it is Houston County.<https://houstoncountyga.org/> By the way, Houston County is pronounced Houseton County for those of you that are not in the Middle Georgia area.

Upcoming Advocacy Events

Below are the events that I am hopefully going to do or host as of now. The latest events can be found on the Home Page of this website, under “Upcoming Events.”

Disability Town Hall: What Do We Need In Houston County?

This event will take place on June 9th, 2023 at 7:00 PM on Zoom. I am still waiting for it to get approved, but here is the description:

Are you disabled in Houston County? Are you someone who is advocating for the rights of disabled individuals?

If the answer is yes, you are invited to join this Town Hall meeting hosted by me, a blind resident who wants to include everyone in advocating for change in Houston County.

This is an open-discussion. We can talk about the lack of public transportation, the lack of accessibility in buildings, and other items that has a major impact on the disabled community in the County.

We can also talk about any solutions to the problems that we are facing as well.

This event will be live streamed to the following platforms:

  *   The Armando Vias Facebook Page<https://facebook.com/aviasga>
  *   The YouTube Channel: Armando Vias<https://youtube.com/@armandovias>
  *   And also streaming on AV TV.<https://armandovias.com/tv>

Attending City Council Meetings

While this is still up in the air for me, I am hoping to attend future City Council Meetings. I’ve actually called the City of Warner Robins a while back, and they told me that they only stream the Council Meetings on Facebook Live on the City of Warner Robins Government’s Facebook Page.<https://www.facebook.com/CityofWarnerRobins1/>

Unfortunately, they don’t have an option for people to attend virtually, but here is the problem with that. How would people who can’t drive to meetings are going to speak up about the issues that they have, such as crime in their neighborhoods or the lack of accessibility? For me, I have to rely on someone to take me to every Council Meeting, or to take an Uber<https://uber.com> or a Lyft,<https://lyft.com> but those services are costly.

The good news is that I have supporters who support what I am doing. I will hopefully attend one of the meetings soon.

Advocacy Day At City Hall

The National Federation of The Blind of Georgia<https://nfbga.org> along with the Georgia Council of The Blind<https://georgiacounciloftheblind.org> hosts an event every year at the Georgia State Capitol, advocating for legislation benefiting the blind community. Examples of legislation that the organizations advocated for were:

  *   SB 4: Blind Persons’ Braille Literacy Rights and Education Act<https://openstates.org/ga/bills/2023_24/SB4/>
  *   SB 8: Commission for the Blind and the Visually Impaired Act; enact; create Commission for the Blind and the Visually Impaired<https://openstates.org/ga/bills/2023_24/SB8/>
  *   And, passed in 2019, HB 79: Blind persons; child custody matters<https://openstates.org/ga/bills/2019_20/HB79/>

This is my first time ever hosting an in-person event. I do not have an official date for the event. However, it is in the very beginning stages. As always, this event will be live streamed in order to include those who are not able to make it due to transportation or any other circumstances.

I also want to make it where most people are off of work, but since the City Hall is opened on weekdays, I don’t know how this will go. Stay tuned as new information becomes available. If the city hall doesn’t work, I will look for a hotel to host our advocacy day.

In Conclusion

Warner Robins and Houston County still has work to do in order to become an inclusive city for all. Like it or not, I will continue to advocate for access to public transportation. And, to all of my supporters who are behind me, thank you.

Armando Vias is a blind and a disability rights advocate. If you would like to contact him directly, please Send An Email To armando at armandovias.com<mailto:armando at armandovias.com> or call (478) 202-4002, extension 700 (U.S. Only).<tel:4782024002,700> If you would like to stay updated when Armando posts, you can follow him on social media, or subscribe via email.
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