[NFBF-Tampa] Our Time to Unite at the HART ADA Advisory Committee Meeting

Wed Feb 14 00:27:09 UTC 2024

Hello NFB brothers and sisters. The time has come for each and every one of
us to take this wonderful opportunity to stand up and let our voices be
heard at the HART ADA Advisory Committee meeting. This is our chance to tell
HART all about the problems we've experienced when using or attempting to
use the HART Plus paratransit system. Just think of all of those times
you've complained to your family and friends about issues like missing the
chance to schedule trips since you were working all day and didn't have 30
minutes to wait on hold to talk to someone before 5:00, how you couldn't
fill out your application for services without assistance from a sighted
assistant, the lack of communication about changes or new opportunities
within the HART Plus system, and anything else that has bothered you about
HART Plus. This is finally our chance to tell them what we think in a
concentrated and concerted group where we cannot be ignored. How many of us
have made complaints to someone from HART over the phone when something went
wrong and nothing was ever changed to prevent those problems from
reoccurring? 

This is even our chance to take proactive steps to improve HART Plus so that
the system works even better than they can imagine. Bring all of your ideas
and dreams about how you want the system to work and tell them about it at
the meeting this Thursday. I've been working hard with Marion to force HART
to make their membership application into an accessible document that each
of us can fill out in the privacy of our own homes with dignity and
independence and we may have finally done it. At this meeting I'm planning
to bring up a few new ideas that I know will help improve the system if they
are adopted. I don't know who has lived in other areas outside of
Hillsborough county but I've been fortunate/unfortunate enough to live in
multiple locations and aside from HART Plus every system I've worked with
previously has allowed riders to schedule their trips a full week in
advance; imagine if you could call up and schedule all of your trips for an
entire week at one time. I cannot imagine any reason that could justify the
restrictive 3 day rule that is in place which forces us to set reminders on
our phones and computers to make sure that when the window finally opens to
make a reservation we call HART Plus instead of simply allowing us to look
at each successive week's appointments on a Friday or Saturday , for
example, and then calling up to reserve rides for an entire week. Also,
imagine if you could reserve a ride online. I know that a human being needs
to ultimately be the one to review and finalize the scheduled rides but what
if HART Plus had a webpage where you could input all the details of your
requested trip after hours and someone from HART Plus would then call or
email you the following day, during "normal" business hours to confirm and
finalize the trip? Also, how many of you know that you can purchase tickets
for HART Plus and the fixed route system through an application on your
iPhone? I just learned today about being able to purchase tickets through
the Moovit app and I immediately jumped on the opportunity. Finally I don't
have to worry about somehow getting to the bank to get single dollar bills
to pay for my rides on HART Plus. With the Moovit app I bought my tickets
through the credit card set up in the wallet on my phone. I didn't know
about this previously because although it is a rather recent change HART did
not do anything to make this information available to the visually impaired.
Marion told me about the Moovit app and additionally told me how there are
posters about the app on the fixed route buses and in other places where
someone with a visual impairment couldn't necessarily learn of this
technology change. What if HART generated a monthly newsletter that it could
email out to all HART Plus riders that could inform us of everything that
has to do with using the HART Plus system? The newsletter could tell us
about new developments like using the Moovit app to purchase digital
tickets, how you can reserve a same day ride through Yellow Cab to make
short trips around your home area, and remind us how/when to book trips on a
HART Plus bus. They could even either include the text of the rider handbook
in the body of the email or provide a link directly to that handbook so that
we have easier access to that document on a regular basis. Most of the time
such a newsletter wouldn't even need to be altered but rather it would act
as a complementary set of instructions and ways to use HART to live as
independently as possible. That way those of us who signed up for membership
with HART Plus years ago, and haven't had a good reason to find and review
all of the documentation provided to us when we first signed up for
services, can be reminded in a simple and straight forward manner of how to
best utilize the HART Plus system. Imagine, THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER WOULD BE AN
ACCESSIBLE FORM OF COMMUNICATION THAT WOULD EXCLUDE NO-ONE. 

Well now that I've once again talked your ears off, or thoroughly numbed
your reading fingers, I'm going to close with all of the pertinent
information on how you can attend this meeting. Please join me on Thursday,
February 15, 2024 from 1:30-3:00 P.m. in the HART Board room at 1201 East
7th Ave. in Ybor City. When you get there let them know you wish to speak
when it comes time for public comments and together we'll be the force to
correct this almost broken system we've been saddled with as a perk of
living with a disability. LOL! 

Scott Greenblatt 

Talk/Text: 8134601606 

Sgreenblatt76 at gmail.com

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