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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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 </span>Thursday, February 15, 2024 from 1:30-3:00 P.m. in the HART Board room at 1201 East 7<sup>th</sup> 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! <span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:none'>Scott Greenblatt <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:none'>Talk/Text: 8134601606 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:none'>Sgreenblatt76@gmail.com<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>